When you think of Malta, you think of sun, heat, seafood and pretty much anything but the gloom and melancholy of death/doom metal. And yet this Mediterranean pearl has a relatively small but mighty metal scene (and in that respect it’s a lot like Slovenia’s), so much so that Therion mastermind Christofer Johnsson even moved to the island a few years back. What’s interesting is that you might expect the Maltese scene (given the seaside location) to be ruled by goofy power/folk metal bands à la Alestorm, Gloryhammer and the like, but the truth is quite the opposite: the more extreme genres dominate, and Malta even hosts one of the better-known doom-specialized festivals, Malta Doom Metal Festival (where our own Mist played a few years ago). And with their debut Sigil of the Pilgrim Sun, death/doomers Pilgrimage are adding a big piece to the colorful mosaic of Maltese metal.
The Maltese-Dutch crew got going just under four years ago, when Eric Hazebroek (ex-Stream of Passion, Vetrar Draugurinn), Sean Pollaco (ex-Weeping SIlence) and Dino Mifsud Lepre (Victims of Creation) joined forces in the current lineup, with vocalist Dario Pace Taliana (Weeping Silence) rounding out the lineup on the record. Sigil of the Pilgrim Sun came out in the dying breaths of last year and is easily one of the more interesting releases of 2021 in the genre. Pilgrimage first teased the debut back in 2019 with the single Voyage to the End of Time, which is representative of the album as a whole while not giving too much away.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Sigil of the Pilgrim Sun is a seriously demanding listen. Over a good fifty minutes you get seven tracks averaging seven minutes each, which is definitely a hefty chunk for the “casual” listener. But that’s exactly the record’s greatest strength, because despite its monolithic, dense face, it rewards persistence and only reveals its full dark beauty after a few more spins. Pilgrimage build their grand, at times downright solemn sound out of several building blocks. Sometimes it’s the heavy, monolithic, monotone, almost funeral doom moments that grind you into a pile of meat and bones like some ancient Lovecraftian deity (“Rise from you slumber/And tear the world asunder,” Pilgrimage declare in She Who Wakes From Slumber, which can’t help but bring to mind Lovecraft’s central deity, Cthulhu, of course), and other times infectious, effective melodies wash over your ears like tentacles. Hazebroek’s guitar work is flat-out astounding, delivering crushing riffs, gorgeous melodies and longer instrumental passages alike. He’s backed up by the solid, dependable rhythm duo of Pollaco/Lepre, who provide a slowly creeping, rolling foundation.
The cherry on top is Dario’s excellent vocal performance, which mostly sounds trembling, beastly and brutal, while for variety he adds recited verses in several places (especially in Dream Rivers Lachrymose) and spoken parts (which add a touch of gothic flavor), and with his firm, convincing growl he recalls a young Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) or Paul Kuhr (Novembers Doom). Thanks to the clear, intelligible voice, the poetic, lyrical words come through with no trouble, and it’s obvious a lot of work went into them: they’re thoughtful and definitely not off the cuff.
Sigil of the Pilgrim Sun is a good, no, a very good death/doom metal album that will win over fans of the old classics My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, the brutal and heavier moments of Novembers Doom, the majestic and soaring While Heaven Wept, as well as newer representatives of the genre like Ahab and Hooded Menace. It’s also great to hear that it never runs out of “momentum” and its second half even proves stronger than the first, which it pulls off mainly with a slightly heavier foot on the gas toward the end of Through the Well of Starlight, the melodic passages of Silent Descent Into Solitude, and the absolute peak, the epic closer Nothing But Death. Pilgrimage’s debut has something that few albums actually manage: with every listen it cuts deeper and deeper into your ears, because it’s multilayered and reveals its grandeur slowly and unobtrusively. So get out there and walk this Maltese-Dutch death/doom pilgrim’s path.
4/5
