Copse deliver fine blackgaze handiwork with MMXXIV.
Release date: August 30, 2024 | Church Road Records | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Stream/Pre-order
For a long time, one of the very few genres of metal I could stomach was blackgaze. The soothing edge of blast beats turned ambient noise, wailing shoegaze guitars wrestling the knife from the icy hands of tremolo-picked riffs, and blissed-out shrieking became a place of solace when other types of heavy music became more and more antagonistic over time. Though I’ve since reclaimed my taste for mind-numbing brutality, blackgaze remains a firm favorite of mine, manifesting itself in my consciousness through absolute bangers like Alcest’s latest. Another worthy entry into my personal scroll of heroic blackgaze releases is MMXXIV by Bristol, UK quintet Copse.
Mixing lengthy compositions with comparatively snappy sucker-punches is a winning formula for these fine gentlemen (*insert picture of me drinking tea with my pinky out, pondering the album at hand*). Ranging between 2 and 14 minutes, the five tracks that make up MMXXIV offer a unified aesthetic while distributing their weight differently across the styles at the center of Copse’s genetic make-up. We’ve got sharp, angular black metal, drawn out into lengthy wordless passages that turn its frigid howl into a creeping winter breeze. Frenzied screaming worms its way through the moribund woodwork of these song’s structures to imbue their patterns with haunting displays of despair.
Then, there’s the gauzy, woozy, brain-tickling atmospheres of “•” [sic!], carefully lopped into the middle of the tracklist to break up the emotional onslaught that awaits on either side. 2 minutes of reprieve prove to be more than enough – the glacial hold of the remaining tracks will eventually win out over your better judgement. Copse know when to just let the riffs and blast beats ride out instead of stuffing their compositions full of unnecessary busywork. MMXXIV is as much an exercise in restraint as it is in opulence. It’s chock-full of great atmospheres and killer riffs, but they’re used in a surgically precise way to preserve their impact and prevent utter monotony.
The one-two punches of “Mara” and “Mondrem” on the one side and “Old Belief” and New Despair” on the other are a sight to behold. Especially the latter, displaying the band’s mastery of enduring the tension just long enough to make the pay-off that much more satisfying. Such is the gravitational pull of this emotionally charged black metal that you will soon find yourself quite unable to escape its clutches – although, why would you even want to? This winter of hearts is a nice change of pace compared to the brazen heat of summer’s last wheezing breaths. The clean vocals in “New Despair” are only the deadly nightshade on top of this sweet poison sundae.
At any rate, Copse delivered a thoroughly engaging piece of blackgaze songsmithery with MMXXIV. It’s safe enough to directly satisfy that fearsome craving for blackened walls of bliss without becoming too by-the-numbers to be enjoyable. Copse are obviously very adept at their craft, and it’s nice to know that this style of music still draws passionate people in to carry the torch forward, forward, ever forward, into a blizzard of frozen petals.
