Awe - Providentia (2015)

If you've read my review of the three-way conceptual split album Moerae, released this past Spring, then you'll know I already feel confident about the enigmatic Greeks known as simple Awe, who might or might not have anything to do with other spectacular bands from the Athens area. Through Providentia, they engage us in their own triptych of tunes which experiment within the black metal medium, not to the extent that it becomes unrecognizable as such, but a more immersive, fleshed out experience in which contrasts of intensity and minimalism are waged across 50+ minutes of richly and clearly produced isolation and contempt.

To an extent, the tracks here might be compared to French acts like Blut Aus Nord or Deathspell Omega in how they champion abstraction and dissonance through note selection, generating both restlessness and discomfiture, but lacking the post-industrial aesthetics of the former's modern recordings, and the all-out assault on the senses created through the latter's Paracletus. Awe conspires to create these lengthy landscapes of shifting note textures, rapid but gently curving bass lines and other hallmarks of variation, bound together by a forceful, sustained, guttural vocal presence which emits a radiant nihilism alongside the more complex guitar patterns. There is much consistency with the faster sequences, at least in the sandbox of their note selection, but there is almost always some new disturbance occupying the earspace which keeps the material compelling throughout.

Granted, this is the antithesis of consonant riffing, so if you take issue with your black metal being beholden through an unnerving, almost Voivod-ish lens, then it's not about to change your mind. Even where the guitars shift out briefly to a cleaner tone, like in "Actus Purus", they still enforce the trepidatious, haunted vibe of the album. But oftentimes, records like this also strive for obliqueness in the production...not so for Providentia, which is as clear as day, converting each of those aggravating, dissonant guitar lines into an effusion of paranoid sunlight to warp your psyche. The drumming and guitar tone are pro and polished, the tortured flaws and intricacies of the guttural fully exposed to the elements, and yet it comes across just as insidious as some basement tape. The lyrics are also quite good, Biblical and visceral, Dante and Milton striking their best Abbath and Demonaz poses. Awe prove yet another worthwhile voice in the inexhaustible Hellenic ranks. A voice of insanity, perhaps, but everyone needs a hobby.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/aweprovidentia

Awe/Vacantfield/End - Moerae (2015)

After decades of split recording exposures, I'd be lying if I said that the medium hadn't grown a little stagnant for me, largely because the lion's share of these things simply possess no semblance of studio consistency or creative coherence. In so many cases, it's just product pushing with buddies or complete strangers, in a limited format. But of course, when even a fraction of the imagination is applied to this process, you can come up with gold, with two or more artists functioning on the same page, producing a recording that has an intrinsic value beyond just a flag-waving collaboration for some label, scene, genre. As for the three Greek acts responsible for the Moerae LP, they have gone well beyond such a 'fraction', and put together something visionary and thematic which is far more than the mere sum of its parts...

Three tunes, each over 16 minutes in length, and each devoted to one of the Three Fates of Greek mythology (or moirai, or Moerae). You could say that it was in the blood, because what the bands have produced is not just some simple gimmicky idea which falters in its execution, but a lethal dose of progressive gonzo annihilation which takes great liberties from the standard black metal troops to incorporate anything from thrash riffing to pure ambiance (especially in "Atropos") to just about anything they fucking want to include. You're still getting plenty of air-time for the more technical black metal attack, which is the primary impetus of several of the bands, but the fact is they have not padded out such swollen tracks with loads of redundant nonsense. Each "Clotho", "Lachesis" and "Atropos" serve as smorgasbords of the unexpected, without devolving into sheer, matchless chaos. Production is competent all around, and while the mixes of the three tracks do vary incrementally, the common length of the playgrounds they inhabit and stylistic variation are so consistent that it does feel like the bands were at least communicating telepathically throughout the process.

I've reviewed all of the full-length records by End to date, but "Atropos" is by far the most interesting thing they've ever created and I do hope it marks a glimpse into what they might create in the future. Vacantfield has a notably more progressive/thrash component to its composition, but they never fail to entice me with all the jarring effects, decrepit vocals and subtle touches like the keys. As for Awe, well this is a band involving members of at least one other superb Hellas black metal band, which I am not presently at liberty to say, but tonally their contribution "Clotho" is the best at forcing the black metal motif with a lot of dissonance and some really evil breakdown riffs which are among the most fucking tremendous across the entire experience. Instruments on the whole are mixed to an infectious level of clarity which does not entirely eschew the rawness of the parent genre, but allows the listener to more easily ingest the psychotic musical spasms. Not all the riffs are gold, and there are some moments through each of the cuts which end up less engaging than their surroundings, but
all told, it's a really cool recording. Probably the most intriguing split since Dis Pater's Converge, Rivers of Hell from 2013, in which the Australian musician explore a similar mythic concept through three of his own projects. Track this down, whether you're a fan of the more eccentric Greek black metal wizards or just compelling extreme music in general. Fucking great.

Verdict: Win [8.5] (how fool a god can be)

https://www.facebook.com/endblackmetal
https://www.facebook.com/vacantfield
https://www.facebook.com/aweprovidentia