Los Angeles trio** Faetooth’s** second full-length* Labyrinthine* is a hypnotic, sludgy exploration into the relationship between beauty and terror.

Release date: September 5, 2025 | The Flenser | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Bandcamp | Spotify

I’m not sure when exactly I stumbled upon Faetooth; shamefully, it may have been courtesy of a Spotify auto-suggestion, but I’ll give myself the benefit of the doubt and say I discovered 2022’s Remnants of the Vessel completely organically. Needless to say, I was hooked, intrigued by the band’s self-described genre of ‘fairy doom,’ and proceeded to devour their then-limited catalog in record time.

Labyrinthine accomplishes everything I could have hoped for from their sophomore effort. A band’s second album is usually a make-or-break moment, where they will either refine and grow their sound, or take a hard left turn into something lazy, boring, or just plain bad. Faetooth has managed to do the former, likely due to an upgrade in production values and getting signed to the new home for heavy acts, The Flenser.

Sonically, Labyrinthine isn’t a huge step away from Remnants of the Vessel. ‘Fairy doom’ is effectively ‘doomgaze’ in that nearly every track features heavily distorted guitars, reverbed vocals, and a tempo of perhaps 60 bpm. And while there is pretty limited variety on this record, existing between the two poles of doom and shoegaze provides Faetooth enough room to move the slider from one end to the other to keep things interesting. For example, “Hole” leans much more traditionally sludge metal, while the alt-gaze “October” would be right at home on (and frankly, improve) Deftone****s‘ *private music. *Even these fairly minor shifts in tone make the album’s 55-minute runtime pass in a blink.

Part of that time dilation may be due to the fact that Labyrinthine, and the band’s work in general, possesses an intensely hypnotic, entrancing quality due to the aforementioned slowness and some genuinely haunting vocals. The repetitive lyrics on the opener, “Iron Gate”, paired with the harmonies in parallel fourths and fifths, lend a very ancient, chant-like energy that sets the aural and aesthetic tone for the rest of the record.

What truly keeps me coming back to this album, however, is the palpable tension between the vocal techniques and the creative layering employed. Guitarist Ari May and bassist Jenna Garcia (whose playing really shines on “Death of Day”) pull double duty and each take the mic in nearly equal measure to deliver absolutely otherworldly vocals interspersed with intense screaming. Tracks like “Eviscerate” showcase both raw power reminiscent of King Woman‘s “Psychic Wound” and dreamy, effortless singing like Woodbine or even Ruby the Hatchet. And they’re not just alternating these techniques between vocalists, either–they are intricately layering them to create a very full sound. There are high, pained, wrathful screams atop lower gutturals, octave harmonies, and mixes of both clean and harsh lines in conversation on most of the choruses, notably “White Noise”. It’s intoxicating to pick apart what exactly is happening on multiple listens, including some screams that are so processed and distorted they almost sound like oppressive TV static.

Were I a younger woman and potentially on TikTok, this is where I would talk about how Faetooth exemplifies ‘feminine rage’ and use several dozen two-second clips of various female-fronted metal groups. Instead, I will say that *Labyrinthine *feels really goddamn excellent to listen to considering the state of the world. It is escapism in multiple forms. I felt transported to a dark fairytale setting, not in a hokey Disney adult way, more like…a very, very old universe in a cave in Ireland. I felt intense catharsis hearing them scream, and I hope they do, too, every time they get to play live. I yearn for a well of my own to shriek into someday.

All that being said, Labyrinthine does have a few tracks that failed to stick with me even after a half-dozen spins. Despite the fact that I enjoyed letting this album meditatively wash over me, I don’t think it is an unfair criticism to suggest a song or two could have been left in the drafts, especially taking the runtime into account. I still plan on keeping this in heavy rotation regardless.

Labyrinthine feels a bit like being lulled to sleep by an alluring Pagan fantasy creature while simultaneously getting fucking disemboweled by another. It’s beautiful, it’s raw, and it’s worth your time to visit their realm.