Album Review: III: Beneath Trident's Tomb by Twilight

Long before its release, III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb became a punchline for both heavy metal and indie rock fans. Less than a year after news of his split with Kim Gordon (and the concomitant break-up of Sonic Youth) surfaced, Thurston Moore joined Twilight, an amorphous pan-American supergroup that had previously collected metalhead lifers such as Leviathan’s Wrest, Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd, and Krieg’s irascible leader Neill Jameson. Xasthur’s Malefic and Isis’ Aaron Turner had recorded with Twilight, too.

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Due to the addition of a certain musician, Twilight’s third and final album, III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb, is arguably the most anticipated black metal release of the year. Joining the American black metal collective for their swansong is Thurston Moore—he of Sonic Youth fame. Moore’s sacred status alone should summon the attention of folks familiar and unfamiliar with black metal’s exclusionary ethos, yet whether fans of indie rock (or whatever name you want to give Sonic Youth’s noisy pop music) will take anything from III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb seems unlikely.

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If this is indeed Twilight's last album, as the band claims, it's not going quietly. The six tracks on III offer a characteristically robust black-metal assault from the shape-shifting all-star group, which has included everyone from Isis' Aaron Turner to Nachtmystium main man Blake Judd among it's ranks, and recently welcomed Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to the fold. From the lumbering "Lungs" to doomy, dynamically intense epics such as "On Wretched Son," "Swarming Funeral Mass," and "See No Shelter Fevered Ones," the relentless sturm and drang is not for the faith of heart, and there's always a sneaking sense that Twilight is making this stuff up as it goes along.

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