Obscuring Veil – Fleshvoid To Naught

March 2019 – I, Voidhanger Records

Mories, famous for having recorded half of the avant-garde/experimental black metal released since 1996, participates in his second release this year, Fleshvoid To Naught. Released by the folks who distributed Tchornobog and the Spectral Lore/Jute Gyte split, the album has a legacy to honour – while less abrasive than other similar acts, Obscuring Veil is more than the sum of its multinational parts.

After a quick intro, Fleshvoid To Naught picks up and delivers some of the most dissonant black metal in recent memory. The drumming has the kind of micro-intensity you'd usually find in jazz, with fast but subtle cymbal sections and an overall tactful approach, mostly leaving blasts behind for a more technical and original style. There's something approachable and conventional about it, maybe the mix of relatively simple time signatures and recurring power chord strumming, which make for a comforting and safe carriage while you ride an insane roller-coaster. The ride is called Schizophrenia, and the longer you stay on, the farther the exit gets. Inevitably, Obscuring Veil bring out the arpeggios, which begs a side question – is avant-garde black metal really avant-garde once it becomes predictable and develops tropes? It's almost as if the genre has become a misnomer for the stranger side of dissonant black metal. Either way, their arpeggios do sound like a couple of detuned music boxes playing different songs simultaneously.

Despite what the album credits suggest, I can hear three distinct vocal styles, and while the mental-patient wails and black-mass inspired quasi-whisper that shows its ugly face from time to time, it sounds like they've hired a woman to sing in what I can only describe as a Mesopotamian funeral chant. The Mories influence gets clearer by the third song, as Do You Want To See The Knife I Used? makes a smooth transition into horror film soundtrack – and not the average slasher flick, they've gone full snuff film. I'm positive they actually managed to record anxiety, and the Mesopotamian woman is still wailing.

Fleshvoid To Naught is psychedelic music, but on the opposite end of the spectrum – eminently negative, challenging and off-putting. Finally, the closer arrives, starting with an abused cymbal and a further abused voice, and ending with Mories-tinted noise and that same haunting, reverberating voice – a fitting end to a distressing and difficult album.

Comments

Sulphurous - Dolorous Death Knell

Sulphurous – Dolorous Death Knell December 2018 – Dark Descent Records 90s revival and cavernous death metal started gaining popularity about two years ago, with bands such as Phrenelith and Pissgrave being propelled into quasi-mainstream success thanks to a couple of public figures introducing their audiences to an otherwise relatively underground facet of death metal. Dark Descent Records have certainly capitalized on said revival, signing giants of the genre like Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, and previously Chthe’ilist (and Mitochondrion to a certain degree). As with any other cavernous death metal record, the production is the first thing you’ll notice – it’s all suffocated, as if the amps were draped in thick curtains. Few effects and no triggers are applied to the drums, giving the whole package a very live/practice room aspect. Despite the apparent muddiness of Dolorous Death Knell, everything’s quite audible – even the lower registers somehow retain ...

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown January 2019 – Rotten Music Kataplexia is Finland's best Indonesian brutal death metal band. You read that right, Indonesian is now a valid qualifier for brutal death metal. For those unaware, I explored and wrote about the Southeast Asian brutal death metal scene two years ago, discovering a gigantic scene with an uncharacteristic public acceptance. One of the members of Jasad began a side-project, Kaluman, which is the definition of high-quality Southeast Asian brutal death metal. A couple seconds into Kataplexia's latest, I expected to see Rottervore or Extreme Souls as their label, as every element pointed towards Indonesian origins – the tone, production, vocals, riffs and even album art all felt like Ferli Suferli (Jasad, Kaluman) was behind the project, yet Helsinki is listed as their base of operations. Admittedly, there's only so much one can actually say about the music without endless comparisons. A modern ...

Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape

Phrenelith Desolate Endscape – 2017 Remember when the Internet went crazy for Pissgrave – Suicide Euphoria (Profound Lore Records) back in 2015 ? It's time for a new riot straight from the abyss, and the demon's name is Phrenelith. Born in 2013 in Copenhagen, Phrenelith started their career out with a split with Spectral Voice (Iron Bonehead, 2016), followed shortly by an EP (Chimaerian Offspring – Extremely Rotten Productions, 2017) and a masterpiece of an album, Desolate Endscape (Dark Descent Records, 2017). Desolate Endscape is the kind of album that reminds me why I like death metal – it's inherently primal , evil and intimidating. This record is a massive slab of death metal, dense and heavy and being thrown at your face. The fact that there's zero flourish or unnecessary technicality brings Phrenelith to the forefront of the cavemanesque caverncore scene that's been simmering for the past decade. The entire album drips with ichor, and while ...

Undergrind Metal

Search This Blog