Black metal has endured so long outside the confines of genre purists in part because of its malleability and ease of melding it with new genres. Copse are a new project from Ed Gibbs, best known as vocalist for the emotive post-metal outfit Devil Sold His Soul and, while there are definite similarities, Copse stands as its own blackened creation. Their debut release, Mara | Mondrem is a two-part EP composed of the two halves of the title and explores both black metal and the more familiar grounds of post metal, blending the two worlds until there’s no real distinction between the end of one and the start of another.
‘Mara’ begins life in ambience, a fire crackling in the distance that welcomes listeners into the copse. Soft guitars seep in before a trembling line begins to escalate the tension. This opening section culminates with Gibbs’ immediately identifiable vocals, not made raspier but infused with all the desperate emotion he embodies through his other work. Yearning melodies and his howls sit atop blastbeats in an emotional crescendo that tugs at heartstrings with ease, before melting away. The desolation and longing it conjures, especially in its latter minutes, are intensely stirring, aided by delving deep into the vein of melodic black metal.
The second half, ‘Mondrem’, picks up immediately where ‘Mara’ left off; it’s the second, no less intense, part that eschews the frenetic blastbeats at least at first. Instead, it plots a course through mid-tempo territory that pulls from post-rock and almost blackgaze territories. It’s soon subsumed once more by the torrents of emotional turmoil, in howls of “I feel nothing / I am nothing”. It’s a devastating moment, fraught with desperation and almost remorse.
In some ways, it’s difficult to talk about Copse without referencing Devil Sold His Soul; there are territories where their latest album Loss explored, realms of blackened post metal that they touched for the briefest of moments, that Copse flesh out far more fully. Mara | Mondrem sounds in many ways like a continuation and exploration of those worlds, but is still very much its own world and has its own identity. The yearning, emotionality is present as expected but fed through a different lens this time, one that seeks out extremes while keeping a long-form explorative and progressive nature. It’s all over far too soon, but for the time it’s there, it’s wondrous.