Album Review // 2022-07-18

Conjurer

Páthos

Released: 2022-07-01

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Conjurer seems to have gotten to where they are pretty humble, they are surprised where things have led them, though it speaks to  the fact that they must be doing what comes natural. They see themselves as just boring guys that make music. The band name makes me think of a great illusionist, and someone that is comfortable performing to a crowd. Who knows? Maybe they kind of see themselves in this light, too.

The name of this album, Páthos, is brilliant, since the meaning is tied to evoking emotions in someone else, and I have no question that this album has evoked emotions for the band and those that go ahead and have a listen.

I saw Brady talking about how if people don't like the album, they should listen again. I like the confidence in what they create as a band, and I imagine it is because their creation is their creation. So, maybe they don't appreciate reviews, maybe some of them give them a chuckle, but here are my thoughts about their new album, now that I have had the chance to listen to it several times.

Album Art

This picture reminds me of a school picture that you wish you could forget. The paint over top feels like a very intentional way to block being able to see the face. Almost like when you've seen someone cut someone out of a photo, literally. The way it is done feels painful though like something coming out of the picture and blocking the intention of the picture. The use of colour here is more accentuating the paint colour over the face, as the back ground is black and white.

Mood

The more casual strummy parts feel almost like someone holding a guitar in the quiet, after everyone goes to bed. A sense that it needed to happen, audience or not. The heavier moments feel hard-hitting and make me think of how something can seem one way, but underneath there is something contrasted. A good example is in Rot, where the opening part feels almost like we are quietly searching for something, and then it comes in stronger and it feels like that game where kids try to find something, and when they get closer, the person who knows where it is says warmer, warmer. By the end of the song, it feels like that hidden thing has come out into the open.

Vocals

I like the intensity in this lower growl and higher scream. It brings some additional emotion to it. It is smooth back and forth, even though they are done by two different people. All You Will Remember's use of vocals I could live without, but I do feel like having a song like this has to have a strong purpose for the band. There is also spoken word by a woman in this song, which makes me think it was done differently for a reason. The chanty background stuff in In Your Wake isn't my favourite thing, but it is short-lived.

Music

I feel like these songs are a mixture; some have great riffs that are catchy and pull it all together, some are more forgettable but easy to listen to, overall. Sometimes the guitar comes in feeling low and thick, sometimes there is atmospheric trem picking, sometimes there is light strumming. I feel like because it does have these changes it could catch a first time listener off-guard a bit, but I am about changes. The drums seem to be busy with changes, as well. Sometimes the energy feels punkish or mathcoreish; sometimes it slows down to a more sludgy pace. I like that it isn't definable.

It Dwells

I think this is about someone or something that is on your mind and can't be released. If it is a person, their impact and influence is always present, to the point of smothering. If it is a thing, such as guilt, it is having power over you.

Stranded in this crowded room
But while they'll leave, you'll still refuse
Always lurking, waiting, watching on
As your sick'ning presence wears my will 'til it breaks

I'll brave any tide in the ocean
If, us both, its depths would claim
I'll dive from the highest peak
If it means you will plummet the same
One day I will find peace
Come what may

Rot

As it says: fear, guilt, shame. They have become a person. They have become you. These lyrics don't blame others, but take the full responsibility for holding onto this.

Fear, dread, all I've wrought
Carved out of your every thought
Oppress, shame, submission sustains
We will rot
Fear. Guilt. Shame. Always
Fear. Guilt. Shame. Always

I will consume you
I will become you
We will regress
We are regret

All You Will Remember

This one seems to be about losing parts of yourself. The feeling of wanting to be lost, and this visual of the fog. But then there is this part of you that feels you have to stay present for someone else. So there is a tug in a few ways.

Someday, I will forget everything
And it's all you will remember
We disappear into a fog that just won't seem to clear
This isn't me, this isn't me

Thoughts come to me like whispers and then they vanish just the same
Faces I have known and loved replaced by masks of shame
If I could tell you one thing through this heavy sunken mist
It would be that I am gone, I no longer exist

I promise I won't forget you
I promise I won't forget
I promise I won't
I promise I...

Basilisk

Considering what this word means (a serpent kind that can kill with one look), it does seem to imply a great amount of power. I think the power has been given to something such as guilt or shame. There is a recognition of turning the power over instead of holding onto it ourselves.

Is thought akin to ruin?
A question faced alone
Have you even the choice to end this beast?
Should you rid this beast?

Deep seated fear
Once reserved for the divine, turned
To our own cursed hands
Seed is sown

Those Years, Condemned

I am confused about what specifically this is referring to, but it makes be think of experiences you have in life that are great in the moment, but when you look back at all the details it was really not so good.

Of all the good they took from us
The worst of all: our pity

If power lies in verse
Does once a hunger turn to horror?

I boarded the ship in cheerfulness
Gone are those happy hours
I was born
I was blessed
There was God
I was wrong
I was wronged

Suffer Alone

There seems to be some sense of letting go of something here, moving on, whether good or bad.

From assets misplaced, bodies abused
Kin cast aside; plaguing their minds
With your promises of suicide
The blood that we share fills me with shame
While the holes that you dig fill you with pride
Addict of plight

Why must you sink your teeth into every helping hand?

I'll stare down as you beg for an end you won't receive
And then I walk on with hope that you will die with none
Suffer alone
You will die with none

In Your Wake

This makes me think of a parent who is supposed to guide, but no parent is perfect, and some are harmful. We all feel some kind of indent from that influence of others. In this case, it seems to be a hole, never filled.

I lift my gaze from the trail
Reaching for your absent hand
To guide me through the briar
Only to find you've left me behind

To drift through the dust in your wake
Blinking, choking; I'm breathing in the debris

Thus I am shunned
Thus you are shunned

Crack in the Prye

Seems to be a conceptualization of where the end lies. Is it neutral or comforting? Is there rot or light to be seen?

Do nought but torment and remind
And, although I may try to picture you on 'the other side'
Your grace remains just out of sight

I'm denied
The end is pure, unfettered silence
No calm, nor chaos
Regression to nothing
The "knowing" that once helped me feel alive
Fills me with spite for those who believe
You're more than my memories, while we're...

I see light up ahead
Through the cracks in the pyre
It will never reach you

Playlist Picks

I guess they picked the songs they release as videos well, as two of them are my choices off the album.

Rot will make it to my playlist because I like the contrast and progression in it, and it feels memorable.

Cracks in the Pyre will also make it, as it keeps my attention throughout and feels like it ties this album to an end nicely.