Artist: Verzauber
Title: Dire Garden Of Ages
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Naturmacht
Verzauber is a one man project from Cork in Ireland and this is their second full length. Not a name I knew and they contacted me asking if I fancied a listen. So with my usual proviso that I only review things I feel I can enthuse about, but if I don’t it doesn’t mean I think its bad or anything, I gave it a go. And immediately realised this wasn’t going to be a quick listen, and probably one I would have to get the hang of too. At just over an hour in length that meant time. So yeah, had it a little while…
With themes of antiquity, philosophy and magical disciplines and a certain eye towards the Mediterranean and its ancient secrets of birth of life, it was clearly a little deeper than a great many projects.
So we begin the journey in an ‘Etruscan Blossom Sanctuary’. Gentle sounds, birds twittering and a wave of angry gnarly black metal which stops, and restarts to rise on an utterly epic tide. There is haunting, strangely almost cosmic feel to the melody but the riff, full of a more grounded feel, carves out a more chthonic feel and of the ages and echoes they bring. There is a real and dark beauty to this song. It plays with tempos shifts, graceful turnsthat keep you immersed.An opening track that leads you onwards. And then the moment when the keyboards drift into that world that might be Midnight Odyssey to some or Mesarthim to others but neither an actual influence. Its where the album really begins to build its identity for me though; the willingness to explore and reach other areas without leaving the epic black metal behind.
The sound is excellent; deep and rich and the arrangement of guitar and electronica and vocals add a superb feeling of dark intelligence at work.
‘Theremae I: Azure Mosaics And Pools Of Convalescence’ is a musical interlude. A strange place of soothing waters and echoing voices as something serpentine hisses in the background.’
‘Pyrocumulus Pharynx’ is a dark burning and roiling sound. It seems to begin deep below ground with a cavernous sound and distorted vocals. The pace is slow, the rhythm unusual and some of the approach of earlier Arcturus whispers to me. It seems to spiral and circle into a cloud of chaos and disruption but somehow the melody comes through. Dissonance, gives way to a corner of solitude, choral sounds and something old and cumbersome moving. Something which gathers its momentum and storms the gates. Again the melody, this time guitar mostly, calls out from the void somehow. Old Limbonic Art? That grasp of melody and vocals but weird riffs, voidborne synths.. Somewhere around there. Yet another fantastic touchstone though unlikely to be an influence, just a reviewer’s reference. Complex, giddy and compelling Verzauber’s personality is now on full display.
‘Acre Of Fired Earth (Cauterizing Tellurian Wounds)’ is a slow and dark ambient sound. Synths haunted by the passing guitars, drums offering a reminder of esoteric rhythms from distant lands. Something builds, finds urgency and energy and a trance like dance begins.
‘Thermae II: Waters Of Veii’ brings cooling waters and distant thunder, a lilting acoustic minstrel, a crowing cockerel leads us into ‘Stellarium In The Court Of Cassiopeia (Sundials, Spheres and Celestial Knives)’. It is a strange and once more chaotic world; shuffling drums turn into some driving black metal that echoes within a void that can only be described as looking into the cosmic. The ending here is simply exquisite too.
‘A Dismounted Nightmare In Boundless Rove’ throws up some old horror film music, all storms and orchestration into which the guitar and vocals slowly seep. It is a weird soundtrack, imagine the Axis Of Perdition gone gothic horror. Or something. And it grows into a slow breathing, frightening howl. An abomination prowling..
‘Theremae III: Springs Of Torrential Rejuvenation’ offers calm tides and a moment perhaps of healing before ‘Antechamber To Eventide (Circumambulating The Sunwell)’ begins its pulsing sounds. High synths, rhythmic and soft clashes, a sense of expectation and arrival.
And the it arrives. The ‘Deluge At Sunset Dawn’. An epic black metal tide begins to swell, to rise and fall. Vocals are echoing and indistinct and the sound continues to echo the ancient feel of rock and earth. From placid to tumultuous but never less than reaching for the other worldly. A sense of ritual, of experience floods it and the keyboards spin us through touches of the pioneers of synth orientated black metal and wrap. We get euphoria, reverence and perhaps just a gentle warning that these are primal forces beyond our control.
‘Thermae IV: Flooded Moonstone Pavillion’ ends our time with the waters of life once more and the mystical sounds of caves around us.
This is one helluva album. It needs to be listened to as a complete piece so carve out your time appropriately. It is complex and epic, progressive and dissonant at times and the use of synth sounds is something that effortlessly pushes it into strange voids within and without the Earth. It is at turns catchy and utterly bewildering and that is no insult. It challenges but offers ways in if you choose to take them and I am so glad I did.
Thoughtful and epic and not easy in many places but, damn is it worth it.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 