There are those bands that once you indulge in their music, the way your brain processes that particular art form changes a little bit. Somehow, my TikTok algorithm led me to Faetooth, a Lose Angeles-based doom power that creates heavy, yet enchanting songs, stuff that crawls into your imagination and helps you see new colors. I hear things differently since being introduced to them.

“Labyrinthe” is the band’s second record and first for The Flenser, and it’s a 10-track, 55-minute excursion that picks up where 2002’s “Remnants of the Vessel” (our No. 6 album that year) leaves off and then goes into new terrain. Thematically, the band—bassist/vocalist Jenna Garcia, guitarist/vocalist Ari May, drummer Rah Kanan—takes on inner turmoil, personal wounds, and loss, among others, with their heaviness intertwining breath-takingly with softer tones and psychedelic flourishes. This album is one that may take a few visits to truly set in, which was the case for their debut, but it’s easy to instantly be spellbound by the music. Digging deeper reveals richer meaning.

“Iron Gate” bathes in feedback, solemnity and clean singing bubbling, and then the power punches in, adding to the thicker haze. The singing lures while the growls scrape passages beneath, and then voices harmonize. Hypnosis mixes as the energy burns off into the horizon. “Death of Day” has the bass sliding and the guitars trudging, dreamy singing icing over wounds. The crunch arrives in the form of blistering riffs and feral growls before the calmer verses help alleviate the burn. The playing gets burly again, riffs tangling, shrieks wrenching as the spirit spirals away. “It Washes Over” has a clean start before buzzing, and then the singing floats, easing into an increasingly darker doom cauldron. Guitars heat and spread as the growls menace, desperation rumbling as everything fades. “Hole” is slower and crawls through thickening fog, then the power guts, and the singing swells, making blood rush. The shrieks bruise as the mesmerizing pace blossoms, churning through chaos to the edge of a storm. “White Noise” is muddy at first before cleaner guitars and tingling singing activate emotions, then screams belt, letting lava gust before the temps drop again. The battle between light and dark engulfs as howls rip, hypnotic dirges spread misery, and everything simmers into silence.

“Eviserate” bleeds clean, soft singing pulling you down pathways, and then the screams ravage, desperation and anguish playing tug of war. Viciousness rears its head and flattens bones, emotional singing makes your heart ache, and smoke encapsulates all. “October” is ceremonial and chilly before guitars blaze and churn, a strong chorus pumping blood from a pierced heart. Guitars buzz as the pain permeates the senses, the power surges, and the cosmos swallows everything whole. “Mater Dolorosa” digs in, the singing feeling like a dreamscape, the playing buckling while swimming through tar. The pace slowly batters as howls punish, the aura turns moodier, and guitars leave a stinging sensation. “The Well” is a brief instrumental built with slow-driving force, guitars that add a deep freeze, and an essence that hangs in the clouds. Closer “Meet Your Maker” is the longest track at 8:28, and it dissolves into blood, the singing mesmerizing before the fires blast, sweeping with strange speaking and increasingly harrowing shadows. The pace chugs more as the guitars char, igniting a gazey heatwave that builds and scalds as the last moments draw near, ending everything in an immersive dream. 

“Labyrinthe” is Faetooth at their most vulnerable, at least to this point, and their ethereal brand of doom remains the type that works best when absorbed in dark silence, with only you and the music there to connect. It was clear from when this band first arrived that they had something special to add to the doom kingdom, and theirs is more personal, introspective, and also thunderous. This is a band that deserves your attention now and moving forward, because chances are this journey has only begun, and the twists and turns from here cannot be predicted. Only experienced. 

For more on the band, go here: https://faetooth.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://nowflensing.com/collections/faetooth

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