Xasthur - Telepathic With the Deceased (2004)

While I took to Leviathan almost immediately, it took a little longer for Xasthur's work to grow on me. I mention the two together because, for myself, they represent the top of the crop as far as US black metal. Both serious minded artists with interesting vision and follow-through. It's no joke that they've found such widespread cult audiences. Neither is afraid to incorporate outside influence into their songwriting, whether that be, ambient, noise or rock, yet they both retain the core of what makes raw black metal so poignant.

Telepathic With the Deceased is the third full-length for Malefic, and bears the seal of excellence. He works well beyond the scope of his limitations: while many albums with such an obvious drum machine fall flat on their asses, he weaves such hypnotic, sobering grimness on this record that you are quick to listen past this shortcoming. The album provides nearly an hour of introspective sorrow. This is the sound of isolation, of regret, and desperation.

The haunting choral synth piece "Entrance Into Nothingness" resounds with searing ambient keys and a steady chugging noise, for nearly four minutes this repetetive nightmare is drilled straight into your subconscious as by some ectoplasmic osmosis. "Slaughtered Useless Beings in a Nihilistic Dream" breaks out the drum machine...battery, which is thankfully smothered in vicious, distant vocals, grim churning guitars and playful, almost psychedelic bassline. While highly repetetive, there's a beautiful breakdown after the 2:50 mark with truly mesmerizing guitars. "Abysmal Depths are Flooded" paints a downtrodden portrait through the jangly acoustics over the driving distortion, almost a Sonic Youth of black metal until the track opens up into its glorious black/doom core. "May Your Void Become as Deep as My Hate" again uses cleaner guitar tone over the streaming black miasma, though effected so as to reach up through the grates of whatever sub-dungeon Malefic has spawned from. The title track follows, an entrancing introduction of throbbing ambient synths and grating pianos that flows into nearly 10 minutes of epic horror. I really enjoyed the bass during the verses.

Come and see how easy, expendable it is for human life to be forgotten,
Haters of life are telepathic with the deceased.
Fragments of failure, some said it was art, for it only bears a meaning when all life is torn apart.
For all we are, are messengers of death and sacrificial hope, for we are a communion of the cataclysmic,
Inverting all oceans that shall drown into an eternal twilight (waves so high, once eclipsing the sun)
A funeral for those damned, is a funeral for the light.

"A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness" creates another troubled atmosphere, the fuzz of its droning rhythms casting an utmost sorrow, the blues of black metal, a perfect wristcutting opportunity. "Cursed Revelations" uses an almost goofy synth line behind its tortured snarls and slower broiling guitars to great effect; one of the reasons I enjoy Malefic's work is that he incorporates an almost abstract pop aesthetic into his songwriting. On paper that might sound strange...but listen and you can hear how it excels. "Drown Into Eternal Twilight" is one of the choice moments among so many fine songs...it creates an unforgettable wall of keening guitars, mystique-weaving acoustics and whispered sadness during its three minute stay. "Murdered Echoes of the Mind" is 10 minutes of stunning, glorious sorrow, again with the very basic synth lined creating a resounding, repetitious atmosphere. Near the conclusion the track breaks into a sadistic embolism of grimness. "Exit" closes the album with another synth/ambient piece, filtered pipe organs disappear like a funeral procession a half mile away.

Faith lies in a God never to be seen, as I'm slashing your throat, will you believe in me?

I should point out that this is a highly immersive voyage, well worth taking and no drugs required (though I can't imagine they'd hurt the experience). I've read a lot of criticism of Xasthur which is so much nonsense. His work is a window into what is far more than another overhyped bedroom black metaller, each of his albums is quite carefully plotted and tweaked to maximize its dread effect. Telepathic With the Deceased has only grown on me in time. It has lost nothing to repeated listens and it's more effective than a great deal of the black metal (or even doom metal) I hear. In a cultural landscape where metal musicians simply aren't reared or conditioned to produce such material, it is both refreshing and superbly crafted. Shy of perfection, perhaps, but nihilistic, supernatural, and truly dead.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (I will not be kind in the torture you desire)

http://www.xasthur.net/