Artist: Azkaroth
Title: Demo
Type: EP
Label: Digital
I did once say I wasn’t going to review demos as such but oddly I keep breaking that rule I realise, and this one is an oddity. In the world of raw black metal demos there is sometimes that almost inescapable feeling that your perilously close to ’emperor’s new clothes’ territory; seeing or hearing something that just isn’t there. Except in the case of this demo from the Indonesian based Azkaroth I am not the only one as that’s how it crossed my line of sight, the attention of others.
‘Inkalle’ is an intro. A dark, clanging, reverberating noise like something rattling through air ducts down into Hell itself. It’s actually genuinely unsettling, which is a good way to prepare for ‘Act I’. There is a wall of distortion, vague movements that might be a riff and a voice that is noise itself and where it ends and the electronics begin I don’t know. Fans of Black Cilice (yep, present and correct) will get comfortable quickly I think but this is so lo-fi, so raw that its more Gnaw Their Tongues at the bottom of a lift shaft. None of this is a criticism in the slightest. But the sheer howl and distortion is like sheet metal and if there are drums anywhere they didn’t entirely survive the decent into Hell. It is enthralling too. Black metal noise that grips.
‘Act II’ seems slower somehow, the layers are a little clearer and there is a strange and eerie melody pushing through. It is very, very effective too. It’s like a ghost of something that is being slowly torn apart by the howling madness that is the rest of the music. It’s fantastic.
‘Act III’ begins with a horrible, off kilter sound, the musical equivalent of a girder bending in some hellish wind before collapse. The distortion buzzes and hows around it, the sound of bludgeoning metal in the background but it is the insistent, repetitive ‘melody’ that the screech thin sound lashes around. Almost five minutes. No let up, no respite.
I… I have no idea. This is absolute horror. Black metal noise. A deliberate act that howls, bellows, screeches and tears a ghost to ragged soul shreds. Black Cilice so lo there is no fi, Gnaw Their Tongues gnawing at sheet steel. But there is also the inexplicable feeling ot deliberate, direct intent and ‘Act II’ shows this plainly. This could all collapse inwards into a black hole from which nothing escapes or push out into some apocalyptic landscape or simply cease; I have no idea but it will be interesting to see where it goes no doubt.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 