Murmur – Murmur

January 17, 2014 • Underground Activists

Another attempt to find good black metal on Bandcamp, and another failure. The ability of the average band to know whether it's black metal or not is quite disappointing. Okay, so at least in Murmur's case there are more than a few hints of the sound, but for the most part I'd just call them avant-garde (referring to the genre—bands like Unexpect or maybe Frantic Bleep), something I don't care much for, so my experience (and this review) turned out a bit differently than I'd hoped.

Now, as far as being a metal band in general is concerned, Murmur really isn't bad by any means. The technical ability is there for sure (the apparent sloppiness is a result of bizarre rhythms and often-inappropriate speed) and there are riffs aplenty—some of which are admittedly quite good, especially the softer (yet still sinister) ones like the middle of "Al-Malik".

But the songwriting loses me pretty quickly. It sounds like the band has a good idea of what metal is and what it should sound like, but can't focus on any single thing longer than thirty seconds and ultimately don't seem like they really know what they want to do. It's like they were putting together a jigsaw puzzle but put half of the pieces in the wrong places, and some of them were from a different set entirely (like, what the heck is "Recverdos" doing here?).

That being said, Murmur isn't awful. I'm not really into this sort of avant-garde metal so there simply isn't much here that is appealing to me. Maybe part of my disappointment comes from the false advertising; I can't say for sure. Hopefully someone reading this review might enjoy the album more than I did.

!T.O.O.H.! – Democratic Solution

August 13, 2013 • self-released

!T.O.O.H.!'s 2005 album and their last before disbanding Order and Punishment is something of an underground classic of death metal, and they've probably been one of the highest-regarded bands from the Czech Republic. They reformed recently to put out one more album, and it's debatable whether it was worth it; it's definitely an interesting listen, though.

The band's style has shifted considerably from the technical death metal of their past to something more in line with mid-2000s avant-garde metal bands, with the odd folky influences and grind bits. As I don't really care for most tech death, this probably made it an easier album for me to listen to, as things are a little bit simpler and a bit less dissonant.

On the other hand, it's difficult to judge the album on its songwriting merits simply because it sounds so awful. With the exception of the decent (if unoriginal) drumming, about every instrument sounds totally wrong. Guitars are played through an AM receiver and the bass is just guttural farting noises. The vocals are a mixed bag; it's all clean singing, and some is decent but most feels really off (the end of "Boubelovo životakončení" is a good example of singing that really should have been left out). The keyboards are a nice touch, though, if a bit overdone.

So if you can get past the odd production, there's a half-decent metal album in here. It's not great, and I don't know if I'd call it good, but it's not as awful as some people would have you think. It's going to be a bit too weird to please most people, for sure; it has some cringey moments but definitely some redeeming ones as well. Just try not to take it too seriously, I suppose.

Altar of Plagues – Teethed Glory & Injury

April 30, 2013 • Profound Lore Records

Ladies and gentlemen, it's here: the next innovation in black metal. Irish band Altar of Plauges put out two albums (and a bit more) of relatively standard-fare 2010s-style atmospheric black metal before dropping this monstrosity on the world and then vanishing. As far as final albums go, few are so intent in their finality as Teethed Glory & Injury is: hugely experimental, broadly scoped, and pretty good too.

Anyone familiar with the band's older work will definitely be surprised by how this album is composed, as I was. The diversity of sounds on this single album is incredible, and it shoves the listener right into the thick of it with no warning. There's industrial-electronic soundscapes reminiscent of Ben Frost, the dissonant grinding avant-garde metal of Sigh, droning doom passages, a little bit of their expected original sound too, all shrouded in this very dark, alienating, cold atmosphere that's surprisingly easy to fall into.

While the band has always been good at what they do, they still manage to fall into the easy trap of trying to do too much. With so much going on it's inevitable that the album doesn't sound as cohesive as it should; even though the tracks are mostly good individually, the flow feels all wrong and everything falls apart when taken in as a whole. It's kind of like they knew what they were going for in terms of overall sound and mood, but couldn't incorporate it with their existing songwriting chops very well.

That being said, I find Teethed Glory & Injury to still be a relatively enjoyable album and it deserves the credit and praise it's received so far. I don't think I'd ever pick it over their first two for black metal, or over contemporary drone / ambient / noise artists for what is presented here. And I'm not really sure it is the next innovation in black metal after all (you can't tell these things ahead of time anyway). But I can definitely appreciate the album for what it is—an adventure, an experiment, a unique experience. And for what it's worth it's got at least a couple good spins in it.

7

Radiation 4 – Wonderland

September 9, 2003 • Abacus Recordings

Anything tagged as "avant-garde metal" really should just be a warning sign to me at this point. Maybe it's just that I've never really been a fan of this sort of music in the first place; still, there's almost nothing about Wonderland that really appeals to me.

The album is basically a textbook example of avant-garde metal—heavy and angular mathcore-esque guitar lines, some unconventional instrumentation (music boxes and xylophones and things like that), and a mix of screams and dramatic singing. It's high on technicality for sure; the music is all over the place with dissonant melodies and odd time signatures, and the song structures are equally abstract.

What I hate about this album is that it's so thoroughly balanced between bad and good. There are some really awesome sections, like parts of the ending of "Love Through Tapeworm Hooks", but it's all sandwiched by this bizarreness that doesn't fit together at all. A lot of it feels like it was just being weird for the sake of being weird. Listening to it is like going through a buffet where every other pan is full of garbage (and that's not the kind of buffet you go back to).

Personally, I blame the vocals; I don't know how many people do vocals, but the lower-pitched screaming parts are just horrid. The guy has no idea how to control pitch and it sounds comical (in a very bad way). Without him, it might have been a passable album, but it ruins the music so much that it's barely worth trying in the first place.

It's definitely the sort of thing I would have enjoyed perhaps back when I was in high school and anything weird like this would pique my interest. Today, though, it just sounds kind of... well, stupid. If you don't mind some atrocious singing and screaming, try it out, but I'd stay away.

3

Carbonized – Disharmonization

1993 • Foundation 2000

There is some music I think I will just never understand for whatever reason, be it something too unusual or just too bad. I've listened to Disharmonization a good handful of times now and still can't find myself able to pick out much good in it.

The main reason I find this album so unappealing is that it never seems to know what it's doing or where it's headed. It starts off with some straightforward light rock sort of stuff, then jumps to some boring pseudo-gothy metal, then death metal (or is that some weird black metal/grindcore hybrid?), then some jazzy stuff, some psychedelic rock... it doesn't flow at all and nothing seems to fit together. It's possible to have erratic songwriting and have it still come out good (there are plenty of avant-garde metal and tech death bands that can do this) but not here. Riffs are mashed together haphazardly and it's impossible to follow the music along most of the time; as a result no song is memorable and once it's over I pretty much have no clue what I just listened to.

I'm not a fan of the sound in general, either. While some of the death metal riffs are decent (and the guitar and drums jive pretty well here and there), there's far more bad than good. Sometimes the guitar just spaces out, playing some very repetitive and boring lines, grinding any previously-established groove to a halt. Admittedly the drumming is quite well-done, and I like the jazzy parts, though they don't fit in with the rest of the composition well. The vocals are abysmal. Clearly they were having more fun experimenting with different effects (lots of reverb and pitch-shifting) than trying to come up with a consistent sound that fit the music. There's some growling, some bad singing, some spoken stuff, and almost none of it goes with the music well. The production is very thin, making the songs seem kind of empty. Sometimes that's a good thing, but I don't think it fits with what the band was trying to go for.

Simply put, I can't understand the appeal of this album. It tries to do too many things but it can't do any of them well, and it just sounds like a mess. I suppose for people who are really into finding the weirdest metal they possibly can, this album would be right up their alley, but I've heard weird and chaotic music done well and this just isn't near that.

3