Thursday, March 26, 2009

Paysage d'Hiver - Kerker


1. Kerker (35:06)

As you may have noticed, there's a solid year since the last posting. I can't think of a finer reason to break retirement than this piece of filth.

So what's the big fucking deal?

Well... this is hands down the greatest thing I've heard in a long damn time. I listen to a lot of black metal, amongst other things, and this grabbed me from the second I started playing it... Kerker is thick. Very, very thick. The production is so completely fucked up and lofi shitty, there isn't a single element that cuts through the fog with any semblance of clarity. Guitars, drums (what I am assuming is a drum machine... it's really hard to tell), vocals, synths... it's all drowning at the bottom of the most frozen-ass lake Europe has to offer. If Lake Baikal had a lake underneath it that was twice as deep and filled with depression-flavored tar and was inhabited by a guy with an old Tascam 4 track, this is the cassette demo to rule them all.

Paysage d'Hiver (French for "Landscape of Winter", stupid) isn't into tempo changes, stopping on a dime, or getting their (his, really) corpsepaint all up in your face. They (he) is merely content to melt your face and what's left of your brain with what you may recognize as a riff repeated for five minutes at a time or longer, if only to emphasize the point that you're in this to win this. Those who are afraid of synthy black metal shouldn't be afraid of symphonic breakdowns or even recognizing what the fuck is going on here, even though they're often the most defined element.

Think Nortt partying with Tangerine Dream's stolen equipment at the bottom of a well in a dungeon whose master passed out a long time ago.

Dicks:

Loaddown

2 comments:

valter said...

Hope you'll start posting again on a structural basis!

Charles D. Ward said...

It's nice isn't it? I too hope you might return to posting. SoAE, though I like it a lot, is no equal replacement.