Review by Frost on January 3, 2022.

The booting of Skeletonwitch vocalist Chance Garnette back in 2015 was a considerably giant loss to the boys from Ohio. Skeletonwitch had the distinction of having one of the most vocally recognizable men in extreme metal. Chance's icy cold snarls juxtaposing his devilishly low growls were an immediate hit with many people and was one reason among many why the five piece was so deeply respected. I never had got the opportunity to see Chance rip shit up live with the band, but such is life. You don't always get what you want. Granted, I did see them open for Amon Amarth, but it just wasn't the same without him behind the microphone.

Fast forward less than a year later. Skeletonwitch is ready to record new material, but they need a new vocalist. Chance is gone. Enter Adam Clemans, best known for his vocal talents with Veil Of Maya and his other band Wolvhammer. Before looking him up prior to the announcement being made about him being Skeletonwitch's new vocalist, I'd only heard of Veil Of Maya, but not Wolvhammer. So a quick YouTube search for some of their stuff gave me a little preview of what the new vocalist would bring to the table.

Safe to say, I wasn't really all that excited...

Screamed, kinda growl-y vocals that sounded...hardcore? Well, they weren't hardcore, per se, as much as they were like a scream of a man whose esophagus was filled with ash and he was howling at the top of his lungs to clear the extremities from his throat. So blackened hardcore, maybe? I don't know how to classify his vocal style, but it must have worked with Veil Of Maya when he was with them. I'd say his vocal style is better fit for his other band. That kind of style complimented the swampy, suffocating guitars, pummeling drum beats, and dread inducing bass lines Wolvhammer churned forth. At this point, I wasn't really heavily anticipating the new material with Adam donning the cloak with the same readiness as before. After all, Chance definitely had the most recognizable voice out of many vocalists in metal. In short, Clemans had some big shoes to fill.

The result? A mixed EP with solid cuts. Adam Clemans brings his screams packaged from Wolvhammer in a neat little plastic box to the band, but they don't sound anywhere near as frosty as Chance's were. In fact, they don't sound frosty at all. These lungs burn with fire, heat, and dark smoke that chokes. They're threatening, loud, overpowering, and concussive in nature. It's very polarizing when you realize what was, but he does do his job and while he may not be the perfect fit (in fact, I don't think he even comes close to meeting Chance's very high bar), it's certainly enough to enjoy. Some of the best guitar work comes off the track that served at this EP's second track, 'Well Of Despair'. One of the many reasons I fell so deeply in love with Skeletonwitch back in 2012 when I first discovered them were the tight precise guitar play between Nate Garnette and Scott Hedrick. I greatly enjoyed the dual leads being played so skillfully on Forever Abomination. It's some of the best ever, in my opinion. There's not a lot of solo work this time around as there's more of a reliance on fast tremolo picking, but the solos that do pop up have much more an emphasis on melody than on past releases.

The title track, 'The Apothic Gloom', starts off with a slow creepy acoustic passage that builds to a point where it explodes into the louder guitars and the pretty sweet lead. It's not the best start because the song itself is kinda slow and groovy throughout and doesn't really hit a peak, but it picks up pace with 'Well Of Despair'. The next two tracks show the band exposing the blackened underbelly of their sound quite a bit. 'Black Waters' also starts of a little slow, but it builds to a great mid-paced stomp where it ends with a fabulous solo. This EP ends with probably the most epic track I'd say they've ever done. Seven ear-raping minutes with some of the grandest, coldest tremolo picked riffs you'll hear from Scott or Nate. Seriously, this track is unbelievably epic, like nothing I've heard from them before. Hell, the only track that beats this 'Within My Blood'. It starts with furious blasting for almost thirty straight seconds, and as it nears the end and as Clemans shouts into the mic, his volume gradually descends as it gets overpowered by this echoing ascension from the deepest, darkest abyss. The EP closes with a fade out. Nothing else could be quite as fitting as that one moment when they chose to fade into silence.

Overall, The Apothic Gloom is a solid EP. It's pretty cheap and easy to find, so if you're looking for a morsel of what the next full-length record might sound like, give this baby a shot. You won't be sorry. As long as you can tolerate Adam Clemans' scream/growl/whatever the hell it is.

Rating: 8 out of 10