Izrod: Sarajevski Odisej
Out 14th July on Signal Rex
The debut album from Bosnia’s Izrod may be philosophically aligned with the grim sparsity of Eastern European black metal, but ontologically it is anything but. A dense, highly strung mix replete with layer upon layer of orchestral guitar work presents a flushed out, overwhelming dump of information upon the listener, as it works its way through traditionalist black metal flourishes, tightly packed lead refrains, and throbbing basslines. It bears comparison to Gnipahalan’s recent LP ‘I nordisk vredeslusta’ for its offer of a reckless surplus of material cluttering every bar with excess noise and theatre until the listener is utterly desensitised.
The worry with works overly stuffed with material and emotion is the monotony that ensues once one grows accustomed to the experience. But Izrod have put the leg work in as far as binding these compositions together with an overarching melodic motivation is concerned. Each riff may require five guitar tracks to bring it to bear, but they are distinguishable from one another (which is more than can be said for many acts these days), and each serves a purpose as far as developing the composition is concerned. Then we have tracks like ‘Siva smrt’ that refresh the picture with a fusion of dissonant industrial black metal and the high melodicism of the Nordic style. But what is perhaps most notable here – and in keeping with an overarching theme across the album – is the fact that so little effort has been made to integrate the two. Izrod make a point of making the “wrong” creative choices by the metrics of common sense, and squeezing artistic juice from this subversion of expectation. To put it another way, if you’re going to do something wrong, do it right.
Alongside percussive industrialism sits elements of death metal, prog, and a refined sense of theatre. It’s this last that really binds the music together. ‘Sarajevski Odisej’ embodies the conscious monotony of sparse black metal via its textural offering, but it evolves this garden variety form into a dense, laden experience requiring considerable effort to insert oneself into the experience. Riffs abound, each one coming with its own ancillary accents and divergent strains, further cluttering the narrative throughline with obstacles. Despite this, the overall aesthetic experience is more closely aligned with minimalist black metal than anything approaching ‘Sarajevski Odisej’ as far as density is concerned.
As a result we must praise Izrod for being willing to take these risks, explicitly breaking the rules and making a point of their vulgarity. But a willingness to break the rules is cheap to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can’t. This album sets itself apart from the reems of experimental releases out there demanding celebration for their avant-gardism with little to no compositional architecture to warrant it. ‘Sarajevski Odisej’ functions as a tight, well written slab of densely melodic black metal first and foremost. In turn, this feature serves as a rock solid foundation upon which Izrod build an eccentric, challenging, nay daring piece of peripheral black metal.
Countess Erzsebet: Glorification of the Profane
Out 28th July, self-released
Countess Erzsebet, masterminded by one Rachel Roomian of Xasthur and Cardinal Wyrm fame, offers a highly localised and unfocused sonic reinterpretation of occultist metal forms, specifically doom, drone, and black metal. The overarching impression one gets from this EP is a form of ritualised neofolk, defined by Roomian’s ethereal vocal performance, loose melodic flourishes, and clear passion for the intoxicated informality of occultist driven cyclical musical forms.
The reason this serendipitous concoction landed on my desk is the fact that stitching all this together is a form of lo-fi minimalism hearkening back to early raw black metal at its most austere, punctuated by the loose ambience of a Judas Iscariot. Seasoning this is a background flavour of ghostly Americana, colouring the texture with sparse folk flourishes evoking the haunting expanses of the North American continent.
Despite this intriguing melting pot, ‘Glorification of the Profane’ lacks focus, darting from mood, theme, and motivation, with little to connect the contrasting passages together. Each individual vignette remains a curiosity. The raw black metal is played with convincing conviction, Roomian’s spectral vocals are undeniably enchanting, and the flourishes of acoustic instrumentation add a welcome supplement of textural variety.
But Countess Erzsebet fails to craft any meta-narrative to stitch these elements together. The result is a series of ideas, worthy in theory, but with nothing to motivate them in practice. I would liken the experience to listening to someone spout a series of talking points one generally agrees with, but never tying them together with any clear underlying argument or reason for stating their views. Yes, Countess, this is all good stuff, but what’s the overarching point, where’s the binding character to this music, beyond a series of loose jams? These tracks feel like they are still in their germinal phase, early renderings of more sophisticated compositions yet to be. The material is worth listening to, and at least presents a strong character of its own, but the unifying solidity required to give the music a “point” is found wanting.
Forever Autumn: Crowned in Skulls
Out 21st July on Epictronic Records
There’s something to be said for aligning neofolk as closely to black metal as Forever Autumn do. Superficially, all the trappings of the former are there, the ghostly acoustic guitar accented by weaponised silence, a backing cello providing earthy bass tones, the pathos driven laments and drab, minimalist philosophy, invoking the solitude of sparse natural landscapes and forgotten woodland clearings. But study the actual thematic development more closely, and one begins to see the old trappings of repetitive black metal rise to the surface once again.
Stripping the form of its patented trebly guitars and mid-paced blast-beats is a common tactic for projects that surround black metal in ambient and neofolk, but rarely is a reinterpretation so closely aligned with the compositional costumes of the metallic form. Single acoustic guitar refrains form the backbone of each song, sometimes with a cello accompaniment. Vocals follow this throughline to a tee. The distorted tones are lent an unsettling intensity given the lack of musical foundation, akin to having a trained opera singer sing at full pelt directly into your face (at least I assume that’s what it would feel like, having never experienced that particular pleasure myself).
As the melancholy doom of the opening number ‘The Forest and the Nyght’ (furnished with a guest appearance from Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride fame) gives way to the explicit acoustic black metal of ‘Death Folk’, this EP takes a turned for ritualist, almost percussive neofolk as barely formed chord progressions serve as the backdrop to what looks for all the world like spoken word poetry. The lasting impression is one of a combative, creaking fragility. ‘Crowned in Skulls’ manages to avoid the sometimes overly sentimentalised ethos of acoustic guitar driven neofolk, yet paradoxically achieves this by being even more nakedly vulnerable.
We are used to witnessing the emotive features Forever Autumn bring to fore from a distance, buried beneath waves of distortion and cluttered mixes. Here all is immediate, intimate, and unavoidable, making for a listen somehow more intense than a garden variety blast of frigid winter metal. Despite the limited information packed within this EP, it nevertheless manages to pull the listener in to a fully realised and captivating experience.
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