Every now
and then, very special albums are released. This is one of them. Imagine a band
that rapes the metal genre repeatedly and turns it into a vile, bleeding heap of
sounds.
Imagine a band that one moment sounds like Bal-Sagoth, the next like Lamb of
God, then like a prog metal outfit, then like Nile, then Slipknot, and then like
an Armenian wedding orchestra. And imagine that the band still manages to keep
you, the listener, in the realm of sanity and leaves a red thread through the
whole affair.
It oughtn't be necessary to tell you at this point that there's
plenty to dig into on this album. A clarinet solo that with the most natural
ease become a guitar solo...I mean, what the fuck?!
Is this post modernity in metal? Is it beyond post modernity, even? Thematically,
we're in dark, Biblical times (trumpets, serpents and plenty of misery),
something that doesn't make the whole affair less fascinating, methinks. This
album lives and breathes paradoxes and anachronisms!
This demanding stuff to listen to, but once you've cracked it, it's well worth the effort.
I'm hooked, that's for sure!
