In The Company of Serpents
Ain-Soph Aur
(Self-Release)
Denver doom duo In The Company of Serpents are a distinctly realized vision. There’s nothing left to waste when these two guys tear through compositions. With the haunting shadows of the Rocky Mountains hovering over their collective mind, the band floats and blossoms like the distinct bluebell bellflower: a practice in constraint and bustling color.
The old West is paramount for these guys. There’s a scrappy old-time to the duo’s cross patterns. Guitarist and vocalist Grant Netzorg riffs and twangs oversize—every sensation complete and pure. Ditto for drummer Joseph Weller Myer—a rhythmist with circular notions. These guys are rustic bar rooms and campfires deep in the high forests: both restrained and explosive. Specification reigns hard.
Ain-Soph Aur is the band’s newest slab of earthy sludge. And it’s a passionate affair. Ain-Soph Aur is a term used in Jewish Kabbalah to explain existence as it emanates from Consciousness. And the record mimics such movement. There are equal amounts of curtailment and soaring rage throughout. Moments scrape harrowingly like icicles, then bend breezily like an afternoon on the porch. The album has a dualist nature, and the overall balance feels natural and real. It sort of parallels the two members of the band: the instrumentation one sphere, conceptualization the other.
“Crucible” is epic, a mountain wizard of darkness and pain. It bends and reverberates with physicality. “Limitless Light”—the album’s closer—combines the totality of the record’s charm. The crushing waves of doom are allowed to breathe freely, seeing their resonance dissipate into gradual smoke. The clouds hang low—but faith prevails—there are rays of sunshine and hope on the horizon.
A gothic noir rules Ain-Soph Aur like a dream. The record hypnotizes you, allowing you to relax and fully engage with the performance. It’s stage-like, sculptural and poetic, never distancing itself from what it wants (or knows) it can be. And this is a remarkable trait for a band and a record.
