Echthros - Matriarch

Released: June 5

Matriarch is, to put it lightly, a tough listen due to its subject matter. Alongside the thick atmosphere and dense noise, we here bits of the stories from those who survived the terrifying experience of being forcefully placed into the Indian Residential School system in Canada. The stories are horrific and only scratch the surface of the atrocities committed in these schools. Echthros takes these haunting stories and intertwines them with deep drones and harsh static noises that come in and out. Being only one long track, it is divided into three distinct parts with each survivor telling their story for the first and third. The space between the stories is where Echthros ramps up the noise to more extreme limits. There is a loud, visceral screaming in this second act that I can't quite make out what is being said. All I know is that it is all too real and raw in a way that send a chill down my spine. 

To call this an album, while technically correct, feels like it misses something essential. It feels much more like a re-imagined documentary as it takes in the stories of the survivors and places it in a certain atmosphere that adds to the weight of them that brings to life the true horrors of what happened to these children. Echthros makes wise use of audio transitions from each part to the next in this dark canvas. As the first story approaches its end, there is a part in which a line is repeated multiple times  from the speaker about a solider in World War I having a better chance of surviving running straight into gunfire than a child in the residential school system. As it repeats, we are given our first glimpse of the visceral screaming. It is frightening and induces a very particular feeling of disquietude. As I said, it is a difficult listen, but one that is well worth it.