Distant – Tsukuyomi: The Origin

Distant has been on my radar for a while. I’ve been enjoying some of their singles, and have seen them live a number of times. Their shows must have been some of the most brutal live performances I’ve ever seen. I can enjoy deathcore, and I even have some favourites in the genre, but it’s not my top preference. When it comes to extreme sounds I’ll probably always prefer technical or progressive death metal, due to more variety and less predictability. But this band still caught my attention enough to have me dive into their latest album, “Tsukuyomi: The Origin“.

The album features 7 new songs and 5 remakes from their debut EP, “Tsukuyomi“, and it also revisits the initial work conceptually. There is an entire multi-album spanning lore, that can actually be explored over a series of novels which can be found on the band’s website. So if you get really into the band and music, there’s quite a rabbit hole for you to go down, but if you’re not a lore nerd and just want some nasty stuff to listen to, this album also does the trick. The lyrics are still satisfying in terms of nailing the music’s aesthetic, and the brutality typical of deathcore, without one knowing the story they refer to, which is by no means spoon-fed in the album. Personally, I haven’t read the lore, so I’m just coming at this from a listener’s perspective.

But what about the music itself? Well, it’s quite impressive, but it also reminds me why I’m not the biggest fan of the genre overall. They are clearly aiming for a deathcore audience, and if you’re not really into that style, chances are it’s not gonna be easy to digest this album. With every listen, I find myself really digging it at first, but just getting overwhelmed by the time I sit through the whole thing. 38 minutes isn’t long for a full-length album, but when you’re being relentlessly battered by sonic violence for the entire duration, it tends to become a sensory overload. However, I don’t want to fall in the trap of criticizing a down-tempo deathcore album for having too much down-tempo deathcore in it, as I’m aware that this is very much a matter of taste, and that this was probably never intended to be an “easy listen” to begin with.

Distant – Torturous Symphony (feat. Matthew K. Heafy)

Compositionally, they did a good job. Deathcore doesn’t give you much to work with in terms of variety. There are fast parts with blast beats, there are breakdowns, and there are filthy vocals all throughout. But they managed to do some interesting stuff with a small toolkit, and they didn’t get so caught up in the clichés that you always know what’s coming next. There isn’t always one breakdown per song, and it’s not always in the bridge or at the end. And they managed to create an interesting balance of chaotic elements such as tempo changes, guitar runs and furious drum transitions on one end, and quite some infectious grooves on the other. There are even some guitar melodies I would call catchy (‘The Undying’). And they are all undeniable masters of their instruments, nailing some ridiculously technical songs, with everything sounding insanely tight and on point. I can also confirm that they deliver the same performance on stage.

The melodic element is obviously not the main focus, with the album sounding primarily noisy and violent, but it is there, and it is noteworthy. Every now and then there will be some engaging guitar lead melodies or layers of orchestration that create an atmosphere of horror and hostility. When mixed with the brutality of the vocals, it forms quite the hellish soundscape. The guitar solos though, are probably my favourite element in Distant’s songwriting, because they have a lot of variation. For example, in ‘Feast of Misery’, there is a good balance of melody and technique with some cool harmonization, while in ‘Cradled in Shards of Glass’ we get a focus on evil, ominous melodies and in ‘The Undying’, it’s a mad and flashy display of shredding.

Distant – The Undying

Vocally, I once again feel like they just do deathcore but they do it better than the norm. Alan Grnja has a particularly monstrous sound, and he doesn’t exaggerate the filthy textures, mostly because he doesn’t have to. He sounds so powerful and corrosive with his “regular tone”, that he doesn’t have to do anything very different when a shock moment like a breakdown hits. Also, he’s not that focused on sounding filthy and disgusting. He’s got a rather dry sound and just comes across as dominant and unstoppable at any and every point in the album. He can keep that texture both on high and low pitches and it’s only at the most extremes that he adds a bit of spew or pig squeal now and then. I feel like not overusing the disgusting element, and only saving it for a few moments allows for the music to be taken more seriously and for the aesthetic of the artwork, videos and narrative vibe to be kept in focus.

So I’d conclude that Distant’s latest release is pretty much what you’d expect from a down-tempo deathcore album, but it does it more interestingly than the norm. I would recommend you check it out without prejudice regarding the genre, although I still expect it’s the dedicated deathcore fanbase that will enjoy it the most, while other audiences may struggle to fully get into it.

Track List:

1. The Pale Moonlight (02:17)
2. Fleshweaver (02:18)
3. Feast of Misery (03:44)
4. Torturous Symphony (feat. Matthew K. Heafy of Trivium) (03:03)
5. Cradled in Shards of Glass (03:42)
6. Loveless Suffering (04:07)
7. The Undying (05:04)
8. The Apex (01:30)
9. Acolytes of Damnation (feat. Alex Erian of Despised Icon) (03:27)
10. Tsukuyomi (feat. Travis Worland of Enterprise Earth) (04:07)
11. Malice (feat. David Simonich of Signs of the Swarm) (03:04)
12. Broken Compass (01:36)