2 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Malefic

First off – The production on this album is amazing.  So desolate, so spacey, so full of range and layer.  It is devastating.  Secondly – I have had the main dirge that’s looped about on this record stuck in my head all day.  Which leads to third – I have listened to this album at least ten times today, by choice.

And yet 2 out of 5?

Let’s step back to say that I’ve never listened to black metal before.  Not a bit of it.  I’ve no idea what determines the genre (or if I’m using the term correctly, even), or who some big names are, or what’s generic, or what’s new, or where Malefic (AKA the one-man band Xasthur, AKA some dude from California) fits into the scene… except that one review I read says that he gets his share of hate for “selling out” by appearing on a “major” label like Hydra Head.  But whatever.  That’s scenester crap.  All I can do is listen to the music.  And if HH Records has me listening to grindcore via Agoraphobic Nosebleed, then I can get over my fears and assumptions of dudes wearing scary costumes and growling and listen to a Xasthur record.

‘Defective Epitaph,’ and song titles like ‘Soulless Elegy’ and ‘Legacy of Human Irrelevance.’  A liner note that states: “There is no one to thank, fuck you.”  So you get the gist, yeah?  And perhaps if the howling vocals were up in the mix, or the synths blared louder, or the guitar grinded sharper, it would match that gist, but instead, Xasthur builds to some hauntingly, violently poetic pieces.  The recording style – which does need to be turned up and up to get the full gist – is so washed out, like you’re hearing it from a distance, from around a corner, all of it painted with this gloriously horrible echo, memories of songs.  Apparently Malefic used a drum machine on previous recordings and here switched to live drums – I will agree with the Pitchfork review that this doesn’t always work with the sludgey feel of things, and the drumwork is somewhat sloppy – which works okay, but gives a layer of amateurism to what otherwise sounds purposefully muggy.  However, during the short moments where minutes and minutes of dreck build to intense howls and walls of guitar, the ability to rock out on live skins (and not some BPM) ups the intensity of those moments.

But the album is fairly impenetrable.  The Allmusic review criticizes some of the songs for sounding like demos, and while some of the recording is oddly misleading – the sound will start to fade like a song is ending, only to snarl back around for another go – there are some spots that just end, and not for dramatic effect, but like the tape ran out.  Combined with how similar many of these tracks sound from afar, without enough ebb and flow to really work you into the track, you might end up stuck humming that same synth /guitar line as me, but humming it feels the same as listening to it – the album sits in the past, it’s not trying to be heard.  That impenetrability seems like part of the shtick, and perhaps it is.  Whether or not that merits more stars is up to the reviewer.  Still – it floods over the ears and fulfills a need for noise with substance, and I didn’t hesitate re-pressing play, so obviously that’s worth something.  It’s worth my introduction to this scene, and it’s worth listening to.