It's hard to believe that it's been six years since the last Evoken record. Sure in the interim they have stayed busy with a single and a compilation having been unleashed upon the earth since then, but there's nothing quite like a full length from these New Jersey visionaries. Well into the third decade of their career the band is only just preparing to unleash their fifth full length, a masterful and swooping body of work that encapsulates everything which has made Evoken such a special group over so many years.
Hypnagogia is a stunner from front to back, the songs dabble in both dark and light and then seem to conjure up just about every emotion in between. The crushing growls seem to have grown in intensity since 2012's Atra Mors and the bands execution has only improved and evolved to bold new heights. The potent melodies on these tracks are absolutely massive in scale and seem to only grow stronger with each passing hour. Hypnagogia is the sound of a band plumbing the depths of the humn condition and moving towards ever bleaker strains. There is something incredibly fascinating about the refinement and sense of pure poetry to these songs. You find yourself falling forward with the music, deeper and deeper into odes to a time forgot and a human spirit that refuses to be crushed.
Evoken have always been one of the most potent bands in this scene and here their unique brand of funeral death/doom seems to have attained bold new heights. It's always exciting to see a group continuing to expand their sonic horizons a quarter of a century in, but such is the case with Hypnagogia and it feels like it's only going to keep pushing that way. Immense in scale and simply thrilling in approach, Evoken consistently grow, expand and discover new ideas here. Dig in, the powerful soundscapes and mournful epics are waiting for you. Join the threnody.
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