“Never say never” is a phrase that often gets people into trouble.  It’s usually immediately followed by a “but,” and then you can be sure it actually means “never.”  There are, however, those glorious times when “never say never” actually ends up working out, and the unlikely comes true.  One of those times happens to be on Inevitably Dark.  Those who have been following Xasthur recently have seen mastermind Scott Conner emphatically proclaim that the group is done with black metal, and metal entirely.  Well, as it so happens with the passage of time, absolutes like that can ultimately break down.

So, if Inevitably Dark is a return to the black metal of Xasthur’s past, why are we running it as a Rainbows?  Well, the answer to that is two-fold.  Part of the reason why I’m doing this as a Rainbows is that this has been a busy week and I just wasn’t able to get to this until it was too late to run in the usual spots.  Part of the reason for that is that Inevitably Dark is a monstrous double-album, with 23 tracks spread out over two discs and clocking in at an hour and forty-five minutes.  The other reason is that Inevitably Dark is not strictly a black metal album.  Conner and Xasthur have embraced strictly acoustic acid folk and doomgrass on their last few releases (and even the ones that Conner put out before a return to the Xasthur brand), and Inevitably Dark sees a mix of current Xasthur tendencies with the “classic” Xasthur of old.  And what’s more, one thing that I really appreciate about Inevitably Dark is that it is not one disc of acoustic music and one disc of black metal (I still love you, The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness).  The two discs have dreary and somber black metal interspersed in between jaunty and jangly folk, breaking up the mood and preventing the album from feeling like a slog one way or the other.  Inevitably Dark sees Conner take over sole instrumental duties once again (save for a few keyboard passages), tackling acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion and drum machine programming.  It really does feel like something of a return to the old school “one man” ethos of the early days of the project, while still keeping the relevance of Xasthur’s current mentality.

Curiously absent from Inevitably Dark are vocals of any kind.  All 23 tracks on the album are instrumental, which is a huge departure for the project, as even the nonmetal Xasthur songs had vocals.  However, anybody familiar with Conner’s recent experiences with homelessness and seeing firsthand the intersection of mental illness, poverty and drug abuse knows that the last few Xasthur releases have been driven by a sense of urgency.  When isolation isn’t an option, one needs to learn to record wherever and whenever there is a chance, and while Conner seems to be in a more stable spot now, that sense of urgency still permeates every track on Inevitably Dark.  The keyboards do a great job of filling up the sonic space, even on the folk tracks, lending a quality very similar to dungeon synth across the record and uniting the two styles.  Similarly uniting them is the grim sense of morbidity that has always underpinned Xastur’s music, regardless of style or genre.  These songs are still depressing as all hell, and informed by pessimism and the “underbelly of the American dream.”  Do I find myself missing vocals?  Yeah, a little, but the guitar work is fantastic and diverse, the keyboards drench everything in moody texture, and the sequencing of the album keeps things interesting and varied across the whole runtime.  

If you’re wondering what prompted Conner to go back on his word and bring the black metal back into Xasthur, the answer is simple: “I felt like it.”  At the end of the day, that’s always been the driving force behind whatever Xastur and Conner do.  He is free to do what he likes, and we are simply along for the ride, wherever it takes us.  Inevitably Dark might be raw, unpolished and unconventional, but it ultimately shows the reality of what living in the modern world does to a person.  It is “real,” and that is exactly what Conner wants every Xasthur release to be.

— Ian

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Inevitably Dark is available now on Prophecy Productions/Lupus Lounge.  For more information on Xasthur, visit their Bandcamp page.