Selcouth - Heart is the Star of Chaos (2017)

There are few real instances of originality left in metal music, to the extent that even when you hear that band that sounds 'original', you can attribute that to an unconscious smattering of influences from half a dozen other weirdo bands that you knew from a decade ago. To a degree, I could say that about Finland's Selcouth, the eclectic construct of several members of another band called Khanus (who put out a pretty nifty EP last year called Rites of Fire, which I have also reviewed on these pages). Sure, if you're familiar with the Norse post-black metal/progressive outlets like Arcturus, Virus, Ulver, and especially Solefald, there will be a few aesthetics carried forward, and yet even beyond that I would say there is plenty about Heart is the Star of Chaos that feels strikingly unique within the envelope of bizarro left-of-center metal hybridization into which this debut will be signed, sealed and delivered.

Imagine if you will a bevy of grooving bass lines, distorted or smooth, jazzy lounge-lizard pianos and nuances, carefully threaded and mute-picked electric guitars, and a percussionist who can seamlessly cultivate all these various strains into a cohesive, tribal, rhythmic whole. Now atop this sundae of sonic eccentricity, place a vocalist who is both burly and fragile, clear and crackling, expressive and emotive and oftentimes hypnotic, like an unconscious amalgamation of Czral and David Bowie, but don't stop there...harmonize him with all manner of breathy intonations, add in an equally intriguing female singer who has a nice, modern acid jazzy nightclub vibe about her but can curve all that into a snarl when the talons come out, slightly reminiscent of Monika from the underrated Atrox. Mix the results so that no two songs quite sound alike, but all of them weave together like dyes onto a lucid canvas upon which dreamy, haze-like states are being translated directly from musical brain patterns into actual, audible sounds. I know of no real other way to accurately describe this Selcouth record, it's essentially an reverse explosion of shattered fragments back into an introspective mirror, a chaos made congenial by its weavers' ability to reign it all into a drugged warmth.

It's bloody fucking awesome...

and it's all about the details haunting almost every moment of the recording. Those frenetic little guitar licks driving the 'verses' of "Querencia", or the pluggy, bemused but strangely threatening bass-lines crawling and scaling along beneath the lush keys and strings "Of Hopes and Lost Treasures". Or even when the band lets its 'extreme metal' (ooooo) roots through in "Below Hope" and then STILL manages to weird them out to oblivion and back. I can't say that every single lick or vocal line is equally poignant or impressive, but considering what a wide span of influences they bring forth, from the old and cheesy operatic Gothic auras to the nuanced, almost improvisational jazz beats and textures, this debut is nothing less than a monster of creativity, a Frankenstein of mind-fucking experiments in rock, rampaging across its cosmos, yet never so out-of-control that the mad scientists which created it lose their leash on the lightning that gave it life. Certifiable, and certifiably cool at the same time.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/selcouthconglomerate/

Atheist - Elements (1993)

Elements has often received a bit of slack from the metal press and audience due to its extreme bait-and-switch of genre classification. However, it doesn't exactly take the acuity of a trend forecaster to see that this was where Atheist was headed, was ALWAYS headed as they had woven the threads of both Piece of Time and its superior successor Unquestionable Presence. The 'elemental' concept behind its construction is perhaps not the most novel of ideas, even for the 90s, as it had been explored as far back as classical times, but for the progressive/death metal genre it was indeed something unexpected. What's more, the fact that this was practically a posthumous effort, used to fill out their Metal Blade contract, and still ends up at the very threshold of quality is nothing short of amusing.

Go into this with a few deflated expectations from their frenetic sophomore album, and a mind open to the outside influences the band are expanding upon, and you might come out slightly the richer for it. Elements has its share of non-metal diversions, manifest mainly through interludes like the jazzy bounce of "Samba Briza", ambient guitar wailing of "Displacement" and "Fractal", or the subtle, stream-like clean tones of "See You Again". These are all quite brief, and though they do fill up a third of the track list, the remaining eight integrate Atheist's signature schizoid metallic components, albeit with a palette even wider than Unquestionable Presence. I found it curious that the band included not only a representation of "Fire", "Earth", "Air" and "Water", but also tracks devoted to another classical trilogy of elements "Animal", "Mineral" and plant ("Green"), with the title track finale serving as a curious congruence of all the above.

My biggest gripe with the album is that I didn't always feel the music itself was used as an apt aural metaphor for its corresponding substance. For example, "Green" lurches about like some stilted and confused behemoth, but other than perhaps a fantastic mental image of a walking or series of falling trees, I couldn't feel how it related. Same with "Water". I could see how the thick, popping bass-lines and swirling vortex might represent some maelstrom or whirlpool, but it did not seem to offer much submersion into this important element. "Air" is a bit more successful, despite the choppiness of its pacing, the calmer intro and ensuing structure did feel redolent of shifting jet streams or whorls of force. "Animal" becomes the most experimental as far as its architecture, with clinical, technical guitar lines woven below Shaefer's resonant tribal chaos, but "Mineral" felt a measure too playful to match its subterranean implications.

The remaining elemental representations are pretty good though, almost as if the album was intentionally back-loaded with quality. The swaying, searing "Fire' is the best single piece on the album, cast in a flux of ember-like jazzy passages and stoking furnace fusion. "Earth" rampages about with a steady, tectonic sureness but also deviates into sprightly, manic rhythms like banks of sharp crystals; and "Elements" justifies its nearly six minute length with some fascinating notation. The mix of the album is not one of its fortes, as Schaefer often feels too clanging and metallic even in elements where that style doesn't suit the atmosphere, but then, those atmospheres never feel 100% accurate to their adopted matter to begin with. Having three guitarists for this (they added Frank Emmi to the lineup) doesn't make much of a difference.

You'll never get that same, bewildered impression that Unquestionable Presence leaves you with, however I would not consider that a negative: a smoother, subtler companion was exactly what I would have wished for, and even though Elements is the band's worst overall full-length, and the band's heart was perhaps not fully involved, there are still just enough ideas to pick through to recommend at least a few listens.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (sharing forces for the living)

http://www.atheistmusic.com/

Pestilence - Spheres (1993)

Testimony of the Ancients might have taunted the listener with traces of jazz, progressive rock and other outsourced influences. It might have seemed the beginning of a departure from the brute force of the band's roots in death and thrash metal. But though that album might have rode the rocket out through the solar system, stopping somewhere around Jupiter for a coffee and then turning back to our more immediate neighborhood in the void, the band's 4th full-length Spheres abandons our neck of the universe altogether, building enough thrust to carry it into unexplored pastures. Spheres is the band's 'jazz death' album, and yet it has very little in common with similar forays towards the form by a Cynic or Atheist, or the more spastic, later approach of a Dillinger Escape Plan, or the jazzcore/rap of Candiria.

No, this was something unique, and in hoping to give it that rare spin, Mameli and company recorded it with their 4th producer in four albums: Steve Fontano. Fontano is a more seasoned, diverse knob twiddler than Trapp, Johns, or Burns. He's done everything from R&B to Southern rock to ska in his day, but I'm willing to bet Pestilence were most interested in his work with shred and jazz influenced artists like Tony MacAlpine or Greg Howe. He's done an interesting job with this album. I was surprised to find that it's not as polished sounding as Testimony of the Ancients; there's a particular grit to this journey due to its highly synthesized embellishments. Not KEYBOARDs, mind you, as Patrick Mameli was so adamant to inform us all in the liner notes that no keyboards were used on this recording. Those miserable keyboards, always killing the music, right? No. And considering that the album is so full of synth guitar waves, one wonders what is really the difference, and why one might seem opposed to the use of one, but supportive of the other, especially when the band had used the former in the past. The band had also changed bassists once again, replacing Tony Choy with the equally mesmerizing theory of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, and he's a good fit for this particular album, with his honest 4 and 6-string tones anchoring the spatial chaos that erupts.

The guitar synths actually work well in favor of the album, creating all manner of cosmic vibrations through the more metallic segments. A shimmering array of stars here, just at the edge of a groove. A pulsar out beyond Mameli's leering growls. A black hole sucking in all light through a fusion/rock break. It's fascinating, if you've the patience and wherewithal to let the album absorb you into its manic, extraterrestrial dementia. And it begins with one of its more aggressive expeditions, "Mind Reflections", which creates a sense of terror above its hacking, morbid rhythms and waylaid grooves, the coolest happening before the :40 mark. "Multiple Beings" is a more playful romp across a subdued, melodic thrashing, while the bass pumps away in an almost repressed funk and the synthesized strings interact with Mameli's intonations, stopping only for various fusion bridges. This is quite a good song, though I can see how it would turn someone off from the album if they're expecting "The Process of Suffocation Pt. II".

Revelation, of the inner transformation
Betrayer, of your self-creation

"The Level of Perception" continues to formulate this pattern of excess groove, through a very frightening progression of flowing guitars and spooky synth tones that hover just at the edge of the aggression. The title is only too fitting: the more you focus here, the more you'll get out of it. "Aurian Eyes" is a brief, space opera instrumental conducted through the synths, but "Soul Search" returns to the cutting rhythms, slowly building to a great climax groove at 1:50 where a lead erupts. "Personal Energy" is one of the true highlights of the album, a soothing track with clean guitars and synth that arrives at a fantastic bridge, where the vocals lie partially obscured by the glistening, celestial melodies that conspire to consume them. It's nearly hypnotic, as is the following Patrick Uterwijk free form guitar ambient piece "Voices from Within". The title track is probably the closest to the material on Testimony of the Ancients, with another of the band's solid, simple chord patterns leveraged with a few mind-warping, jazzy partitions.

"Changing Perspectives" is a track much like others on the album, cycling about a series of thrash/grooves saturated in the storms of synth and an arabesque, clean guitar. While it's good, the riffs do not immediately leap out to mind like so many that had come before them. "Phileas" is the last of the three brief instrumentals (as opposed to 8 on the previous album), and while soothing, it's the least interesting. The "Demise of Time" offers closure, one of the crueler tracks as far as the mocking rhythm and otherworldly gore-tone of the vocals. The main verse rhythm is great, and the jazzy segue around 1:20, but the rest is not so memorable.

In addition to their most adventurous, this would also be the 'last' album for Pestilence, until Mameli decided to reform the band for Resurrection Macabre, which sounds like a hybrid of their first three records and completely neglects the sound of Spheres. It's a little hard for me to complain about that choice, as I enjoyed this the least of their original full-lengths. Part of me is actually disappointed that I would not hear a follow-up to this, perhaps under another band name. The music is undeniably fascinating, and I'd be very curious to hear what a further mutation might have wrought through these very same musicians. Still, this is strangely the album that most find 'annoying'. It's melodic and catchy, but I can understand how the rhythmic progressions and common forays into the realm of jazz and fusion would turn off many listeners. Hell, this is the last album I recall which my girlfriend actually demanded I take out of my car CD player because she couldn't bear it. Fucking squares, man! They'll never understand us cats.

Very few traces of death metal remained in the band at this point. The most glaring would be the vocals, which have not changed from Testimony of the Ancients. If anything, they've grown even wilder. And then there are a few of the riffs, which are arguably closer to progressive thrash than anything hinging on brutality. But nevertheless, it's the band's most original excursion into aural atmosphere, and one of the few albums of its type that truly holds up through the years (far more than Atheist's Elements of Unquestionable Presence). In fact, the only other jazz/death love-child I adhere to would be Cynic's more recent effort Traced in Air, which we'd might as well just label progressive rock, though its borne of the same spirit. As far as I'm concerned, Pestilence had already conquered thrash and death metal with the first two albums. After recovering from the shock of their split with Martin Van Drunen, I grew to accept that this was not a band inclined to tread their old proving grounds, and Spheres is the logical and successful extension of this modus operandi. Of course, with Resurrection Macabre, they will actually take a piss all over this pattern, and set up camp right back where they started. But that album is such smashing fun that you'll hardly care.

The bottom line: if you dig jazz, progressive death metal, progressive guitar rock, or outer space in general, Spheres is worth passing some time with while you chew your biscuit and sip your tea, watching the moons and worlds stream past and the stardust shimmer outside your window on the bridge. Make it so!

Highlights: Mind Reflections, Multiple Beings, The Level of Perception, Personal Energy

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (a domain of harmony)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Cynic - Traced in Air (2008)

They've long been one of the most revered bands in the US death metal underground for the forward thinking, progressive edge of their debut Focus. Now, 15 years have passed and the band has returned with a glorious second effort, having hardly skipped a beat in all that time. If anything, Traced in Air is superior to Focus because it's even more aware of its nuances, and never fails to impress.

"Nunc Fluens" begins with a fusion of world percussion and abstract, discordant guitar feedback before the bass picks up, and the subtle guitars and vocal swells. This entire tune really feels like an intro, and you almost expect them to rage out on the second track. Alas, it is not the case, "The Space for This" begins with beautiful acoustics and catchy clean vocals until it finally lets loose with a barrage of familiar Cynic progressive speed picking hysteria. "Evolutionary Sleeper" has a similar tone to it, with acoustics alternating into catchy melodic vocals. "Integral Birth" is one of my favorite tracks for its winding tempo and infectious vocals and thoughtful lyrics:

From the void, I am born into wave and particle
In the uncreative eye, emerging oracle
A million doves, orbit round the Earth with tears of blood
Slay the dragon, take Integral Birth

Also you get to hear a few brief death growls here, which could only make me smile as I realize the band is not here to sacrifice its past but to evolve upon it. "The Unknown Guest" and "Adam's Murmur" are likewise excellent, with a similar concoction. "King of Those Who Know" begins with some spacious jazz acoustics and then the beautiful "Nunc Stans" leaves us with an almost Sigur Ros, post-rock grace.

It should be noted that this album has the spectacular ability to grow on one the more times you listen. I know my first few times through it I was only mildly impressed, writing it off as 'well, that's Cynic for you'. It's not until recent months that I've been able to admit to myself that this in fact the likely candidate for progressive metal album of the year and that it honestly blows away their classic Focus. Give it a chance, give it ten chances if you must. It will capture you eventually.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (if letting go means letting be)

http://www.myspace.com/cyniconline

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

Unlike Bohren's last two albums, Dolores marks a noticeable progression in their style. The increasingly ambient spiral that occurred after Sunset Mission, which was definitely enjoyable if you like any of their work but essentially a bit of rehashing, is gone. We're back to the texture of the instruments, not the other way around. This is a good thing. The sound is significantly new; rather than the sultry horror lounging of previous efforts, Dolores is bright. Cheerful, almost. If Sunset Mission was the onset of a long and menacing night, Dolores is the breaking of dawn and the herald of Gandalf. It's chill, it's jazzy, and it is most certainly great mood music.

While this is arguably their most exciting work in some time, I can't help but be frank about it - it's Bohren. You know what you're getting, nothing more, nothing less. If you never liked them to any great extent, or grew tired of hearing the same story over and over, there is nothing for you here. They're doing what they do, what they've done for 15 years, and I have to say with reluctance that it's time for something new.

Verdict: Indifference [3/5] (but oh so sexy)

http://www.bohrenundderclubofgore.de/