There are moments when extreme metal stops being simply heavy and becomes genuinely oppressive, atmospheric and psychologically consuming. Haze, Cacophony, And White Light, the third full-length from Portland, Maine’s SHABTI, is exactly that kind of record. This isn’t an album designed to sit politely in the background. It grabs hold, drags you into its darkness and refuses to let go until the final note has disappeared into the void.
Released through Contemn Light, SHABTI’s latest offering arrives after a remarkably long and difficult journey. The current lineup has been together for a decade, but getting this record completed proved considerably harder than writing it. Life distractions, setbacks, depression and other commitments repeatedly delayed the process after recording began in 2022. That makes the finished album feel even more significant.
You can hear the years of work in it.
SHABTI – vocalist/guitarist Rob Cook, drummer Ray Capizzo and bassist Brendan Hayter – have created six tracks of technically impressive black/death metal that never sacrifices atmosphere for musicianship. The playing is ferocious, but there is thought behind every movement.
From the opening “Ambrosia and Lamb’s Blood”, the band establish a sound that is simultaneously savage and strangely hypnotic. Ripping guitar work cuts through layers of darkness while Capizzo’s drumming provides an almost relentless pulse. Cook’s vocals move between guttural growls and vicious shrieks, adding another layer of menace to an already intimidating musical landscape.
“A Weary Creation” continues the assault, but SHABTI are clever enough to understand that extreme metal needs dynamics. The arrangements twist and turn rather than simply throwing blast beats and distortion at the listener for forty minutes.
That sense of progression is one of the album’s biggest strengths.
“Blood For A Blessing” digs deeper into the band’s blackened death-metal foundations, with the guitars becoming increasingly abrasive while the rhythm section keeps everything threatening to collapse under its own weight.
Then comes the title track, “Haze, Cacophony, And White Light”, where the album’s conceptual and musical ambitions collide. There is something almost cinematic about the track, as though the listener is being pulled through a nightmare constructed from riffs, atmosphere and increasingly frantic vocal work.
Thematically, SHABTI aren’t interested in simple death-metal clichés either.
The lyrics draw on personal experiences, grief, longing, religion, alienation and mythological and dream-like imagery. The songs operate on multiple levels, creating a hazy narrative that ultimately builds towards a bleak vision of the future in which the Shabti rise to succeed their masters.
It’s dark stuff.
But it’s also fascinating.
“Sojourner”, clocking in at over six minutes, gives SHABTI room to stretch their progressive muscles. The longer running time allows the band to develop ideas rather than simply destroy everything in their path. Technical musicianship, atmospheric passages and black-metal aggression combine into something that feels carefully constructed without ever becoming sterile.
And that is where SHABTI have really succeeded.
The band describe their sound as retaining a raw, organic feel despite the increased precision and ambition, and that description is spot-on. There is a human quality beneath the technical complexity. You never get the impression that these musicians are showing off simply because they can.
Everything serves the song.
The production also deserves credit. The band handled the main recording themselves, with additional vocals and guitars tracked at Acadia Recording Company in Portland. Aaron Charles of Falls Of Rauros mixed the album at The Cathedral of Psychic Death, while Dan Lowndes handled mastering at Resonance Sound Studio. The result gives the instruments enough separation to appreciate the detail while retaining the dense, claustrophobic character the music demands.
The closing “Rise Of The Shabti” feels like the culmination of everything that has come before. The title alone suggests the conceptual destination, but musically it provides an appropriately imposing finale.
After all the grief, alienation, religious imagery, dreams and darkness, the Shabti have arrived.
What makes Haze, Cacophony, And White Light particularly impressive is the journey behind it. SHABTI have been operating since 2008, releasing Paracusia in 2013 and Trembling And Shorn in 2019 before enduring years of delays and uncertainty.
They could have lost momentum.
Instead, they came back heavier.
This is a band that has spent years working in the underground without chasing trends or gimmicks. Their history of sharing stages with Immolation, Today Is The Day, Primitive Man, Ghoul, Necrot, Blood Incantation and Conan makes perfect sense when you hear the sheer weight of this record.
Haze, Cacophony, And White Light is extreme metal with intelligence behind the violence.
It is technical without becoming soulless, progressive without losing its aggression, and atmospheric without sacrificing brutality.
SHABTI have waited a long time to unleash this record. The wait was worth it.
Dark, technical, ferocious and wonderfully unsettling. Haze, Cacophony, And White Light proves that SHABTI have emerged from years of adversity with their most ambitious and lethal record yet.
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