Ordealis Records, 2004
Genre: Black Metal
1. Izen Blod
2. Pure Degenered Madness
3. Virgitatem Alicujus
4. Iris' Black Hole
5. Transgressive's End Bleeding
6. Opus Untitled
7. Detoria Sequor
8. TALISAC
9. Bledemon
10. Unsgohort
11. Odgen Blut
12. Obscurum Odium
13. Embryonic Sadic Execution
Keeping in line with the Ordealis method
of pressing albums, this is limited to one thousand copies worldwide. So I would highly recommend you purchase this
album if you ever see it anywhere, provided this review provokes you to do
so. It appears also that Edicius has
been brought down to a one man band for this release and I can only assume
there was one man behind the writing of just about all their material. Typically there is one mastermind behind the
Black Metal bands. Unfortunately they
have not printed any of their lyrics, only some sentences in the booklet and
they are hardly decipherable in the songs vocal performance. They do not seem to have any one defined
concept and their focal point actually appears to center around trying to
create an essence of chaos, but I would still like to have read their lyrics.
Now I will start off by saying that
musically this is, on some levels, not the easiest release to get into. I know many people are assuming that because
this is Black Metal the production must be the problem, but to be honest I
think the production on here is perfect.
I can hear every aspect of the music, and studio wise it just sounds
well produced. The difficult part comes
in the arrangement and structure of a good portion of the songs. When I first listened to it, I thought to
myself “hmmm… that’s an interesting thing to do.” I was not even sure how to feel about it, but
at first it felt off. It seriously took
me four listens to get into this release.
Some people may take longer; others may get into it sooner. One thing is for sure, when you are hit with
the initial three minutes of “Izen Blod” you will be very impressed.
“Pure Degenered Madness” opens in one of
the most impressive ways I have heard an album open in a long time. It has this strange effect that it feels like
you are on a battlefield and the war is coming.
You hear the commander barking orders, this is where the vocals enter
with a heavily distorted feel, the guitars and drums enter the scene and pummel
the listener, and then it slows down as the first volley of artillery is
finished. The album then strikes back
and assaults it’s listener with more intensely Brutal Black Metal. Now all of that sounds simply excellent
doesn’t it? The problem with this song
and the rest of the release is that it is not consistent. That is the part that caught me off guard and
I was unsure on how to feel about it initially.
That is what makes this a somewhat difficult release to get into at
first. Once you overcome that strange
feeling in the first track you start to enjoy track after track of this rather
different approach to an arrangement.
The segments of brutality are never very constant because they will
degenerate into a more somber aspect with eerie keyboard work coupled with an
eerie guitar line and sinister vocals. In
retrospect the listener begins to realize that this is an even better approach
because it makes the album so much more interesting. Rather than level the intensity volume on
high and trying to assault the senses of the listener it takes a step back and
tries to offer a completely different feeling and world in its presentation.
The guitar work is far from impressive
on this album, mainly it is just a lot of excellent guitar riffs that have a
very powerful sound or have a very deep essence to them, nothing that is overly
technical or designed to “wow” the listener with some sort of skill. However, driving home from band practice one
evening I noticed something shocking about some of the tracks on this
album. The song “Pure Degenered Madness”
is, for just about the whole song, just one guitar riff up until the end when
it switches to a different riff to close the song. The riff is played over and over again, just
in slightly different variations, with slightly different distortions and
presentations or even a dynamic shift in the volume of the riff. Now most people would say that given my
experience playing the guitar this should be something that greatly degrades
the album for me. Well, it does not and
here is why. I had this album for about
two months before I picked up on that detail, any band that can mask that
detail from a musician for that long has to be doing something proper. Then I started really listening to the way
they engineered the album and I found that that is where this was the most
interesting. I could not believe I had
been duped into not noticing that sooner.
Not every song on here is comprised of one guitar riff, but a great
majority of the songs are one or two riffs at most. If you are saying to yourself now this seems
hardly a selling point of the album, well I challenge you to get this and try
it out. I was rather shocked when I
discovered this. I personally think this
is quite a talented band to compose music in this manner, because four minutes
of one riff would seem hardly exciting, but Edicius scoff at such a restrictive
statement and compose a highly interesting track from one musical piece. Rather than change the guitar riffs they
change all the surrounding elements so often it sounds different. So they take one riff and make it sound like
five different riffs, just by changing the feel and representation of that
section of music and changing the other sections such as vocal production or
backing off on the drum arrangement. It
is a very ingenious method on the way they present this album. It is mind boggling at times!
As I described the track “Izen Blood”
above as having an up and down feel in terms of intensity, the rest of the
album has a similar approach. Most of
the album is highly intense Black Metal, with a very empowering drum tone,
which is really the reason this album has such a powerful sound. I doubt this album would sound as intense
with less emphasis on the drum production.
But the album has some down time when it comes to “Deforia Sequor Deforia Sequor
On an interesting note Edicius seem to
be proponents of eugenics. Inside the
booklet, which is related to the last track and it says “eugenism is good for
mankind; legalize euthanasia, embryonic sadic execution.” So they do seem to have some sort of an ethic,
in this instance, being they think the strong of life should be allowed to
survive in this world. Overall, though,
it states in the booklet that “Edicius is a vision of extreme music to find
himself.” I can only assume this refers
to the sole musician in the project and how Edicius seems to be a catalogue of
his journey through life and references what he learns via this music.
At first glance this does not seem to be
a very unique approach, or an overly impressive album, but when you start
pulling apart all of its little secrets then you discover something all the
more shocking. I was overwhelmed with
shock when I figured out their guitar arrangements. I think any listener or reader here will be
impressed with the opus Edicius have put together for all of us to hear, well
maybe not all, since it is limited to one thousand copies after all. The Black Metal essence of darkness just
overwhelms the listener, I cannot help making reference to Axis of Perdition’s
darker moments for similarity on “Pure Degenered Madness”. I recommend you listen to “Embryonic Sadic
Execution” to back up that reference.
Regardless of the fact that it is a difficult album to get into
initially, it does not change the fact that in the end it is an amazing
approach to Black Metal. May I remind
the readers that at first glance Axis of Perdition is very difficult to get
into too, but in the end people cannot do anything but stand in awe at their
impressive approach to this musical genre.
Edicius may not encompass the world in the same way Axis of Perdition
does, but that is my best reference for “Pure Degenered Madness,” for it is as
if being lost in insanity with random bursts of reality seeping through to the
listener.
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