“Death settles in the air, painting the clouds in red with no mercy to spare.”
I am an absolute sucker for theatrics in metalcore. While I usually take or leave the broader world of symphonic metal on a case-by-case basis, a heightened sense of drama in music like this has always been my niche. Bands like Famous Last Words, SycAmour and early Crown The Empire defined much of my later teen years, and while just how well many of the records of that era hold up is certainly up for debate, they will forever remain in my heart. Something about the dramatic stage-set-to-sound take on breakdown-heavy music struck a chord with me early on, and as a result this latest offering from The Gloom In The Corner has resonated quite heavily with me.
I’ll admit, while I’ve been peripherally aware of The Gloom In The Corner (and all their worldbuilding antics) for some time, up until this point I never quite latched onto the band for one reason or another. Thus, it feels a tad like I’m coming in halfway through a movie here due to just how much of this band’s sound hinges on their overarching narrative. Further to this, while I’ve read up a tad on the lore surrounding and leading up to this record, much of it admittedly still goes over my head. As a result, and as I’ve further been instructed not to go too heavily into the record’s story as to avoid spreading spoilers, this will mostly be focussing on the album’s sound above all else.
While it could be argued that their sound and story are intrinsically linked, I’d argue there’s so much to enjoy in Trinity even as a complete outsider, that that alone speaks to just how strong of a record this is on a musical level. The Aussie unit seem to have pulled out all the stops to make this one of the biggest heavy music scene events of the year, too, pulling in favours from a variety of names from across the current heavy music sphere. Such venerated names as Ryo Kinoshita, Ryan Kirby, Joe Badolato, Taylor Barber, Lauren Babic, Elijah Witt, among many, many others appear on this 55-minute ride of a record, making for a truly epic who’s-who of the heavy music world all in one place.
Trinity truly earns that epic title, too, through a 13-track journey that sees the band gliding effortlessly through a varied sonic spectrum that begs to be appreciated. The dizzying, soaring heights of “Gravity”; the pummeling deathcore brutality of “Nor Hell A Fury”; the biting rap-metal flair of “Behemoth” – it all seeks to impress through exemplifying The Gloom In The Corner’s strength in an absurdly wide variety of sounds within their wider theatrical metalcore sound.
Further to this, too, the record’s flow between such songs lends to a sense of true consideration, bolstering the album’s sonic storytelling. See – while the story itself may leave some newcomers scratching their heads, it’s easy to follow the peaks and valleys of Trinity’s narrative due to its exceptional ordering, with each polarising peak and nadir of the story being demonstrated clearly through its sound. That’s not to say the way it’s put forth is all perfect – I found a few moments of exposition and dialogue to feel a tad hamfisted and strangely acted – but as a whole, the way the record explores worldbuilding through its sound is one of the best examples of such I’ve heard all year.
It’s hard to examine tracks here in a vacuum, as the record all seems so hardwired to be digested as a package, but make no mistake that almost each and every track across Trinity earns its place one way or another. While I myself may not have a full grasp on the deeper lore implications behind the narrative, I found the sonic makeup of Trinity so incredibly well-written and effective in its own right that I can’t help but laud the time and raw creativity it must have taken to craft such a deeply epic and intricate record.
9/10
Trilogy will be available this Friday, October 28th via Sharptone, and you can pre-order the record here.