Black Metal History Month - Acathexis : "Immerse"

 

This black metal collective features members of Mare Cognitum, Los Males De Mundo, and Sliver Knife. Meaning there are vibes from each of their lands of origin, America, Belgium, and Argentina. The guitars buzz furiously, but with a very cleanly produced tone that has more in common with Deafheaven than Darkthrone. The screams of the vocals are pretty scathing. Somewhat articulate, but more of a layer of agony than a clear-cut narrative. For eleven and a half minutes it buzzes on in a cascading drone. The vocals sometimes shift down into lower death metal tones. 

I begin to get worried as the second song sounds like a continuation of the first. Not that it is even continuing to take the first song somewhere else it pretty much stays on the same blasting buzz. It does change into more of an atmospheric breakdown in the song's final minutes, but this far from compensates for almost twelve minutes that sounds like the album's first eleven and a half minutes being recycled. If you are going to work off a monochrome sonic formula then there is no need to drag it past the six-minute mark.

Things change enough for "the Other". The vocals at times sound like someone is torturing a bird. But in the most metal way possible. The last song is almost at sixteen minutes, aside from taking the vocals into a more guttural death metal direction, I am not sure much is changing except for the tempo, which is slowed dramatically compared to the first three songs. At the two-minute mark, I had already begun to wonder how this was going to go on for another thirteen minutes. It does add blast beats, and get more intentional, but when I left this album on and let it play, what I heard was a wall of sound that ran together. I will give this album a 7. They are skilled at this sound, and the vocals are convincing and more varied than expected. This drops March 20th on Amor Fati

pst80

Black Metal History Month : Mare Cognitum : "Solar Paroxysm"

 The fifth album from this project finds a more stripped down and direct approach being taken to this brand of black metal. More in your face . The guitars get aggressive. It does and doesn't sound like traditional black metal. This is what gives the song it's edge. There is a very sonic lushness to the over all sound. Despite the more straight forward approach I might like this even better than what I have heard from this project in the past. Does the song need to me 9 minutes long. Well no but it is done well. The second song picks up from the blast beaten path the first song left on. The only difference being the guitars are more harmonized. This song is not only not as impressive , but begins to bore me a little.  

This is a five song album , but everyone of these songs crosses the ten minute mark. The vocals shift into a lower more death metal like growl on " Terra Requiem". Lyrically I guess there are still some cosmic themes. It slows and becomes more sonically lush. From a song writing perspective very basic, but the sound created makes up for this.  "Luminous Accretion" shifts from a sonic drone like the previous song had to more punchy thrash like riffing with blast beats underneath it. Lots of guitar solos crop up which is not the most common thing in black metal. The drumming is pretty remarkable. If the double bass is real and not programmed. A lot is thrown at you in this one, I am not sure that it is all cohesive. 

The last song "Axtraxia Tunnels"  they lay on the speed to give the feel of more traditional black metal again.  After a few listens it grew on me more. The vocals sit back further into the guitar. There is a sonic wall of sound that I like . For a one man band this is impressive. All of these songs sound good , but not all of them stand out wit ha unique personality that once marked this project. I get being angry and wanting to do something more in your face, and the first song was a fine example of doing that well, it also was a bar the rest of the album did not always touch. I will give this one an 8, I think fans who want more of a black metal sound will be happy.This comes out March 19th on I, Void Hanger Records.    

4.1