Eusapia — Thin Cities / Desert Festival Review
Eusapia an American post-black metal entity. On 13 August 2026, Eusapia released their second independent EP, Thin Cities / Desert Festival. The EP was promoted through GlobMetal Promotions.
Eusapia, Thin Cities / Desert Festival Review: This review will evaluate every aspect of the album, from its intricate musical composition to its production.
The First Three Sins, The Summary
The First Sin, The Strings/Keys: Three-guitar interplay blends shoegaze textures, dissonant tremolo, melodic leads, doom-laden dirges, and weight-bearing bass. The Second Sin, The Vocals: Spectral shrieks, depressive screams, guttural growls, clean singing, whispers, and ritualistic chants. The Third Sin, The Percussions: Slow, spacious percussion shifts into aggressive post-black surges with resonant kicks and cymbal washes.
The Fourth Sin, Overall Discussion
The Pendulum of Grief & Exploitation
The moment the play button is pressed, the listener is welcomed to a dual-hymn release that masterfully balances external socio-political critiques with deeply personal, intimate grief.
Eusapia constructs a thematic pendulum that swings between global economic reality and the quiet ache of mortal loss across two distinct compositional movements:
- Hymn I: Thin Cities — Looks sharply outward toward systemic political and economic exploitation. The lyrical narrative confronts Western consumer excess, the invisible burden of agricultural labour, and the stark realities of global food inequality.
- Hymn II: Desert Festival — Turns deeply inward toward the quiet, crushing terrain of personal bereavement. The hymn commemorates an enduring friendship severed by terminal illness, processing trauma, physical decay, and the fragile preservation of memory following tragic loss.
Rain-Soaked Textures & Ritual Melancholy
The devilmanship across Thin Cities / Desert Festival is honed to perfection. Rather than relying on traditional riff-driven metal architecture, Eusapia utilises a sprawling three-guitar configuration to craft long-form, atmospheric grain-rituals. Haunting vocals, weight-bearing bass lines, slow, spacious, and deeply ritualistic percussion complete the configuration.
Furthermore, Eusapia adopts a compositional approach that feels experimental — weaving clean shoegaze textures, dissonant post-black metal, depressive black metal, some progressive elements, and heavy doom dirges into a rain-soaked soundscape.
The Three-Guitar Weather System
The three-guitar configuration across Thin Cities / Desert Festival transcends traditional instrumental roles. Rather than operating as static riff engines, the guitars behave like shifting weather systems — shimmering, eroding, swelling, and collapsing across the soundscape.
Cleopatra the Alchemist, Chazdyn, and Frank Keeler weave clean, spacious passages anchored by layered shoegaze chord textures and a lush rain-slicked atmosphere rather than relying upon standard riffing. These tranquil moments suddenly erode into dissonant post-black metal crescendos — built on rapid, tremolo-picked sequences, melodic post-metal lead solos, crushing, doom-laden dirges, and considerable reverb-washed effects that echo through the mix like thunder over open terrain.
These shifting guitar layers allow the compositions to breathe, ebb, and surge alongside the sweeping emotional intensity of both hymns.
The Structural Spine Beneath the Storm
Beneath the sweeping three-guitar weather system, the rhythm section provides the structural spine and physical propulsion across both hymns, moving fluidly between quiet atmospheric space and violent, aggressive catharsis.
Somnium’s bass delivers deep, weight-bearing bass lines that anchor the vast ethereal shoegaze shimmer and post-black dissonance with sub-bass resonance and physical weight. Deenie’s drumsprovide slow, spacious, and deeply ritualistic percussion — allowing every cymbal wash and resonant kick to linger in the air rather than rushing the emotional weight of the compositions.
Rather than remaining static, the drum work drives the transitions between quiet, rain-soaked reflection and raw, aggressive post-black metal surges.
Vocals: A Haunting Sonic Fog
The dual vocals of Cleopatra the Alchemist and Somnium deliver spectral, distant vocal performances that float like phantoms across the mix — heightening the record’s overarching themes of political decay and intimate grief.
The vocal execution across the EP operates primarily as a textural instrument rather than a conventional narrative voice. Drifting through the mix like a field recording captured during a rain-slicked ritual, the delivery prioritises raw, atmospheric resonance over direct message — immersing the listener in a multi-layered landscape of grief and outrage.
High-pitched depressive black metal screams of agony cut through harsh post-black metal shrieks, grounding the record in visceral catharsis. Within the buried layers, deep, guttural growls and clean singing emerge periodically from beneath the wall of guitars, complemented by buried, whispered passages and chant-like incantations that reinforce the record’s ritualistic nature.
The Rain-Soaked Chamber
The production across Thin Cities / Desert Festival is spacious and deeply atmospheric. The mix gives Eusapia’s three-guitar weather system ample room to expand and shiver without smothering Somnium’s deep, weight-bearing bass or Deenie’s multi-tiered drum shifts, capturing the raw, rain-soaked essence of the Pacific Northwest underground.
The Dual-Hymn Testament
Overall, Thin Cities / Desert Festival is a profoundly moving, expertly executed fruit of art. Eusapia has crafted a haunting dual-hymn testament — balancing macro-political fury against Western exploitation with micro-personal mourning through a masterclass in atmospheric post-black metal, shoegaze, and doom.
The Fifth Sin, The Memorabilia
For me, the Thin Cities / Desert Festival EP stands as a masterclass in atmospheric blackened metal — an experiment that hit every single nerve in my body through its rain-soaked composition and devastating vocal execution.
The music is deeply moving, heavy, depressive, and overflowing with atmosphere.
What more could I possibly ask for from a band that so beautifully weaves clean shoegaze textures, dissonant post-black metal, depressive black metal agony, and slow, heavy doom dirges into a singular, rain-slicked soundscape?
The Sixth Sin, The Artwork
While I remain relatively uncertain about the artwork itself, it indisputably fits the lyrical themes and compositional tone of the music. Ultimately, this release demands that the listener focus entirely on the music within rather than the visual frame.
The Seventh Sin, Disrelish
There is no dislike to be found anywhere across this composition. My only grievance is that the EP consists of just two hymns — though given the profound personal and political weight behind them, I fully understand and respect the reason for its brief, concentrated nature.
The Hymns
01. Thin Cities
02. Desert Festival
Eusapia
Somnium — Bass, Vocals
Cleopatra the Alchemist – Guitars, Vocals
Deenie – Drums
Chazdyn – Guitars
Frank Keeler – Guitars
