Manes "Vilosophe" CD
[Code666]
I don't know much about this Norwegian act other than the fact that apparently they're another former black metal band that, much to my delight, has transformed into an amazing avant-garde project based as much around jazz and electronics as they are metal. My initial response to this, aside from loving it, was that it sounds like a fairly even mixture of something along the lines of ...In the Woods meets Ulver (speaking of each group's more atypical moments) with a smattering of Ephel Duath. "Nodamnbrakes" has some of the only true metal riffing herein, flaring into some vaguely black metal-esque tremolo picking and industrial-like uses of samples and raw guitar tones. The drumming in this track is supremely unbelievable, a constant string of restrained yet intricate patterns and fills that's played with complete feel and an energetic sense of improvisation. Tracks like the lush and melodic "White Devil Black Shroud", based largely around resonant clean guitars and soft singing vocals, are incredibly wonderful... taking things even farther into a realm that could easily be appreciated by a significantly wider audience. "Terminus a Quo/Terminus ad Quem" is somewhat similar, but the vocals fall under some distant effects and a few jazzier moments of faint horns and a slow tapping riff that really sounds excellent. The frantic programmed rhythms and synths mixed with live drumming and thick, constant power chords in "Death of the Genuine" are actually pretty irritating, making for the only truly weak song herein; but this all leads into the amazing "Ende" with its nice use of droning lead melodies and borderline catchy vocal arrangements to build into an immense and emotional peak complete with tasteful horns and a slick mix of clean and distorted guitars. A very similar approach takes the fore in "The Hardest of Comedowns", another epic track that has a heavily emotional slant to it, bringing in some more focal electronic beats and basslines. Closer "Confluence" is practically a five-minute sample (in German, I believe) backed by thick, bleak dark ambient soundscapes that fade in very gradually over the course of time - a bit slow moving, but it is the final track, so it's not disruptive and does fall into place. I love the recording. The mix is generally very detailed with a lot of stereo effects and complex arrangements that layer sounds individually in different speakers without losing a lot of character. The percussion all sounds fucking perfect, the clean guitars are amazing, the bass is nice and solid when it needs to be, and the vocals are placed deep in the heart of the music. Aside from a few minor issues I have with a select number of distorted passages or uses of electronics, things rarely lean towards an almost muddy sound, and I thoroughly enjoy the production across the board. Visually things are pretty minimal, using only black and white with dark red to display some cryptic mathematical diagrams to varying degrees of precision. Lyrics are only included in part, for two tracks, and are indeed unusual as well: "It seems all books are forgotten, Now all words are shouted, It seems promises crumble all rotten, When we turn the page of a book that's forgotten." There are some other unusual snippets of text alongside some of the artwork, such as "I was never free I was chosen" and "spiral path of a blindfolded man", so there's a lot of curious thought involved here. I'll flat out confess that this review isn't detailed enough to do justice to this work. The CD's not for everyone, that's a fact, but it's one of the most creative and interesting records I've heard to date, and it gripped me immediately. Therefore, I highly, highly recommend it, and look forward to hearing more from this unusual group. (9/10)
Running time - 47:05, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Nodamnbrakes, White Devil Black Shroud, Ende, The Hardest of Comedowns]
Code666 - http://www.code666.net

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