{"id":310944,"date":"2025-08-02T03:42:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T03:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310944\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T03:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T03:42:22","slug":"volur-cares-breathless-spirit-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310944\/","title":{"rendered":"V\u00f6lur & Cares – Breathless Spirit Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cAvant-garde doom metal from Canada. Do I really need to say more to pique your interest?\u201d So said I a little under five years ago, closing out my Things You Might Have Missed feature for V\u00f6lur<\/strong>\u2019s Death Cult<\/a>. The Toronto-based project launched itself to the top of my end-of-year list in 2020, owing to their expert fusion of an impressive blend of sounds and genres primarily rooted in doom metal. Wielding the violin like a sledgehammer, Death Cult featured intelligent, clever compositions that really impressed me in 2020. Now, at last, they\u2019re back for their fourth full-length, Breathless Spirit, with one key change: a collaboration with Cares<\/strong>\u2014UK\/Canadian producer James Beardmore\u2014whose influence aims to transcend an already-impressive trio to Valhallan heights. However do they fare?<\/p>\n

But first, a correction: in reviewing Death Cult, I noted that \u201cthe guitars do not dominate, nor do they crush the listener; instead, they unsettle, distort, and act as anchor for the vocals and electric violins that make up the true meat of the music.\u201d V\u00f6lur <\/strong>has no guitarist\u2014only Lucas Gadke (Blood<\/strong> Ceremony<\/strong>), who plays bass (in addition to vocals and piano). The electric violins are indeed the \u201ctrue meat of the music;\u201d V\u00f6lur<\/strong> create their uniquely haunting sound through intense distortion on Laura Bates\u2019s violin and viola, giving them a surprisingly heavy metal basis to work with\u2014certainly I\u2019d never have thought there\u2019s no guitar in the blackened doom mania that is \u201cWindbourne Sorcery II,\u201d and I\u2019m still not 100% sure I believe it. Previously, I compared the group to a gloomy \u201cApocapyse Orchestra<\/strong> meets King Goat<\/strong>\u201d project, but, in hindsight, Apocalyptica<\/strong> might have been a better base point to use.<\/p>\n

Realistically, though, none of that matters because V\u00f6lur<\/strong> is unique in too many ways to build adequate comparisons, and Cares<\/strong> has only strengthened that position. Where Death Cult emphasized the heavier, doom metal basis of V\u00f6lur<\/strong>\u2019s material, Breathless Spirit leans more classical, a change that highlights the incredible range of the music, passing also through doom metal, black metal, folk, jazz, and drone along the way\u2014and all of it done with \u201cjust\u201d a violinist, bassist, and drummer (Justin Ruppel). What\u2019s extra interesting (on an already very interesting record) is that Cares<\/strong> contributes piano, synthesizers, theremin, and textures. His production adds layer upon layer of grimy, modern darkness that contributes heavily to the metal feel of Breathless Spirit. It is, put simply, extremely experimental. It also works magnificently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From the classically-inspired \u201cHearth,\u201d Breathless Spirit\u2019s instrumental intro whose motifs just keep reappearing, to the towering doom metal conclusion of \u201cDeath in Solitude,\u201d V\u00f6lur<\/strong> are as engaging as they are unpredictable. I mentioned that \u201cWindbourne Sorcery II\u201d has the album\u2019s blackened highlight, with Bates\u2019s utterly unhinged shrieks atop a steady alarm of urgency from her violin. That same song has an almost funeral buildup, a chilling passage I compare favorably with Bell Witch<\/strong>\u2019s Mirror Reaper. The title track is the highlight for me; Gadke\u2019s roars are front and center, and all of his vocals have depth and command to them, recalling Barren Earth<\/strong>\u2019s On Lonely Towers. Guest vocals from Amy Bowles (ex-Hollow Earth<\/strong>) are a fantastic counter to his baritone cleans, and the brief improvizations a third of the way in is chaotic and delightful. You can dance to the haunting middle section, but it ends on a sense of heavy, epic urgency. Whatever style they try, V\u00f6lur & Cares<\/strong> can\u2019t help but create something beautiful. Much credit also belongs to Ruppel, whose measured drumming keeps Breathless Spirit grounded in a steady, doom-laden theme that serves it well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve run out of words, but there\u2019s so much more to say. Breathless Spirit is a hard album to describe with any level of brevity. It explores worlds I\u2019ve only hinted at here, and is much stronger than the sum of its parts. It\u2019s not perfect\u2014\u201dOn Drangey\u201d is perhaps a touch too long for my preferences\u2014but it hardly has to be. Breathless Spirit should enshrine V\u00f6lur <\/strong>and Cares<\/strong> as experts in the experimental. Equal parts beautiful, haunting, and dark, Breathless Spirit defies my vocabulary\u2014you simply must listen for yourself.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 4.0\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 6 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 192 kbps mp3
Label:<\/strong> Blackthrone Productions<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> volur.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/VolurDoom<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> August 8th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAvant-garde doom metal from Canada. Do I really need to say more to pique your interest?\u201d So said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,12294,113578,113579,113326,113580,113581,113582,113583,113584,16282,113585,10273,31239,77,113586,113587,22887,102833,269,6080,6082,16,15,113588,113589],"class_list":{"0":"post-310944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-4-0","10":"tag-apocalypse-orchestra","11":"tag-apocalyptica","12":"tag-aug25","13":"tag-barren-earth","14":"tag-bell-witch","15":"tag-blackthrone-productions","16":"tag-blood-ceremony","17":"tag-breathless-spirit","18":"tag-canadian-metal","19":"tag-cares","20":"tag-doom-metal","21":"tag-drone","22":"tag-entertainment","23":"tag-folk-metal","24":"tag-hollow-earth","25":"tag-jazz","26":"tag-king-goat","27":"tag-music","28":"tag-review","29":"tag-reviews","30":"tag-uk","31":"tag-united-kingdom","32":"tag-volur","33":"tag-volur-cares"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114957107131467875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}