Soothsayer's sophomore album, The Unbinding, marks a significant evolution in their sound, blending atmospheric sludge/doom with lightly folkened black metal. While this shift in style is intriguing, it comes with its own set of challenges, particularly in terms of consistency and continuity. The album's production is clearer, allowing for a greater impact of the slow, deliberate groundwork, but it also highlights the band's indecisiveness about the nature of their occult atmosphere. Liam Hughes's vocal performances, while more varied, can be distracting, jostling between growls, snarls, and shouts, with the shouts particularly overpowering in certain tracks. The album's strengths lie in its standout songs, such as 'Endless Shesha' and 'A Vague Shimmer', which showcase a strong blend of atmospheric elements. However, the other tracks on The Unbinding don't hold up as well under the weight of long durations, and the band's stylistic diversification comes at the expense of overall coherence. Despite this, the album is a step forward for Soothsayer, and their future pivot towards funeral doom could be an exciting prospect. Rating: 2.5/5.0.
