This kind of marked the end of the first chapter in SLOW’s history as in 2017 he joined forces with Lore Boeykens with whom Déhà has already collaborated on in the now defunct outfit Ter Ziele. Now approaching the semblance of being an actual band, they signed to Code666 records. SLOW Mark II debuted then with album number ‘V- Oceans’.

The two of them also decided to give their fourth album a new lease on life, rerecording it with new lyrics even. ‘VI-Dantalion’, their sixth album from 2019 in case you were losing track of the count, sees a deeper contribution for Lore as the two of them really start to consolidate their sound.

Now one pandemic later, the duo returns with ‘Abîmes I’. As you might have guessed already from their apparent obsession with numbers, this marks a third chapter in their career, celebrated with a stylized, new logo to ornate the fascinating deluge painting that constitutes the cover.

Déhà and Lore continue to hone their craft on 4 majestic compositions. Perhaps slightly misleading with its album title, the four songs and their corresponding lyrics on ‘Abîmes I’ are not in French. From its opening momentous chords, ‘Implode’ takes you deep into the abyss, a bottomless cavern built on ancient pillars of rumbling bass and pounding percussion.  This abyss, however, is not the gaping void of emptiness you might think it to be. Minimalistic, for sure, but not without attention to detail. And that is what imbues this record with magic. It does not just prod along on an endless, inert dirge. Drifting in and out of focus, in between the black nothingness unfolds a story told in gentle piano lines and progressive, melodic guitars.

‘Barren’ rolls into the landscape on soothing, simple guitar notes that echo throughout the song, reverberating across the song in long outstretched tones. Along the way, it picks up some guitar leads that are quite fleshed out and lively for a genre that is essentially driven on ambience.

The sort of title track ‘Abyss’ illustrates this even further. Not something you would expect on a funeral doom record, yet its perceived lack of a single focus does not sound out of place at all. As mentioned before, the real genius and craftsmanship of this duo lies in their ability to allow these micro biotopes to bloom and flourish within the vast space that their expansive universe encompasses.

‘Collapse’ comes at end, as it should. Clocking in at more than fourteen minutes it is the largest of the quartet. The buildup is quite similar to the previous ones, yet towards the end it really works towards a cathartic release as the tension intensifies until it explodes in a flurry of agonized screaming and blast beats, as their vast expanse collapses around them.

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