Black metal has always been the most nature-infused subgenre within the metalsphere. Even ignoring the countless black metal bands that sing about spooky forests and shit, much of the music itself conjured images of harsh landscapes, blizzards, mountains, fog, and other such images of the natural world in the listener’s mind. With how many bands and one-person projects there are that lean into the nature black metal trope, however, the level of saturation is staggeringly high. Much like eating too much candy, there are times that I feel like I’m going to throw up if I see another album artwork that’s just a black-and-white photo of some trees.
This exact fact makes Botanist’s aesthetic so appealing to me. After all, how many other metal bands can you name that decided to focus this hard on plants? Like a breath of fresh air, music like this can help balance your hardcore love for Paysage d’Hiver and their worship of winter and all things cold. Plants and flowers can be kvlt, too, no matter how much the haters may think otherwise.
For over a decade now, Botanist have fused the warmth and foliage of a greenhouse with the traditions of black metal to create (at their best) truly gorgeous soundscapes. I can’t say they’re my favorite project, but I usually take note whenever I hear they’re dropping a new release. Now, almost exactly a year after the release of the somewhat-ok VIII: Selenotrope, Botanist have birthed Paleobotany, another hammered dulcimer-driven voyage that will surely thaw any frost around you.
And the final result? Honestly, this effort feels rushed. Botanist are ambitious, but it’s easy for big ideas to end up messy without proper care. Paleobotany, unfortunately, is appearing to me as one of the more confused releases in Botanist’s discography. The bobbing and weaving dulcimers fly around meaninglessness and have next-to-no variety outside of the tediously relentless psuedo-tremelo picking effect (tremelo hammering?), some simple arpeggios, and… well, that’s honestly about it.
Oh, except for the numerous times on where the dulcimers were blatantly out of sync and unable to stay in time with the drums. If there had been sufficient distortion on the dulcimers, they might have been able to pass it off as flurrying, blizzard-type effect, a bit like how the sloppiness of Immortal’s Battles in the North can kinda-sorta simulate the chaos of walking through a raging snowstorm (like I would know).
With little-to-no distortion, however, the sloppy playing is clear as day, unable to hide any flaws. I might be yelling at the clouds, but I desperately wish they would incorporate more distortion back into their music, at least to the degree of their earlier releases. When the dulcimers are this squeeky-clean, they sound so weak.
Speaking back to the messiness of this record, the drumming, while actually impressive in its own right, is far too busy, and way way too loud in the mix. Its like the cymbals and kick drum are both competing to see who can drown the rest of the instruments. Critically, it only further diminishes any power the dulcimer had in the mix.
And on the topic of things lacking power, my God those clean vocals. What happened there? I absolutely adore some well-performed clean singing in metal, but getting through this album was that much more difficult; most of the singing here is rough and, and frankly, sounds kinda out of tune. Maybe they were trying to match the microtonality of the dulcimer (at least, I think these are microtones I’m hearing), but much of the time, it just feels like the instruments and the vocalist(s) are working in totally different tunings from one another.
I wish I could say matters improved from a compositional standpoint, but again, I was disappointed. All the songs blend together in a monotonous, cluttered drone, with little in terms of anything resembling tension and release. It mostly lands flat in a bland, fuzzy middle ground between the two. Not satisfying at all.
Outside of a few short-lived passages that vibe pretty hard from an atmospheric standpoint, not much from this record stands out, which saddens me since I still believe this band has the potential to surprise us and drop a masterpiece one of these days. 2014’s VI: Flora, while still far from reaching that mark, is still probably Botanist’s best release quality-wise, and I don’t see this newest LP overtaking it in terms of popularity either.
In comparison to Flora, so much of Paleobotany just feels random. Whether it’s the melodies, the harmonic touches, or the structures of the songs, nothing seems to have a purpose, nothing feels like it’s actually building off what came before. The music is energetic, sure, and generally fast-paced, but that doesn’t keep it from feeling lifeless. You can almost compare it to Krallice at their worst; I like Krallice, and even love some of their work, but both Krallice and Botanist suffer from writing long, complex, winding passages of tremelo-picked (or hammered) lead guitars (or dulcimers) that lack any emotional impact. Instead, they often feel like they just crafted the songs section by section without any real editing or considering, “Hey, maybe it would sound better if we did this instead.” No disrespect to Krallice, or Botanist, for that matter. My point is that if you’re going to push actual fuckin’ riffs to the wayside (more so Botanist than Krallice), then you better really make sure that you’re focusing on constructing focused, engaging songs. Unorthodox instrumentation and cool aesthetics can only take you so far (with me, at least).
Credit where its due, I didn’t dislike everything on this album. “Strychnos Electri” and “Wollemia Nobilis” both had me head-bobbing along with the music happily, and both have more harsh vocals than clean, which helped dramatically. I’d also note that every song had a section or two that I liked, and the unique atmospheres from the hammered dulcimer, microtones, piano accents, and other nontraditional harmonies is, without a doubt, unique. I just wish they had more purpose within the context of the songs.
Paleobotany falls flat compared to what this band (formerly solo-project) is capable of. Sadly, this isn’t the first time Botanist has failed to impress, and it usually boils down to the songwriting. I won’t call this band gimmicky, but so much of this album felt like it lacked substance and direction. The unsatisfying clean vocals, overbearing drumming, and thin dulcimer tone all also played in my displeasure with the record. I’m no closer to calling myself a true fan of this band, as much as I would like to. If anyone else knows of any thematically similar bands, please let me know.
There’s no doubt I’ll check out the Botanist’s next release (hopefully spend more time on the next one), but I don’t see myself returning to Paleobotany any time soon. If you feel in the mood for warm, sun-soaked black metal, you’re probably better off listening to Bloem instead.
RATING
3 / 10
Follow Botanist: Bandcamp, Facebook
Label: Prophecy Productions
Recorded at: Unknown
Release Date: May 17th, 2024
Release Type: Full-length
Cover Art: Unknown