From the album art and band title, I was expecting something more black metal-ly than I got with this album, which is a good thing. Considering this duo's first album was titled This Beat Is Necrotronic, I should have guessed that they weren't going to be playing by genre rules, and here the occasional bit of fuzzed out kvlt guitar is mostly balanced by dubby beats and textural synths, channeling the mid/late '90s ambient dub scene with distinctly current approach.
I love records with this kind of schizophrenia, bouncing between downtempo breakbeats, electronic noise, and a bit of industrial here and there without a care in the world.However, these disparate pieces fit together nicely, so this isn’t a matter of just throwing shit together and seeing what sticks.It’s actually only when the sound gets a bit locked in to one genre that I feel this album drags.
Opening "Jaffanaut" and "Devastating Vector," for example, channeled that mid-period Scorn sound of clean beats and grinding, ugly synth sounds.However the former adds some stabby black metal guitar bursts to create a vibe that somehow manages to convey "funk" over all the traditionally non-funky instrumentation.The latter keeps the stuttering loops of Mick Harris' work, but fleshed out with a more lush electronic backing, even pushing into old school electro territory.
The metal sound becomes more of a dominant vibe on tracks like "In Binary," where even though it opens with bleak synths and slow beats, it develops into a beast of huge guitars and screamed vocals.It never loses its synthetic edge, but the guitar sound definitely becomes the focus."Temple of Juno" is a bit more variable, alternating between loop-focused old school electronic dub and doom metal in a contentious battle that neither side manages to fully dominate.
Personally, I was a bit surprised and also enamored at tracks like "For Your Own Good," which is the closest song to a single this album has.The stiff drum machine beats and actual singing moments are met with an almost rock vibe that sort of reminded me of Scorn's Colossus with a more contemporary post-rock leaning."Blizzard" also embraces the mid/late 1980s sensibility, meshing an almost danceable beat with abrasive, noise tinged textures and sensibilities.
The only track I thought lagged behind on this disc is "The Heat Death of Everything," which adhered a bit too closely to traditional black metal norms to catch my attention.While there’s nothing wrong with it per se, there weren’t enough out-of-left-field moments or odd juxtapositions to keep my attention.It’s a competent take on electronic black metal, but there’s not much else to say about it.
As a whole, Music of Bleak Origin does an excellent job of crossing genre boundaries in creating a sound that can't be easily labeled or categorized, which is something should strive for.Dark without being cliché, metal without being tied to convention, and electronic with an organic soul, it's a great combo to be heard.
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