Angry Metal Guy<p><a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/an-toramh-echoes-of-eternal-night-review/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">An Tóramh – Echoes of Eternal Night Review</a></p><p><i>By Steel Druhm</i></p><p>Coming off the titanic ass-whipping I received from atmo-doom upstarts <a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/structure-heritage-review/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Structure</strong></a>, I stumbled concussed and confuzzled right into a funeral doom bushwhacking by the unheralded Minneapolis-based two-man project, <strong>An Tóramh</strong>.<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/an-toramh-echoes-of-eternal-night-review/#fn-216467-1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">1</a> Formed by members of <a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/chalice-of-suffering-lost-eternally-review/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Chalice of Suffering</strong></a> and <b>Goatwitch</b>, <strong>An Tóramh</strong> play brain-pulping funerary muzak draped in existential dread and gutwrenching despair, as all things should be. <em>Echoes of Eternal Night</em> borrows essential talismans and reliquaries from the graves of <strong>Loss</strong>, <strong>Evoken</strong>, and<strong> Ataraxie</strong> to create an emotionally deadening experience that slowly emulsifies your skeletal structure into Laffy Taffy™. This is weighty, unrelenting stuff, with massive, earth-moving riffs offset by tragically forlorn trilling and all of it vomited upon by gurgling death vocals from the sub-sub-basement of the monstorium. It’s a recipe for a deeply immersive death reverie or a total snooze-fest, depending on the relative skill of those involved. Which side of sleepytime gorilla nap bait will <em>Echoes</em> fall on? Let’s kick the casket tires.</p><p>After a mood-setting but overlong intro, the prime beef gets slapped down on the meat table hard with the monolithic title track. This is 7-plus-minutes of fucking HUGE funeral doom with all boxes checked and all lights blinking red like the Chernobyl control room on April 26, 1986. It’s massively heavy, menacing, and flows like molasses mixed with wet concrete. Hideous doom riffs entwine with sadboi harmonies as cymbals crash and John Suffering wretches his internal organs out. It’s harrowing and horrible, but oddly beautiful. “Desolation” runs over nine minutes, opening with an air of hope and positivity before settling into a melancholic doom plod past the graves of empires forlorn. The<strong> Candlemass</strong>ive bittersweet guitar harmonies pair well with the subterranean death croaks, and just when things seem to be drifting back toward hopefulness, the rug gets pulled and you tumble back into eternal darkness.</p><p>“Shadows of Despair” is bleak and weepy, but slowly mixes in light, airy synths and strings that remind me of the <em>Friday Night Lights</em> soundtrack by <strong>Explosions in the Sky</strong>. It creates a strange dichotomy of moods, but it works really well. “Sea of Sorrow” is classic sadboi, melancholic funeral doom, and it blends the sour with the sweet in just the right measures to drag you under the waves. <span>However, some issues hold <em>Echoes of Eternal Night</em> back from a greater triumph</span>. As great as the title track is, no other song captures that same magical misery. “Embrace the Shadows” is quite good, and I love the heavy sighing of the riffs and how the understated symphonic elements add a touch of grandeur and scope to the music, but it doesn’t quite ascend to the same level of masterful doom. Closer “Withering in Sorrow” is an effective piece, but the production here is way worse than on the rest of the album, with the vocals almost totally buried in a much more raw sound, and it reeks of basement demo recording hijinks. Still, the last few minutes bring a deadly <strong>Celtic Frost</strong> / <strong>Triptykon</strong> element to the riffs that turns the brain into bug jelly. At just under 50 minutes, <em>Echoes</em> is a very tolerable length, and though every track could be trimmed, this is funeral doom, and the dour duo make good use of the elongated run times.</p><p></p><p>Anthony Copertino Jr. (<b>Goatwitch</b>) handles everything except vocals and does a great job across the board. His guitar work sticks closely to the original Book ov Funeral Doom, with two-ton riffs coming down hard and weepy melodic trills resounding near and far. Importantly, he knows when to drone and when to shift to a new riff, which aids the ebb and flow of the lengthy compositions. His keyboard/synth work functions as a rounding agent to smooth down the extreme edges, and he never allows them to interfere with the guitars or vocals. Drum-wise, he delivers a satisfyingly heavy, resonant thudding with dramatic cymbal work throughout.<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/an-toramh-echoes-of-eternal-night-review/#fn-216467-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">2</a> Meanwhile, John Suffering offers an everflowing stream of mega-deep, monstrous death roars that call to mind the immortal <b>diSEMBOWELMENT</b>. He doesn’t change things up much, but he’s effectively inhuman and anchors the miserable sound palette.</p><p><em>Echoes of Eternal Night</em> is a very successful debut with moments of top-tier funeral doom, and no track turns into a grave collapse. The twosome behind <strong>An Tóramh</strong> know how to make this oh-so-niche genre compelling and unexpectedly listenable. If you need more unhappiness in your life, this is an album you can wallow in like a doom hog in the tears of the crestfallen. Wrestle that sadpig, poser!</p><p></p> <p><strong>Rating:</strong> 3.5/5.0<br><strong>DR:</strong> 5 | <strong>Format Reviewed:</strong> 320 kbps mp3<br><strong>Label:</strong> <a href="https://blacklion.nu/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Black Lion</a><br><strong>Websites:</strong> <a href="https://antoramhblacklion.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-eternal-night" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">antoramhblacklion.bandcamp.com</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/antoramh" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">facebook.com/antoramh</a><br><strong>Releases Worldwide:</strong> May 9th, 2025</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/2025/" target="_blank">#2025</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/35/" target="_blank">#35</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/american-metal/" target="_blank">#AmericanMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/an-toramh/" target="_blank">#AnTóramh</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/ataraxia/" target="_blank">#Ataraxia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/black-lion-records/" target="_blank">#BlackLionRecords</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/celtic-frost/" target="_blank">#CelticFrost</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/chalice-of-suffering/" target="_blank">#ChaliceOfSuffering</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/disembowelment/" target="_blank">#diSEMBOWELMENT</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/doom-metal/" target="_blank">#DoomMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/echoes-of-eternal-night/" target="_blank">#EchoesOfEternalNight</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/evoken/" target="_blank">#Evoken</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/funeral-doom-metal/" target="_blank">#FuneralDoomMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/loss/" target="_blank">#Loss</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/may25/" target="_blank">#May25</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/review/" target="_blank">#Review</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/reviews/" target="_blank">#Reviews</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/triptykon/" target="_blank">#Triptykon</a></p>