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By Tom O’Dell (Dwarrowdelf / Sojourner)
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Sometimes a piece of music comes into your life at the perfect time, completely unplanned. It captivates you, and, for a moment, nothing else can satisfy your listening needs quite as perfectly.
To backtrack slightly… On 14 May, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was finally released. I never played the originals back in the day, but being both a sci-fi and RPG fan, I got caught up in the hype and eagerly awaited launch day, for what I expected would be an enjoyable but fairly straightforward laser-fuelled romp through dumb-but-fun space battles and Star Wars references. Instead, I was blown away.
From the deep worldbuilding to the genuine characters to the high-stakes risk of galactic apocalypse, the trilogy carried an emotional weight that I wouldn’t have expected from a video game. Every choice presented felt like it mattered, and I found it all too easy to lose myself in it. Escapism is something we’ve all needed in recent times, and Commander Karen Shepard’s quest to speak to every manager in space provided that beyond my wildest dreams. In fact, the obsession grew so suddenly that, upon finishing the final game, I pretty much immediately created a new character to relive the adventure again. Somehow that wasn’t enough, and I found myself tracking down the iconic soundtrack and sticking it on repeat for weeks.
And then, in the midst of this cosmic dreamstate I’d found myself in, MESARTHIM arrived. A message from the other side of the world… or rather, Dex sent me a link to a track on new release CLG J02182–05102, asking something about the chord structure. And once again, space blew me away.
I like to think of myself as a bit of an aficionado on the use of synths in metal, whether that be the dungeon stylings of epic black metal or the europop leanings that have filtered into power metal, but for some reason or another I’d not to my knowledge encountered Mesarthim before. I wasn’t prepared for the sheer diversity they manage to bring out with their use of synths; upbeat dance grooves blend seamlessly with black metal in some places, and in others they create an epic orchestral feel that creates an auditory description to the majesty of the cosmos. The songs are digestible lengths yet still contain the necessary room for development that any atmospheric music requires, and there’s a catchiness that demands you come back for more time and time again.
There’s definitely blackness present – the vocals are exclusively harsh mids, and there’s enough bite in the guitars and drums that the listener is reassured they’re listening to a metal album. Granted, there are more dalliances with non-metal leanings than you’d find in most black metal, but to me that just makes the album all the more interesting. If you’re a fan of atmospheric black metal, especially the synthy kind, you’re unlikely to find many issues with this release, and I can’t recommend it enough.
On any normal day of the week I’d be a fan of this style – there’s no two ways around that. But in a state of mind where I’ve sunk untold hours into a synth-laden space journey, Mesarthim has gone straight to my core and found itself a home. It’s spooky how the tracks could seamlessly fit on Jack Wall’s excellent soundtrack to Mass Effect 1 (the synthiest of all of them), and whenever CLG J02182–05102 is on, I find myself reflecting on the journey my Shepard went through and all the characters I’ve come to love (… and also Kaidan, I guess).
Sometimes a piece of music comes into your life at the perfect time, completely unplanned. It captivates you, and, for a moment, nothing else can satisfy your listening needs quite as perfectly.
CLG J02182–05102 is available now.
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Purchase CLG J02182–05102 on Bandcamp HERE.
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