CEREMONIUM - Into The Autumn Shade LP
One of our favorite death/doom records. -Jensen / Iron Lung Records
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In the mid-90’s, New York was an epicenter for two specific styles of death metal. One was pioneered by Suffocation during the Effigy Of The Forgotten years, the overly heavy style of tech-death they played would eventually be named so forth as “brutal death metal”. Meanwhile, Incantation and Immolation, although coming from different but nearby states, were massively influential in the creation of doom-influenced tech-death, with their respective releases “Onward To Golgotha” and “Dawn Of Possession”. These bands had a big impact on defining New York as the place for the best chug riffs ever conceived at the time… But this is where Ceremonium differentiates itself from the rest of the New York scene.
From their early beginnings in 1992, Ceremonium decided to opt for a style of progressive death metal that was uniquely different from their contemporaries. They explored a focus on slower tempos, dynamic movements, and melodic development, fusing the heaviness and brutality of the era’s most cavernous death metal, with a doom metal-influenced melancholic sense of emotion, such sense also in parallel to what would eventually be called “funeral doom metal”. The big musical selling points for “Into The Autumn Shade”, the album being reviewed here, are also Ceremonium’s two secret ingredients in this primordial soup.
Firstly, their “atmosphere first, melody second” sense of songwriting. They were able to color and direct the song structures into not only progressive and challenging labyrinths of storytelling, but also into a depressing atmosphere by way of using both their atmospheric and melodic instincts. Incantation had explored this way of songwriting in their debut, but Ceremonium took it into an even more depressive place, which no band in the USA did, which led to comparable similarities to European death-doom bands like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost.
Secondly, the surprisingly European sense of melody that can be found almost everywhere in this album. It is possible that from their formation, they must’ve been influenced a whole lot by the early Swedish melodic death metal sound, specifically that early At The Gates album “The Red In The Sky Is Ours”, and I can personally also hear some influence from Eucharist (“A Velvet Creation”) in the mix. There also seems to be a definite parallel to the Finnish death metal scene also, particularly Demigod, Cartilage, Purtenance, and Sentenced. This set them apart from the rest of the USA death metal scene, making them one of few bands (at the time) continuing the long-gone tradition of progressive death metal with labyrinths of melancholic dual-guitar counterpoint riffs with a gloomy sense of melody and emotion. That 1991 - 1993 era At The Gates influence is definitely here, and Ceremonium are doing it way after At The Gates stopped playing this style in 1993.
As a consequence of these two secret ingredients, they managed to create a death metal sound that is full of genuinely beautiful and progressive characteristics. All of these songs are little masterpieces, masterful works, monsters if you will. The instrumental acoustic opener “Nightfall In Heaven” sets the tone for much of the melancholy to be found here, and then “Serenity” comes with that loud rumbling bass guitar, which then leads into just this ghostly, oppressive wall of gloomy, loud, distorted, and bass-heavy guitar dirt.
Notice how often they lead the songs with mostly slow to mid paced riffs with a pinch of fast tempos every now and then, especially in “Our Mourning Forever Shrouds”? The key to the progressive song structures working in favor of the band here is that, slow to mid-paced ideas, developed as musical pieces by blending these ideas into each other and being pushed past their breaking point to the point where it sounds morbidly heavy, and in the remaining gaps, melodic leads and motives are weaved into this riff development to sweeten this heaviness to not get too tiring, sometimes enhanced by a faster moment to catch the listener in a chase before pushing them into that dark pit again. Other bands in the USA from the same era would not be able to do such a dynamic without including a presence of songwriting gimmicks. Comparisons to the earlier bands mentioned in the review are inevitable and guaranteed because of this.
“Incarnated Entity” and “Unveiled Tears” show off a riffing masterclass from the band, using riffs that repeat with both melodic and atmospheric variation, to lead the songs into darker places. The band shows an almost free-form dynamic to these songs, almost as if instead of emerging from the notes of a music sheet, they were let out free by the prior emotions of the members. The vocals by Oscar Matter here fit the music in this album; they’re death metal growls with that very powerful, bestial tone, but featuring an additional layer of what sounds like anger and pain, evoking a misanthropic sense of both nihilism and despair.
“Into The Autumn Shade” comes as the last song… Wow. Arguably the best song on here. This is the most painful and most depressing song in this album. It is a little masterpiece of 8 minutes, demonstrating a death metal masterclass in using melody and atmosphere together. The result sounds beautifully CRUSHING.
“Into The Autumn Shade” deserves a listen during the most painful time of a person’s life. The melancholic sense of melody, the depressing atmosphere, and the pain that comes with these songs seem obvious at first glance to those who haven’t dealt with a lot of pain yet, but they only fully reveal themselves during that specific personal experience. And when they do, the depth of what Ceremonium does in this album becomes apparent, it’s overall very deep stuff. This is what makes this particular release much lovelier compared to “No Longer Silent”, their second offering, or even their 2001 promo demo, which although they’re great death metal releases, don’t go into deep places to the extent shown on this album.
“Into The Autumn Shade” is arguably, the best American death-doom album of all-time. They left behind a masterwork which any nihilistic metalhead who is wanting to get into genres such as funeral doom or DSBM, should check out beforehand to prepare themselves for more. Beautiful.
BlackInfestationGaiciano, March 4th, 2025
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"INTO THE AUTUMN SHADE" was recorded at Solid Sounds and Excello Studios in March-May 1995.
Mixed at Solid Sounds and Fastlane Studios in June-July 1995.
Produced by Tim Carlin and CEREMONIUM.
Artwork by Junia Grimaldi-Villela.
Logo by Christophe Szpajdel
Remastering by Jim Roe at Neanderthal Studios in 2022.
LP remastering by Dan Lowndes in Sound Resonance Studio.
Out on Extremely Rotten Productions
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