The Lodge of Transcendence

This unknown trio should remain an unknown one because their music is totally putrid. I have nothing good to say about this album except that it's black metal that's played in a distasteful style. There's many tempo changes featuring leads, clean tone guitars, and solos that totally are played without any talent that I can immerse from this description. The vocals really got to me as well. Just screaming that is some that can get onto one's nerves. Totally annoying.

The music features guitars that are melodic with changes in tempos, but nothing really striking or memorable. The songs are lengthy music that don't deserve praise at all. The sound quality just was lacking totally. There are some independent releases that are well mixed together, but this one lacks it entirely. None of the instruments or vocals are well mixed in unison. The leads totally lack innovation and are not played out well whatsoever.

There are riffs that feature bar chords and tremolo picked ones as well. The clean guitars are decently played out, but when they're mixed with the distorted overtures it makes the sound just annoying. If they incorporated the clean guitars alone, it would've served them much better off. The vocals are clean during these bits as well which did fit properly. What I hear during this release is black metal that's played half assed. The worst part of it are the tremolo picked guitar frenzies with the screaming vocals.

The production sound is flat and not mixed well together at all. First of all, you can't hear the bass guitar well. The leads don't mesh well with the rhythms and are shrieking just like noise. The drums had a decent hold on the release, but it would've been much better if the band could've had everything mixed together in unison. I don't think that they were quality in regards to the mixing whatsoever. Hopefully in time they'll get on a major record label and put out some quality black metal.

My recommendation is this: don't buy this album. It falls short in so many respects as I've previously mentioned. Annoying vocals, bad production, guitar that was played in a mediocre fashion and black metal altogether in a deafening blur. There's no songs on here that I liked and was fortunate enough to hear this album which was sent to me. It just does no justice to the black metal community and if the band produces a follow up, they really need to clean up their act.

Recent years have seen a surge of US acts pursuing a diversified, broad spectrum of melodic black and death metal which in the 90s we would generally have associated foremost out of Europe. Joining groups like Obsequiae, Cormorant and Shroud of Despondency in this pursuit, we now have Sylvan Realm, a former one man show (as Reverie) which has transformed into a full trio, with an auspicious debut that promises emotional highs and lows, ample riffing variation and the requisite contrasts of folksy acoustic guitar elements, rasped vocals and writhing, persistent melodies that are hit or miss throughout over 40 minutes and five tracks of dynamic length.

I was a little back and forth with this album, loving some sequences and indifferent to others, but in general The Lodge of Transcendence is a competent, confident piece with much to recommend, even if there are a few rougher corners to work around. The first track, the trio's namesake "Sylvan Realm" comes out firing with an intense flux of swaggering guitars, double bass bombast, but then it bursts into this amazingly atmospheric break over which Sylvan shouts with an almost hardcore-sounding angst that really felt distinct and unusual. Honest, upon hearing this I had rather high hopes for a lot more of this, but while the cleaner vocals are indeed present elsewhere on the record, they're not paired up with such a memorable backdrop, and I just don't find the usual mix of grunts and snarls to be all that distinguished or interesting, nor a vast swath of the riffing, which seems to dwell upon the usual Scandinavian patterns so many Swedish and Finnish hybrids once manifest.

That said, they manage to evince some snappy dynamics here that lead into these straight metal grooves that rock straight out and resurrect the listener's fleeting attention, and they rarely dwell on any one riffing pattern for so long that its blades fully dull. This is especially important as there are some rather fattened tracks here at 8-10 minutes which would be murdered by a blander, more repetitive composition. One of these, "Twilight Kingdom" is an extensive acoustic over which you'll get some, meandering poetry in a deep clean tone, and I admit it lost me over a few minutes, but tunes like the titular "Lodge...", with its mournful and memorable opening passage, and "Temple of Not", which balances periods of psychedelic calm and accelerated tremolo black metal with a Viking feel, were well enough written to hold the attention throughout. Often the extensive duration of the songs, and the constantly swaying melodies will recall a more aggressive shadow of the older, enjoyable Opeth records (minus the difference in vocals).

I also dug the poetic, introspective, and cosmic bent to the lyrics here which is so often a boon for this sort of ambitious balance of extremes. Sure, there are quite a few cliches in there about walking through the woods, falling leaves, etc, but what would you expect? The Lodge of Transcendence is wide music suited to wide spaces, often shouting down the mountain towards you or bubbling up from the nearest brook. There's this naturalistic feel to the whole package which I feel fans of the rustic North American acts Agalloch, Woods of Ypres and Wolves of the Throne Room would enjoy, but at the same time there's nothing as minimalistic here as you might here in a number of the 'Cascadian' black metal groups. Definitely a decent debut, I didn't love the thing but it was able to loop my interest back around at several points where I thought it had run off course.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

It does not take an intro, it does not take some sort of interlude to progress from the one and only release of Reverie to the Sylvan Realm project. The first seconds of the first track direct the attention of the listener on the pathway the person behind it decided to move on. No time to breathe, no time for a short moment for collecting one’s thoughts; a beat and of it goes … everything earlier is simply swept away.

Indeed, the music seems to have undergone a certain evolution since the days of Reverie. Black Metal? In certain boundaries this has some truths in it, but once the album is examined from a broader perspective, then the reduction to this one genre alone seems unnecessarily as well as artificially limited. The opener reveals this progression neatly, because in it most of the elements are presented succinctly. Melodic, powerful, well arranged and some well-crafted riffs make up the performance of Sylvan Realm. Death metal makes an appearance as well, along small influences from other genres; like heavy metal or even thrash.

Riff structures, as they are often used in the black metal genre, appear on a rather small scale and limitation in facets is avoided at all costs. Instead, the music is rich in facets and various influences. Multiple layers woven together instead of a simplistic approach – Disappear into the Landscape –, a neat transition between the compositions – Temple of Not – and even choir parts – The Lodge of Transcendence – are now part of the oeuvre of Sylvan Realm. The breadth of the conceptual approach is by no means covered by all of these examples, but they give an indication on what to expect on this recording.

The title track should be emphasized in this respect. Rhythm models that break all barriers of conventionality and a level of variation in terms of the arrangements make it exceptional on this debut album. It is especially due to ideas like the closing motive and the progressive influences presented in it that might leave the listener astounded about the richness in facets of this output. Nevertheless, it would be fair point to describe the way some aspects appear a slightly bit random and as not being fully immersed in the rest of the art; this would be especially true in terms of Twilight Kingdom. Many aspects presented on ‘The Lodge of Transcendence‘ merge very naturally though. Be it the various types of vocals, would it be the breaks and interludes in the compositions, nothing really gives the impression of being alien to the concept in any serious way.

Twilight Kingdom:
The closing composition of this album is a track that differs significantly from everything that makes up the dominant part of this album. No more metal guitars, drums and aggressive vocals. Instead, a play of acoustic guitars together with a calm voice try to compensate the listener for the heaviness this person had to endure from the very first second up to this very composition. It is a counterpoint and a strong one at that. Nearly nine minutes in length it provides a wonderful example of how a small set of instruments can be used to create a very dense and intense listening experience. Empyrium comes to the mind, though not their early works but their later ones. A difference might appear in the tone and direction of the music. While the Germans had a slightly depressing touch in their art, the Americans are a bit more uplifting. Similar are both attempts the role of the vocals, whose part appears in a narrating manner, but not excessively in terms of the share that they would take in the music; the instruments have a lot of room to unfold their atmosphere. What can be criticized though is the way this style appears on the record. Unlike on the Reverie recording, the acoustic part gives rather an impression of being an appendix, rather than an essential aspect of the music, which ‘moves’ like a red line through the album.

The hidden track:
As outlined in the interview (see link at the bottom of the review), this thing is suppose to have a special meaning … but I can tell you it did not reveal itself in the first several spins that I listened to this thing … it clearly did not. Maybe it is because English is not my mother tongue that I am not able to understand everything of this distorted voice. Even after a rather intense listening attempt, I failed to get it … so; you have to look for another reviewer to take up on this issue and to reveal the mystery, which surrounds this hidden track. Well, SR are not the only band that wants to have the final laugh, because further examples are: Karjalan Sissit’s Tanssit On Loppu Nyt or Nattefrost’s Blood and Vomit.

What about references to other bands? Sylvan Realm have a lot of influences in the music. One has been mentioned already, but they do not stop there. It would be not too farfetched to throw something of ‘Wolves in the Throne Room’ in here as well – in terms of their atmosphere as well as how they vary their music, while ‘Agalloch’ would point into the wrong direction and October Falls for similar but not the same reasons. Other bands could be named, but some pointless name dropping would result only in confusion. Facets appear now and then, here and there, but a definite comparison seems not to be found easily. If you add these names mentioned before together and throw in some ‘The Mist and the Morning Dew’, then you get a glimpse of what can be found on this release.

To sum the impressions up:
Who would have thought of this evolution of the band? Sylvan, the person behind this band, seems to have been quite anxious to bombard the listener with this new release of his and therefore set the pace right from the first second of the debut. From then on, the listener is bombarded with ideas and concepts like there would be no tomorrow and in a way rather uncommon in the extreme metal realm. The reference to Empyrium does by no means cover the array and breadth of performance of Sylvan Realm’s debut album. In fact, the Germans always used a rather limited but really well crafted approach, while the Americans would be unable to follow such a narrowed down concept. This similarity in atmosphere as well as attitude awakes the resemblance in the mind of the listener.

The Lodge of Transcendence is an excellent release in many respects and sets the barrier extremely high for the things to come. The easiness, with which the band transgresses all barriers of conventionality and combines them on their debut into an eclectic showbag that contains something for a lot of people, is fascinating indeed. Extreme metal on a high level, loaded with sweet riffs and ideas, as well as an attitude to try something fresh. Nothing but highly recommended.

Based on a review written by oneyoudontknow for ‘a dead spot of light magazine (Number 13):
http://www.archive.org/details/ADeadSpotOfLight...Number13

Formerly known as a one man black metal band, Reverie, a few years ago in Montana, main man Sylvan transformed his band into Sylvan Realm in 2009. With a move across the country to Maryland a transition was in order. Sylvan takes on the vocals, guitars and ebow. With the addition of Jason Deathdancer Eckert on bass and Evan Madden on drums. This trio has created some of the most compelling songs I’ve heard in awhile. The lodge of transcendence is the first official release for Sylvan Realm

As the album opens with Sylvan Realm the listener is immediately submersed into fast moving drums as well as fast moving intricate guitar riffs. Almost like watching clouds move across the sky. The guitar sound combines elements of black metal as well as progressive metal signatures. The vocals weave in and out of black metal screams and growls to bellowing and shouts. The inner guitar solos are quite dreamy in their approach. Disappear into the landscape is a rather ambient rocking song with black metal vocals. As the song goes on you begin to notice the many sonic layers of instruments. The acoustic guitar mixed in amongst the electric guitars. The middle of this song has one of the coolest progressive solos ever. The bass line of this song is rather fancy impressive. By the time Temple Of Not fades in you are seduced into a state of musical astonishment. Temple of Not is more of a fast song with lots of double bass. Again, the guitars are running at the forefront with amazing effects and solos. Mid song the vocals are spoken words on top of soundscapes that carry the listener off to another realm. This may as well be the band’s intention as these songs are well thought out, well written and rather long in their delivery. Drawing inspiration from Twin Peaks we come to the title track The lodge of transcendence. A curious sounding song that sucks you in with its unusually strange guitar riffs. Sometimes the solos within seem to take on an aura of isolation. Twilight Kingdom approaches like the darkness of the night sky to close the album. Amongst acoustic guitars are spoken vocals. Leading the listener to the end of the magical journey that Sylvan Realm has just taken them on. This review appears courtesy of Nocturnal Hall webzine www.nocturnalhall.com via me aka Goddess Sioux.