To say that the last five years since Inter Arma put out the magnificent Sulphur English have been tumultuous is a wild understatement. Obviously, a global pandemic took its toll, and the usual suspect of membership turnover reared its head, but the band also had to seemingly fight against nature and fate itself to bring New Heaven to light. Natural disasters, a car crash that almost killed songwriter T.J. Childers and new bassist Joel Moore, and a studio space in such disrepair that it almost precluded them from doing any meaningful recording were just a few of the hurdles the quintet had to jump through.
New Heaven isn’t just an album about perseverance, although it certainly is that. Nor is it about Inter Arma trying to reinvent themselves, although there is a fair bit of musical growth and diversification on display here. Always a band that has been known for pushing the boundaries of “extreme”, Inter Arma has thrived in a zone of psychedelic, crushing doom that incorporates smatterings of black and death metal. On New Heaven, drummer and mastermind T.J. Childers splits the two sides of the band apart and raises the contrast between each. Brevity is the soul of the wit on New Heaven, and long-time fans of the band may be surprised to see no songs longer than 7.5 minutes and a tight 45 for the total runtime. Do know, though, that this doesn’t mean any punches were pulled or that Inter Arma have sold out; rather, it shows the band pushing themselves to grow and more fully demonstrate what they are capable of. Some of the densest, most jarring and angular songwriting is found here, pushed forward in a reckless barrage of noise and blast beats, then in an instant, the pace is slowed and the cavernous sludge prevails. Rather than being diluted, the eight tracks on New Heaven show Inter Arma condensed and concentrated, made all the more urgent and vital by vocalist Mike Paparo’s guttural bellows and lonesome crooning. Lyrically, the album touches on dark themes of apathy, addiction and war, but Paparo injects a healthy amount of empathy and understanding into his words, as opposed to just dwelling on the horrors.
When most of the previously initiated describe Inter Arma’s music, “dissonant” and “chaotic” are words that get thrown around a fair bit, and of course in the world of extreme metal these are terms of endearment. You aren’t ready for the riff to the title track that kicks off New Heaven. Atonal in the purest sense, Childers’ guitar riff is a testament to how far the human ear can be pushed to appreciate something that starts to look rather unmusical around the edges. Clearly, new ideas are being tried, and it pays off in spades, but I also find myself catching shades of Paradise Gallows, specifically in the twin guitar harmonies throughout, but especially at the close of “Desolation’s Harp”. New Heaven feels like an expansion of all the ideas the band has collected in their two-decade existence, all culminating in a mighty work that is rather likely to bring into the fold those who dismissed Inter Arma in the past as being “inaccessible”. Tracks like the aforementioned “Desolation’s Harp” and “Endless Gray” put forward a deeply melodic side of the band that not everyone sticks around to experience, but one that is very rewarding, especially since the latter track serves as Moore’s statement piece on the album. It may have taken four other bassists first, but they definitely found a keeper in Joel Moore, whose presence is felt all over the album and who blends in like he has been there the whole time.
New Heaven isn’t a new Inter Arma, but it is the Inter Arma that we need right now, and after five years since their last original album (Garbers Days Revisited kicks ass though), it’s been a long time coming. It’s a forward march into the future for the band, renewed and reinvigorated and ready to take on the world. Or, rather, as the closing track “Forest Service Road Blues” says, “The sun don’t shine like it used to/But it always comes down”.
-Ian
New Heaven is out April 26 on Relapse Records. For more information on Inter Arma, visit their Facebook page.
Nine Circles 