Hey there. For the inaugural post on The Snarl, I thought it would only make sense to introduce you to two of my favorite albums. I’ll be reviewing music, movies, art, products, events, people and anything else that comes my way. If you’re interested in having something reviewed, send me an email with your idea and I’ll see what I can do for you. For now, check out these two full reviews of two of the best black metal albums ever recorded.
LEVIATHAN – MASSIVE CONSPIRACY AGAINST ALL LIFE
Type: LP
Producer: Moribund Cult
Release: March 24th, 2008
Leviathan is an American black metal project composed entirely of one Jef Whitehead, otherwise known as Wrest. This 2008 masterpiece, Massive Conspiracy Against All Life is an apocalyptic series of grave, ambient tracks detailing not just the end of life on earth, but of the ultimate extinction of all matter in the universe. It begins with a slow, meager growling intro, but quickly picks up pace and turns into a maddening spiral into total oblivion. While it may seem simple, know that this piece is not just about the simplistic Armageddon of flames and devils, but of a microbial destruction, and of the creation of new life from the withered corpse of our universal ovum. Note the microscopic nature of some of the lyrics “Gone, as T-Lymphocytes” and “From a long, flagellated vessel”, and know that the original title for ‘Vulgar Asceticism’ was ‘A Flagellum Raised to the Sky’, a phrase which upends the sperm cell and points it at the ova of the earth.
While this album technically belongs to the subgenre of Depressive Black Metal, due to its slower pace and extraordinarily bleak outlook, don’t be too quick to corner it with other depressive acts like Anti or Katatonia, as the spectrum of this music ranges wildly from the creeping self-destructive dirge to the painful, feverish conniptions of thrash or blackened death metal. That being said, the diversity in the songs combined with the expert mixing of the record, this album can be played as one entire piece rather than a series of songs. In listening to the record in its whole form, Wrest reveals his incredible ability for creating soundscapes of mass graves, universal funeral rites and even takes the listener to visit Christ in bondage on Golgotha.
I know that Wrest has said in interviews that he is ‘not a poet by any means’, the lyrical content of this record have been incredibly inspiring to me and my art since I first picked up the record. He has an almost Lovecraftian ability to create contradicting images of winged, tentacled creatures of bizarre worlds and offer incredibly, powerfully disturbing views into the death of the Son of Man. Even if you’re not too keen on black metal, take some time to read through the lyrics, and if you can find the record in the shops, look at the artwork, as it illustrates many of the foul images his words detail.
If the sound is too repellant to you, just try to listen to the closing track ‘Noisome Ash Crown’. Naturally, this thirteen minute long epic fleshes out the finest and most depraved points of the end of all life. If you listen closely, you may even hear the sound of the snuffing-out of the final living breath, as the terminal soul enters His Unhallowed Grace.
For this record’s uncanny ability to be listened to as a whole, for the capacity to truly transport the listener into the depths of madness from which it came, I hold this record in incredibly high regard. Now this does not mean that this album is the standard to which all other black metal or even depressive black metal albums should be compared, because the beauty of black metal is in the way it spans so many other genres and encapsulates the best of them all. What this record does, it does exceedingly well, and other black metal artists should take note of it. All this being said, I give it a 9.4/10. If you’re into black metal or any kind of slower, stranger, more horrifying metal, you need to hear this album.
MAYHEM – ORDO AD CHAO
Type: LP
Producer: Season of Mist
Release: April 23rd, 2011
Mayhem is the one of the first black metal bands, and through several murders, suicides and a list of other culturally-significant acts, only one member of the original group remains present in the group. Because of this tulmultous upbringing, the band has been able to release a distinctly different sound with each recording. While they have kept similar riffs for each record, their vocal styling, lyrical content and especially the organization of the drums have been changed dramatically for each release.
There are several theories as to the symbolism behind the lyrical content of the most major albums by the group, and one of the most interesting of them claims that each album revolves around a major stage in the life of Adolf Hitler, from his service in the Great War to his plans for world domination. This album, however, seems to step away from this lyrical practice and into a sort of solipsistic deathtrance. It follows no figures, and is not told through the perspective of any one human, or any one particular living creature, but through the perspective of a passive force that watches without judgment, without memory, without care of the doom it is witnessing. As humans are so fearful of death, we repudiate its arrival more so than that of any other event of their lives; they are so hypocritical when they carelessly erase trillions of innocent creatures from being with a flip of a switch, or the squeeze of a trigger.
The two main complaints I have heard about this album is that it is too accessible to mainstream audiences, that it lacks the truer, darker and more ‘necro’ sound that was prevalent through their previous records, and finally, that the vocalist, Attila Csihar, sounded very out of place. I’ll address each of these points individually.
First off, I don’t find accessibility to be too much of a problem for this record. Some bands, like Dimmu Borgir or Satyricon, could be said to be too accessible, but that becomes more of a problem when they are seen as ‘sellouts’. Let’s be honest though, Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon can’t really be held anywhere near to the same regard as Mayhem. This record is more accessible because it doesn’t include wall-of-sound guitar riffs backed by incomprehensible drums. It’s more accessible because the listener can understand some of the lyrics. I don’t really see these as faults, and from a listening perspective, I see them as major pluses for the record. Sure, it may not give the listener the spine-tingling sensation that earlier Darkthrone or Burzum records might have given, but this is by no means a mainstream record.
One of the first and most striking features of this record is the vocals. Attila Csihar certainly has the stage presence that this band demands, and his creativity is matched with his talents. He’s really one of my favorite metal vocalists, and if his work on Sunn O)))’s latest release, Monoliths and Dimensions, doesn’t impress you, nothing will. Considering his ability to produce such bizarre and otherworldly noises with his throat, Attila’s vocal range can’t really be measured by normal metrics. The track ‘Illuminate Eliminate’ is a showcase of his squealing, droning, growling and rasping talents. I stand behind the decision to include him in the band, and I hope they continue with him for further recordings.
While his vocals are very strong, and the drums can really help power through this albums duller parts, there are still a few points that are a bit dull. Perhaps the repetition was placed in this record to create a sense of tension, just as the Csihar’s quiet growling or the expertly organized drums can. This record is very, very powerful, but it is not perfect. It could use another song set to the disorganized arrhythmia of ‘Wall of Water’ to keep the listeners attention tied down to the end.
There isn’t a song I’d skip on this record, but there are some parts I could do without. Altogether, it’s an incredibly powerful album, a must-have for any black metal fan, and an excellent entry album for skeptics of the genre. I give it 9.0/ 10.0. Buy it, listen to it, love it. If not to support the artist, buy it for it fantastic album artwork. Each page gets darker and more depraved and confused until the final pages is nothing but black, red and white paint and scratches. Truly Order becoming Chaos.
Thanks for your time. Keep checking back for more updates. Tell your friends about me.
W.
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