American funeral doom/death metal veterans Evoken to hit the road with the “Mendacium Tour 2026” this summer!
American funeral doom/death metal veterans Evoken will hit the road with the “Mendacium Tour 2026” this summer with TodoMal! Mark your calendar for July/August 2026.
Mendacium Tour 2026:
15/03/2026 IT Francavilla Al Mara, Tikitaka Village – Frantic Fest
30/07/2026 FR Paris, LE Klub
31/07/2026 FR Ruan, Fury Defendu
01/08/2026 BE Diest, Helldies
02/08/2026 NL Rotterdam, Baroeg
03/08/2026 DE Hamburg, MS Stubnitz
05/08/2026 DE Berlin, Neue Zukunft
06/08/2026 DE Schlotheim, Nottertal-Heilinger Heights – Party San Open Air
07/08/2026 DE Karlsruhe, Die Stadtmitte
09/08/2026 DE Dresden, Chemiefabrik
10/08/2026 CZ Prague, Subzero
12/08/2026 SRB Belgrade, Zappa Barka
13/08/2026 RO Alba Iulia, DBE
14/08/2026 BL Sofia, Mixtape
Evoken’s recent re-issues of »Shades Of Night Descending« and »Embrace The Emptiness« are still available at hammerheartstore.com!
Evoken – »Shades Of Night Descending« EP:
Doom metal, perhaps the most varied of all the metal genres, has been crossing over with plenty of other genres, and surprisingly often, the crossbreeding has been fertile. While the “funeral” brand of doom metal sounds like something that lacks the genetics to successfully breed with other metal genres, its nihilism works surpringly well when blended with slowed down death metal. Among the masters of that gruesome fusion are Evoken from the United States.
»Shades Of Night Descending« is the first recording by Evoken, released in 1994, and for a debut recording, it is a surprisingly mature creation. The later works of Evoken have a thicker wall of sound and plenty of production tricks in them, but the deviations from the basic formula introduced here have been essentially more polishing that actual rethinking of the format.
Perhaps the music is of the same funeral death/doom metal variety as found on the later albums, all the way to the excellent »Antithesis Of Light« and »A Caress Of The Void«, but the unrefined production on »Shades Of Night Descending«, with its barren character and almost heavy-handedly echoing soundscape, brings out the nihilism of funeral doom more effectively than the more professional production jobs of the later albums. The atmosphere on this recording is bleaker, even less forgiving, and perhaps even more desperate and repulsive in a positive sense than what can be found on »A Caress Of The Void«. Even the considerably melodic guitar part in »Towers Of Frozen Dusk« and other sweeter spots on the demo have a taste of ash and feel of pumice in them; Evoken walks on a musical lava field here, and manages to paint the true meaning of funeral doom in slow death metal colours on the canvas.
In comparison to their later works, this is perhaps the essence of the whole band in the original, pure form. Considering the year and the fact that this recording was recorded by a very recently formed band, the originality and the merciless exploration of new fields of abrasive nihilism are astounding. What’s more, the songwriting and technical performance sound exceptionally evolved. However, it was to take another four years before they managed to release »Embrace The Emptiness«, perhaps the world simply wasn’t ready for this yet at that point.
Evoken – »Embrace The Emptiness« LP:
First, there’s an intro track that portrays what can be found on the rest of the album: light sounding guitar played with the regular Funeral Doom followed by a section of quiet, dark ambient on the second half of the intro. You might be feeling two vibes here. It sounds mournful like most traditional funeral doom, but it also sounds deep and void-like like Esoteric’s take on the genre. One might think Evoken found the sweet spot between the two and made something great out of it.
Lead guitars exist and do break into solos at least once per song. Production wise, the guitars sound the rawest of all the instruments, but it’s barely noticeable when layered with the keyboards and drums which are well produced. The clean sounding soft guitar is one of the key players here and fits in well at any part of the album, be it melancholic pieces like »Tragedy Eternal« or more menacing ones like »Chime The Centuries End«, though there is much more of the latter than the former. The keyboards also do their part to augment the atmosphere with the presentation on »Chime The Centuries End« making one feel like staring downward into an abyss. It all feels so dark and empty, hence »Embrace The Emptiness«.
We feel like Evoken issued forth the modern wave of funeral doom with the cleaner sound. Though they were a little late bringing out their debut full-length in 1998 when Skepticism and Esoteric already belted out two albums each, Evoken’s »Embrace The Emptiness« is still very inspirational.
Put on »Embrace The Emptiness«, shade your windows, turn off the light, lie down in bed and let yourself get overwhelmed with emotions. Drift away in your mind and just let the feelings of solitude hit you. An utterly dark album that every fan of funeral doom/death metal should own.
Courtesy of Hammerheart Records
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well