Style: Progressive Metal, Black Metal, Post-metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Agalloch, Wolves in the Throne Room, Liturgy
Review by: Dave
Country: California, United States
Release date: 17 May 2024
If you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time recently, you’ve likely seen the meme of Vince McMahon becoming more and more impressed with something before finally falling back in his chair out of excitement. I recently had an experience like this: I happen across a new post-black metal band, and as a fan of Alcest and Deafheaven, I’m intrigued. I hear that the band is called Botanist, and as a hobby ecologist and forester, now you’ve really got my attention. Then, I hear they write about plant species and natural history, and by this point I absolutely must hear what this is about. Finally, instead of using guitars, they use hammered dulcimers? You’ve gotta be kidding me. It’s like someone used an algorithm to generate the archetypical Dave band. However, the concept of a perfect band does not a perfect band make. Do Botanist execute this potentially perfect meshing of educational-yet-intriguing music on their latest output, Paleobotany, or do we need to go back to the prehistoric drawing board?
Botanist take standard post-black metal conventions and turn them on their heads: the structure of tracks on Paleobotany will be no stranger to those with an affinity for post-black metal, but the choice of hammered dulcimer in place of guitars creates an atmosphere that’s as convincingly ancient and earthy as one can muster with electric instruments. Paleobotany is the sound of the first mosses screaming into existence and observing as their later arboreal peers tower above in the oxygen-rich atmosphere. The sustained notes of the hammered dulcimer fit in perfectly to a post-black context, as walls of sound are conjured with just a couple of notes: even in an open space, this instrument creates the effect of a cathedral bouncing sounds endlessly off its walls. Though harsh vocals make themselves present, the majority of Paleobotany showcases bright cleans not unlike those from Sgaile’s Traverse the Bealach. Many songs even feature throat singing, like “Strychnos Electri” and “When Forests Turned to Coal.” Fans of Botanist will be quick to notice that songs are much more compact than 2023’s VIII: Selenotrope, whose mammoth fifteen-minute closer “The Flowering Dragon” more than doubles its length in comparison to Paleobotany’s longest track, “Sigillaria.”
These more compact songs are a boon as it allows Botanist to fully explore an idea without getting bogged down in repetition or overcooked song structures. Opener “Aristolochia” ebbs back and forth between its opening motif and more spacious bits, showing the versatility of Botanist’s sound, coming across an even more moss-blanketed and wind-weathered rendition of Agalloch’s “I Am the Wooden Doors” before racing to a speedy finish. “When Forests Turned To Coal” explores a similar loud-quiet dynamic to great effect, showing that a tasteful mix of pleasant walls of sound and quieter moments work best for this iteration of Botanist. “Archaeamphora” is decidedly darker than the aforementioned tracks, beginning with an ominous and almost dissonant atmosphere before opening up in its second half to a more optimistic sound.
There is an intriguing array of plant life explored on Paleobotany, from “Sigillaria” describing a strange and ancient towering tree that looks positively alien to our modern eyes (seriously – check out the CG rendering of this guy on Wikipedia) to “Royal Protea”’s vignette of a magnificently ornate ancient flower, and “Magnolia,” which explores a species so old that it’s actually pollinated by beetles, since it was too old for bees and butterflies to develop an evolutionary bond with. Many songs tell a story regarding a plant and its relationship with the land, microbes, and other plant life, mirroring Botanist’s animist relationship with these strange and magnificent lifeforms. Paleobotany covers more than just ancient plants, however, as the events that spurred their growth are just as important: “When Forests Turned to Coal” and “The Impact That Built the Amazon” set the stage for the environments that these plants lived and thrived through before the great extinction caused by the Chicxulub meteor impact. Needless to say, Paleobotany sent me down several rabbit holes in an attempt to get the full picture of this piece, and I strongly encourage you to do the same, as Botanist make it clear that the ancient world of plants is full of creatures both familiar and strikingly alien.
While I appreciate this synthesis of familiar and strikingly alien ideas as a reviewer, as it shows a conscious effort to marry the point of view and musical execution, as a listener it can occasionally fall flat. I am famously not a fan of extensive dissonance, and the sustained notes of the hammered dulcimer can occasionally lead to dissonance, especially in the case of complicated chord progressions. I find the stretch of “Wollemia Nobilis” and “Dioon” to be positively overwhelming with its aggressive drumwork and unrelenting dissonant wall of sound, and could be better balanced by the inclusion of more tracks such as “The Impact That Built the Amazon,” which magnificently explores the sonic palette of the hammered dulcimer but in a more serene context. Moreover, I sometimes struggle with the vocal performance, as it’s occasionally glorious and other times comes off a bit rough and unpolished, which, again, adds to the ancient and earthy aesthetic magnificently, but detracts from the experience as a listener. “Royal Protea” finds a nice balance between vocal aesthetic and listenability with its ethereal harmonies, showing that Paleobotany’s best vocal strength lies in its bright, soaring, and harmonized moments.
This was a conflicting album to listen to and write about. On one hand, Paleobotany is exactly what it aspires to be: a mossy and intense exploration of an interconnected ancient world of plant life, explored through an idiosyncratic sound that excellently juxtaposes the familiar with the alien. However, the execution of the “alien” is not pleasant to my ears, and makes it difficult for me to thoroughly enjoy. Paleobotany is a perfect album to someone out there – however, that someone is unfortunately not me. If you don’t mind the dissonant walls of sound and the occasionally unpolished vocals, you’ll fall in love with Paleobotany’s vivid animist recounting of mesozoic Earth.
Recommended tracks: Sigillaria, Magnolia, Aristolochia
You may also like: Arcturus, Wreche, Kaatayra, Bakt, Oksät
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RateYourMusic | Metal-Archives
Label: Prophecy Productions – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Botanist is:
– Otrebor (hammered dulcimer)
– Daturus (drums)
– Tony Thomas (bass)
– Mar (vocals)
