Black Metal.

[whiskey funeral]

 

[Omni]

I think Peste Noire's second album is definitely a step down, though I still like it. My friend has seem them live, and he doesn't care for the second album at all, but he said the songs they played from it sounded a lot better live than they did on the album. I think the performances on the album, as well as the muddy sound quality, gave it less of an impact than it might have had otherwise.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Looks like no one has mentioned the Lorraine Rehearsal, which contained demo tracks for Folkfuck Folie and was preferred over the album by most. I appreciate them both -- Lorraine Rehearsal has more meat and force to it, but Folkfuck Folie has more clarity. I think both of them are excellent, and calling them a "step down" from La Sanie... is hardly an insult since that's one of the best black metal records you could buy.

 

[Zephyrus]

Some of you may recall the 0% review of SMRC calling it "Christian music." Well, the same gentleman just did Kenose.

http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=80256#132884

Deathspell Omega is 100% form and 0% content. This has all the flashy surface-decorators: slow/fast, soft/LOUD, and harmonic dissonance/melodic consonance contrasts. These are employed without any artistic purpose behind the techniques. The chords are complex and weird, only for the sake of sounding different - and they sound like a joke. Instead of creating any distorted or frightening atmosphere, which might be expected from the way the band is marketed, the chords sound ironically happy. In an attempt to conceal the internal artistic void, they make the surface aesthetic very chaotic, with disjointed technical riffs and dissonant arpeggios all over the place. This is really like any other tech death, except that it has a different imagery and the slow, quiet parts to ensure the fanboys that it is something "innovative" and "deep." (To the dimwits who claim this is "black metal": there is only one black metal riff on the EP - the one that opens the third song.) The production is, of course, polished and sterile, since that would further differentiate the band from real black metal, increasing the hipster appeal. If Xasthur is emo, then Deathspell Omega is indie. In fact, we could get rid of the "if" part without sacrificing much accuracy. Xasthur is emo. Deathspell Omega is indie. If this is pushing the sonic and intellectual envelopes of black metal, then Metallica's self-titled pushed the sonic and intellectual envelopes of thrash metal.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

What a fucking moron.

 

[whiskey funeral]

What a fucking moron.

His review of Abigor - Fractal Possession:

Honestly, I was very much prejudiced against this album. I had heard much negative comment about it, and it is not atypical of a once-great band to fall very low. I thought this was going to suck. And guess what, it sucked... but it sucked much more than I expected it to do. I didn't even look forward to anything of value in this album, and it still managed to disappoint me. To give a rough idea about how much this album sucks, this is another one of those cases in which a former legend goes "avant-garde," but it is at the lowest level of the lowest even among those. Emperor hardly went down at all compared to Abigor. In fact, this is not even Abigor, and nor is it black metal. I would rather listen to Deathspell Omega preaching about submission to Satan than listen to this utter abomination.

This is so horrible on every level. Most of the riffs are inspired by modern technical death metal. You know, the pointless chugging and stop-starts interrupted by short lead guitar wanks. There is one difference between these riffs and modern tech death riffs, and it is not that these riffs are more black-metal sounding or anything like that... the only difference is that these riffs are less technical. And I am not using the tech death comparison as an exaggeration for derisive effect; this album literally resembles tech death more than it does black metal, at least clearly so in the riff department. A former black metal legend ripping off modern technical death metal bullshit, and failing miserably, as if one could actually do anything successful with ripping off tech death... what a scene to behold! These riffs actually make Necrophagist riffs sound like works of genius.

Thankfully (not really), there are some other riffs, tremolo-picked, somewhat reminiscent of true Abigor. Somewhat, that's the important word. While these riffs aren't downright offensive like the tech death riffs, these are just plainly bad. It seems like Abigor went through the leftover riffs from the early days and intentionally chose the worst riffs through scientific examination, just to show that Abigoresque riffs can actually suck. I doubt they actually wrote these riffs as new riffs, being too obsessed with the tech death fad, and they probably just threw these leftovers in to make the music more random. To call these riffs generic would be an insult to myriads of generic black metal bands. But in the end, these riffs at least somewhat remotely resemble true Abigor riffs, so how bad could they be? These are tolerable indeed, though nothing more, and are actually the highest point of this album (yes, what would have been the lowest point of the album had it been on Nachthymnen, let alone Orkblut, is actually the highest point of this album). Unfortunately, this false Abigor has decided that it would cover this one actually tolerable point of the album by layering these riffs with the tech death riffs, industrial samplings, and horrible vocals.

The vocals are actually one of the higher points of this album (not because they are any good, but because everything else is so low), but are still sub-par. I won't even think about comparing this new vocalist to Silenius, since it would be too harsh and I must actually thank this guy for doing vocals that resemble something black-metal, rather than doing guttural vocals (which would have fitted nicely with the tech death riffs, resulting in a combination of abominations). But they are still as annoying as black metal vocals can get (with the exception of something like Silencer, of course). Even then, the vocals could have been tolerable, but on this release the simple virtue of remaining tolerable is just too much to ask for the musicians. As if he needed to out-suck the horrible guitar riffs, the vocalist decides to do some clean singing and quasi-robotic vocals - which are absolutely obnoxious. I don't think those are inherently bad, but in this case he manages to use these techniques terribly and use them at the worst possible moments, as if trying to make the music more random. And if that was really the goal, well, he does succeed. Too bad the only thing he, or this album in general, succeeds at is failing.

The same can be said about electronic/industrial samplings. Not only are they irritating in themselves, but they are also used in the worst possible moment, like to cover a good, no, not a good riff, but at least a riff that is half step above complete failure - which the rest of the album is.

And there are some leads, too - which sound like they are lifted directly from a sub-par tech death album. From melody to guitar tone, the leads perfectly resemble tech death leads. And of course, as you would have guessed, they come in at terribly random moments.

It is not hard to infer from all these pointless randomness that the song structures are not going to make any sense at all. And the inference is correct. It just amazes me that a band so adept at writing progressive songs that are epic in nature with each riff morphing into another had to resort to randomness of disjointed parts overlapping each other and going nowhere. Then again, a band so good at writing memorable and unique black metal riffs had to resort to imitating tech death riffs, so... oh wait, that¡¯s the same band.

To further the tech death comparison, the production is very clean and very annoying. It is a shame that the bass drum is not clicky, because that would have fitted so perfectly with everything else. Actually, not having clicky bass drums is probably the only thing on the album that they didn't completely fuck up (but this is not to be confused as a "redeeming point," because this doesn't redeem anything at all). The drums here basically do nothing, especially with the production that buries the drums a bit and emphasizes the annoying guitar riffs. It is the type of drumming that is good on a good release (actually, it would be mediocre even on a good release) and bad on a bad release - and absolutely repulsive on an absolutely repulsive release. Guess what that makes it.

Fractal Possession is one of the lowest points of black metal (let's assume it is even black metal, for the sake of the argument) - no, not one of the lowest points, but the absolute nadir, to which it claims its exclusive residency - reached by none other than one of the greatest black metal bands. There is no redeeming point whatsoever - if you have a decent or good taste in metal, listen to the true Abigor albums; if you like technicality, go listen to tech death bands, because this sucks even more than tech death, and is not as technical anyway. The only excuse for listening to this album is to find out just how big a gap of quality can be between two different works of a single band. Metallica? Cryptopsy? Fractal Possession is worthy of all the scorn given to St. Anger and The Unspoken King combined. This makes what former thrash legends are doing these days pale in comparison. Much like Exodus is fucking up their reputation with groove bullshit, Abigor is fucking its own with tech death, but only in a much more horrible way, setting a whole new standard for failure, previously unimagined by metalheads. Now that Exodus is going to desecrate its classic Bonded By Blood by re-recording it with groove laid upon it, one can only hope that Abigor doesn't re-record Orkblut with tech death riffs.

 

[J.]

to be honest, i agree that DsO has nothing to actually say. it's empty music. i fail to see what is wrong with these reviews other than the fact he disagrees with you.

RE: Fractal Possession, that album is a huge waste of time. A massive disappointment. This coming from a huge fan of abigor

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

is DsO the most overrated black metal band? I think they are.

 

[Blind Guardian]

At least the guy elaborates in his reviews which can't be said about everyone. Giving a 0% to any record at all is just fucking stupid though.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

to be honest, i agree that DsO has nothing to actually say. it's empty music. i fail to see what is wrong with these reviews other than the fact he disagrees with you.

RE: Fractal Possession, that album is a huge waste of time. A massive disappointment. This coming from a huge fan of abigor

Actually, i'm not calling him a moron because I disagree with him. To be honest, there are some points that he makes that make sense. Calling DsO a christian black metal band is what makes me die in laughter every time I read one of his sentences. Submitting oneself to satan as an entity is in a sense, contradictory to BM ideology of power and self assurance, but calling their philosophical stance christian? get the fuck outta here.

[His review of Abigor - Fractal Possession

Yeah, I couldn't help but notice his other reviews. Whatever his opinions may be, they go to the trash can every time I see him giving an album 0%. That's just laughable in every possible way.

 

[S<issors]

to be honest, i agree that DsO has nothing to actually say. it's empty music. i fail to see what is wrong with these reviews other than the fact he disagrees with you.

I agree that DSO's "ideology" is idiotic, and hopefully not sincere. The same is true of almost all metal and rock music, though, and especially since Deathspell use it to such great theatrical effect on their albums, it seems vindictive or reactionary to criticize them for it.

also criticizing a band for being "counter to BM ideology" (or, like one review of Fas... I read, for not "sounding BM") is criticizing them for not conforming to your expectations of what they should be, which is pretty retarded.

 

[Vossyrus]

Metal-archives is a great site but so many of the reviews I've read on there are utter garbage. I think they should only accept reviews that are written in a professional manner.

And personally I think one of the weakest points you can make when criticizing an album is to say that the band is "x for the sake of being x."

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

lol at DSO being "empty" music.

 

[Cythraul]

criticizing them for not conforming to your expectations of what they should be

Isn't that what all criticism amounts to?

 

[Zephyrus]

I like DsO's image because I can identify with its Catholic semblances and use of Latin, and I suppose their clandestine lifestyle as well. It just comes off as "cool" and interesting, and thus appealing and fun, and I don't need to take it seriously to appreciate that.

But of course, my love of the music wholly validates the above.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

I like DsO's image because I can identify with its Catholic semblances and use of Latin, and I suppose their clandestine lifestyle as well. It just comes off as "cool" and interesting, and thus appealing and fun, and I don't need to take it seriously to appreciate that.

But of course, my love of the music wholly validates the above.

Totally agree.

 

[S<issors]

Isn't that what all criticism amounts to?

To an extent. A good critic should form impressions of a work based on first-hand experience as much as possible, though. For example, I don't think it's good criticism to complain that SMRC or Fas or Kenose are departures from DSO's old material.

I like DsO's image because I can identify with its Catholic semblances and use of Latin, and I suppose their clandestine lifestyle as well. It just comes off as "cool" and interesting, and thus appealing and fun, and I don't need to take it seriously to appreciate that.

Absolutely. It's entertaining, and as long they didn't go in expecting some deeper statement, I can't see why someone wouldn't be entertained. I certainly was.

 

[Anticitizen One]

I don't think you need to read too deeply into it. Some of the lyrics are quite thought-provoking, I think, but all anyone really needs to take from it is that they are creating a mockery or inversion of Christianity as a way of deifying Satan and man. Takes from this what you will — I think it's a lot less laughable than most black metal bands' approach to the notion of Satanism. I've always considered lyrics as largely secondary to the importance of the music itself, just like Zephyrus is saying. Their unique approach to lyrics and their stark enigma is interesting enough, but it's the music they're making that is truly compelling.

 

[Death Aflame]

to be honest, i agree that DsO has nothing to actually say. it's empty music.

From what I understand of the concept which motivates the music, I agree that there is little of value. However, musically they are quite astounding, and from this perspective most certainly worth listening to.

 

[Belligerent]

is DsO the most overrated black metal band? I think they are.

Quite possibly, nothing redeeming from their music.