We are entering the coldest, most unforgiving months of the year, and with it often comes crippling depression and just the inability to keep the body warm in most circumstances. It’s a perfect time to bask in dark music, the type that lives deep within your blackened organs, the stuff that makes you feel like everything within you is crumbling to total destruction.

With that, it’s the ideal time to welcome “No Dawn for the Caliginous Night,” the third record from Finnish funeral doom power Convocation. Over five tracks and 48 minutes, the band—vocalist MNeuman and multi-instrumentalist LLaaksonen—visits the darkest, most depressing territory imaginable, though they pack dark melodies and enchanting horrors into the mix. So, yes, it arrives on the cusp of winter, when autumn is sliding into its coldest, least illuminated days, and music such as this is an ideal companion for feeling that despair. The duo also is joined by guests including vocalists Jason Netherton (Misery Index), Natalie Koskinen (Collapse of Light, Shape of Despair), and Niko Matilainen (Corpsessed), cellist Antti Poutanen (Church of the Dead), and narrator Stephanie Schuldiner (Ferum, Kõdu) to help flesh out these morbid creations.

“Graveless Yet Dead” dawns with heavy, eerie noise, sorrow engulfing fully, the growls crushing as the strings scrape. Dreary fog thickens as the guitars hang in the air, immersive darkness taking hold as the growls rattle bones. Gothy winds blow as the playing begins to batter, the ache stretching as everything spirals into darkness. “Atychiphobia” begins impossibly heavy, the growls hammering as the strings pick up, the murkiness dipping its head into dank waters. The heat rises as the drums start to pound, wild shrieks electrify, and the guitars liquify and go quiet, stretching a pall before the heaviness strikes anew. The strings sweep as the crunch increases, and then the leads start blazing, the growls curdling alongside the intensity. The playing then trickles and pools, a heavy haze enveloping as organs vibrate away.  “Between Aether and Land” unleashes a majestic atmosphere, guitars melt, and the bottom drops, regal fire adding a sense of warmth. The playing takes on a fantastical feel, the guitars amplify the ache deep within your chest, and the leads surround, leaving only ashes behind.

“Lepers and Derelicts” runs a healthy 11:21, buzzing as the fires take hold, the growls dropping as the pressure builds. Coldness encapsulates while the playing lurches, going heavier as the growls take on more weight, the playing wrenching your insides and taxing your emotions. Tingling leads make cortisol race as the howls explode and ripple through the earth, the drama spreads, and shrieks peels flesh from muscle as everything slowly dissolves. Closer “Procession” is the longest track at 12:36, and it’s neck deep in torment as it starts, detached speaking chilling flesh, an alien feel overcoming everything. Strings gush as the growls eat away at psyches, then synth becomes the only breathing factor, leading to Schuldiner again buzzing with her stark narration. Strangeness mixes with sadness as the journey pushes on, the guitars soaring as growls punish again, the ferocity strangling as drama folds through icy darkness that disappears into the distance.

“No Dawn for the Caliginous Night” is another stellar serving of foreboding funeral doom that’s perfect for these months when the sun retreats early, and the coldness gets inside your bones and causes you to shiver to your core. This third record from Convocation is intoxicating from the start as they find ways to multiply the blackness and make the misery as heavy as an uninhabitable planet’s gravity. This is grave music for ominous times, the stuff that sticks with you in the storm as your mind tries its best to stay balanced so you can survive unhealthy conditions.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/ConvocationDoom

To buy the album, go here: https://everlastingspew.com/25-pre-orders

For more on the label, go here: https://everlastingspew.com/