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DSKNT – PhSPHR Entropy

DSKNT – PhSPHR Entropy
Sentient Ruin Records – 2017

DSKNT has been active since 2013, and somehow I only discovered them recently. As a fan of catastrophic black metal à la Deathspell Omega or Plebeian Grandstand, I was delighted to find another band in the relatively barren field of good avant garde black metal.

The album kicks off with the best kind of strange, unnerving riff that sends a warning to the listener – you're in for a project with greater amplitude than most. Almost all of the riffs, excluding one or two in the latter portion of the record, have been soaked in the bath of avant garde, dripping with experimentation. Not scared of narrative composition, giving us a trip into his strange maze of a mind, Asknt creates sinuous riffs, with jagged edges and unnatural angles, but with more focus on the sinues and flow than similar artists, who often go for a slightly sharper aesthetic. There are moments of clarity, descents into madness, and long trips across bleak hellscapes laden with jagged rubble and void of life – PhSPHR Entropy is one hell of a story.

Everything is fluently played, with great articulation and tone – something that's necessary when going for this style of black metal. The drums are worth a mention as being impressive, despite their limited space in the mix. Obviously, the aesthetic of the album requires high guitar mixes, but there are still great fills that go on for multiple bars that embellish PhSPHR Entropy and give it that little edge. Another instrument that goes unnoticed in black metal is the bass, which is much clearer here than in other more orthodox bands. Some slides and interesting bass lines can be heard, but it's the fluttering, almost buzzing drone it generates that has the most relevant effect - the album gains a lot of power from simple 16th note drones.

There is a noise interlude, and it's exactly as eerie as you'd expect it to be. Synth backgrounds are present, and while I'm not sure wether there's a field recording of a factory or it's something else, Asknt has certainly nailed the dark ambient/industrial/noise sound. My only complaint was the lack of vocals, which, given the performance on the album, could only make it better. Speaking of vocals, they're the second star of the album.


While Asknt's style is slightly closer to your traditional black metal vocalist, he still manages to surprise from time to time. As the album develops, so does his voice – there are moments wherein he actually sounds reversed, an impressive feat which inspired fear in my heart for a second. Other times he'll enter songs with almost untimely bellows of anger, and overall he reinforces the already liquid dynamics with his singing.




Giuseppe Fitzsimmons
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