Angmodnes Confront the "Weight of Eternity" Through Tragic Funeral Doom (Early Album Stream)

The price of immortality is everyone you love. To earn the right to live forever, you have to stomach the loss of everyone in your life, and after you’ve reached the point where you’re the only remaining soul, it’s worth asking, “what comes next?” That realization is what the Dutch funeral doom duo Angmodnes grapple with on their debut album The Weight of Eternity. Check out the exclusive full-album premiere below and meditate on whether living forever is worth losing all that you love before the album drops this Friday.

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Angmodnes and their debut are a direct descendent of another Dutch doom metal act, Apotelesma. The Weight of Eternity’s origins trace as far back as 2013 as it was intended to comprise parts of Apotelesma’s follow-up to Timewrought Kings. However, bandmates Y.S. and M.V. felt it was too divergent from that group’s aim, yet too inspired to discard. Instead of shoehorning it into Apotelesma’s vision, they formed Angmodnes and went skull-first into the funeral doom dirge.

As such, Angmodnes’ debut is solitary, pondering rather than plundering, and more emotionally devastating than it is sonically destructive. It’s the auditory equivalent of forgetting the faces, names, and personalities of those around you as time crawls onwards. There aren’t any bright moments on The Weight of Eternity, but there are beautiful fragments betwixt sustained notes and glacial drums. “Hollow Earth” contains two such stretches in particular: a string soliloquy that opens the track in romantic fashion, and the female vocals that surround Y.S. minutes later, only to ascend past him and wail like sirens of his past life. Traditionally non-metal moments like these are the record’s cerebral highpoints. While the conventional gamut of funeral doom on The Weight of Eternity is effective, it’s these softer touches that imbue it with a beating heart. The album would surely be devastating without them, but they punctuate Angmodnes’ tale of a man left alone with the memories of what he lost.

The band offers the following track-by-track rundown as well:

#1: Weight of Eternity:
The title track tells what it is like to be forced to persist in the world against your will and mourn what was lost, to revel in that grief because it is the only meaningful thing left.

#2: Hollow Earth:
“Hollow Earth” details a process of spiritual alienation. The world has lost its splendor and substance. Nowhere feels like home and an apprehensive restlessness takes hold. A frantic search for meaning ensues to no avail.

#3: Under Darkened Vaults:
“Under Darkened Vaults” is a redacted excerpt from a text by the Romanian writer Emil Cioran. It is about ways in which those who are so far removed from life have learned to hide from its tireless oppressive pointlessness. For those who suffer from extreme existential despair, it can become tempting to develop a morbid devotion to one’s despondency.

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The Weight of Eternity releases on September 30, 2022 via Black Lion Records.