2 out of 5

Label: Auris Apothecary

Produced by: Shane Hochstetler

When it comes to band that use that death metal fonts for their logo – especially when we get to the borderline unreadable territory – I am definitely not a learn-ed critic. I’m exposed to bands because of labels I follow, or maybe producers, but it’s rarely been a genre I’ve chased something down otherwise. With my listenings being thus incidental, and if a band doesn’t have much easily-traced press to read up about them, I’m left without much to bounce my opinions off of. Tastes are subjective, but I find it helpful, with music outside my wheelhouse, to feel around and see what others might be hearing.

…With It Is Dead, appearing mostly on niche label Auris Apothecary, I can follow some discogs links to other niche labels, but I’m at the fringes here, where whatever genre experience I have now has to be considered against an “experimental” tag affixed by bandcamp, further questioning what my ears are hearing. Or not hearing.

If I’m trying to apply analysis from post-rock. or other scenes with which I’m more familiar, It Is Dead’s ‘Hell Is Now’ – the band at one point being a solo act, but for this album a trio – equates to a project where the players are simply trying to do too much, and the net result is something of a wash. The faded howls and recording style touch on death metal, while the music itself moves between bouts of sludge, thrash, and hardcore. Throw in a more tempered, atmospheric “interlude” for some moody artistry.

Individually, these elements are effected well, and I conceptually like how the general extremity of the vocals and volume butts up against the flat production, but that’s also one of the main issues: the reason the changing styles firstly doesn’t work is because of the shrunken “range” of the mix. It cuts off the edges; the silence of the sludge isn’t severe enough; the howling screams aren’t actually howling – they’re just a layer of noise that’s mixed in at about the same level as everything else. Add to this that the music rarely has any peaks – it speeds up and slows down but does not build – and we arrive at that net “wash.” That interlude is another incongruent part of that equation: while it breaks up the album, and does lead to the recording’s best tracks, it feels more like a “let’s try this” addition; it does not add (or, admittedly, remove) from the experience.

The two tracks mentioned stand out because the focus changes: Womb, notably the set’s shortest entry, is pure thrash, and it kills; the energy lands. White Serpent actually uses its varying styles to arrive at a big ol’ screamy conclusion. It is also the only track that seems to have a narrative, whereas the other songs are just impressionistic bleats about hopelessness and doomy imagery.

So this one didn’t work for me. I gave it a few spins, and couldn’t find my footing with it. But I’m still a noob, and trying to find my post-rock wankery in death metal bleakness, so who knows.

The special edition of this has the usual Auris Apothecary packaging magic: the album is “buried” in dirt in a 7″-sized coffin, and literally nailed shut.