Sublime Tragedy
Brulvahnatu's
strongest claim to fame is undoubtedly the link to fellow Canadian
maniacs Antediluvian, for whom sole member Kib Sreng (T. Mclelland)
has played bass at one point. While certain aspects of their
amorphous black/death bile have contaminated the sound of the solo
project, it is still absolutely unique in the world of extreme metal
and very much worth a listen or thousand. To put it a tad
pretentiously: if Antediluvian's goal would be to drop the listener
into the blackest of quagmires, churning and oozing with alien
fossils and spastic megafauna, Brulvahnatu takes the more
psychological road of gathering your nightmares, stringing them up at
your bedside, and making you participate in their joyride through the
landscape of all your repressed memories and secret fears. Fun times.
2009's
Uterine Acid Swishes, the first album in an apparently womb-themed
trilogy, sees Brulvahnatu coming out with three 17-minute-plus black
metal litanies. Kib has surely gone out of his way to make them hard
to classify: what we get here is an absolutely demented mix of
sickly, jangly chord twanging, meaty riffs that thunder and tumble
like a legion of earth worms on steroids, dual vocal styles
consisting of the prototypical USBM “tunnel shouting” and a more
death metal-like gruff cavern growl, and curiously lo-fi drumming.
Coupled with the old-timey piano sporadically interwoven through the
guitars, providing an extra layer of sinister foreboding, and a
spectacular sample at the climax of closer “Suffer long”, these
elements come together in a torrential outpour of misery and
self-loathing.
Because
– let there be no doubts about this – Uterine Acid Swishes is a
mercilessly dark and starkly bleak offering. No infernal triumphs,
glorious carnage or awe-inspiring mountain vistas here; the only
direction these Swishes flow is straight down. Grimy, mid-paced riff
patterns repeat against a backdrop of nauseous string plucking, drop
away and reappear in a slightly different guise a few moments later.
The piano, which primarily makes a comeuppance in the first and last
song – either serving as a subtle background element, sharing the
ghastly spotlight with the guitars or, in the case of “Suffer
Long”, laying the groundwork of the three movements of the song as
the main instrument –, isn't awkwardly stapled on or arbitrarily
jammed into the album, but rather functions as a completely
natural-feeling extension of the traditional sonic palette of black
metal. When the onslaught of filth temporarily halts, such as during
the middle of “Autopsy in Mourning”, the clean guitars, quite
audible bass and subdued drumming manage to kindle some semblance of
warmth and hospitality, like shutting the door behind you when
gratefully taking shelter inside wayward cabin, only for the deluge
to surge up, burst through the pitiful
walls and sweep you away even further into the delirious
night.
There
is an unmistakable quality of compositional proficiency apparent in
all of this; while obviously still firmly rooted in the realm of
ugly, chunky, non-wanky black metal upon which the dissonant sun of
Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and their experimental cohorts never
has set, the many twists and pitfalls, the diversity and sheer depth
of the sound, and the organic
flow driving the album would entitle Brulvahnatu in at least some way
to the nomer of progressive black metal. Apart from the usage of
samples and the piano, all ingredients used here are the seminal
bread and butter of black metal, but this sugarless mother of all
cakes Kib has wrought with them towers,
in its multifaceted nature
and all its scope,
over its half-baked frostbitten
brethren in such a way that playing it nearly becomes a cinematic
experience. I have to admit,
on the first listen I didn't
quite pick up on all the nuances of Uterine Acid Swishes and
would have had trouble agreeing with my own assessment here, but upon
hearing “Suffer Long” I was immediately captivated. Did I say it
was a nearly cinematic
experience? “Suffer Long” is built up (or rather, down) in
such a naturally flowing,
nuanced and tragic way that I
could wholly imagine Aeschylus blasting
it while
writing about yet another matricide or betrayal.
If you feel unsure about the album, start with this song: I would
have a hard time believing that anyone can argue with the final
build-up starting around the nineteen minute-mark or remain unmoved
when the sample's grotesque laughter segues into Kib's truly
hair-raising screaming. And if that isn't your thing: the almost
laid-back piano/guitar movement dominating the middle is outright
catchy.
Finding
flaws with Uterine Acid Swishes is difficult. Published lyrics would
certainly add to the album's
world-building – the few intelligible parts touching on abortion,
the closing shovel samples on “Autopsy in Mourning” and the
sinister film noir-ish monologue in the
final song lift the veil just enough to let us know Kib's thought all
of this through, but other than that the reader is left guessing as
to what the album's story
entails. A more direct
criticism would be the drums: the entire album already
straddles the border between
classic lo-fi and neutral production, but somehow the drums seem to
come right out of a
garage. Really though, I don't even know if that is a
flaw: the general dreariness
of the music is only reinforced by the hollow metallic
clanging.
To
draw a parallel with other bands is equally
problematic:
Elysian Blaze's “Blood Geometry” exudes a similar ambitiousness
but, other than Brulvahnatu, it neglects the the
base filth that the genre is
partial to in favour of the
lofty theatrical peaks. Still, “Pyramid of the Cold Son” and
“Suffer Long” could be distant
cousins.
All
in all, Uterine Acid Swishes is a highly personal, monumentally
unique and unwarrantedly unknown release which manages to be daringly
ambitious and openminded while not losing its roots out of sight.
Heartily recommended to all who like their black metal to dig deep
and cut close to the bone.
