Musically versatile Spanish experimental stalwarts bassist Àlex Reviriego and drummer Vasco Trilla have worked together for many years under a number of guises including noise avant-gardists Phicus and the fortune-telling inspired duo Bi Cong. By 2021 the pair were looking to mix things up a bit and explore new musical avenues. And that avenue came courtesy of Colin Marston. Marston’s heart lies in the world of black and death metal but with a big dose of the avant-garde, making him the perfect partner for Reviriego and Trilla. Experimentalist tendencies notwithstanding thanks to his multi-instrumentalist credentials, he also brings a suite of sounds including electronic drums, guitar synth and mellotron. The trio’s first outing was the intriguing Tholos Gateway and now two years later they return with the similarly Aegean-themed successor, Tholos Gateway II.

This is metal ambient, and it is suitably heavy – not in terms of the music as much as the overall atmosphere and tone. And it’s there from the off.  Opening track ‘Circumference of Ignorance’ leads with hovering drone and fluttering bass - strings played tauter and tauter, percussion chimes as the tension builds. This ominous aura is one that hangs over the album from start to finish and the trio make no bones about it. Next up is ‘Parasitic Ambitions’ - a nightmarish melange of heaving percussion set against screeching synthetic sounds and ominous bass. Musically, enjoyable, atmospherically terrifying - a sense of claustrophobia and unease descends. Unease that develops into full-blown dread on ‘Mortality Incanted.’ This sonically languorous dystopian soundscape centres on drawn-out synth and subtle timpani – occasionally hinting at melody but stumbling to a halt.

You think the tension might break with ‘Aesthetic Aether’, but no. Highly percussive with a supremely dark, foreboding bassline, the track features Marston’s Krallice bandmate, Mick Barr on guitar accompanied halfway through by what sounds like a galactic wasp, ritualistic bells and flickering guitar sounds. ‘Revenge Spectre’ is peppered with rock drum drills and sawing bass building to a muted head of steam, before centrepiece ‘Consciousness Exorcism Seal’ kicks in.  An 11-minute epic featuring doom metal’s Bloody Panda vocalist Yoshiro Ohara - this is 100% transcendental in the darkest possible sense.  Percussive bells and synth develop around Ohara’s intoxicating multi-layered vocal, which grows more urgent as the piece progresses - screams and shrieks becoming more pronounced. Appearing to take its lead from Ligeti this is far more disturbing.

The final two tracks are the comedown. ‘Astrological Inevitability’ is an understated drone accompanied by hints of percussion, discordant strings, and eventually sawing bass – mellotron playing slowly in the background as the track reaches its denouement. As we approach the finish, there is one last push as incessant percussion and dissonant harmonies combine with timbre-surfing strings - and the album heads to its rather hectic climax, the paradiddles of electronic drums seeing us to the end. Tholos Gateway II is a dark as they come - sinister, ominous and electrifying. For digital, CD or vinyl copies, head here