Solefald - World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud review
Band: | Solefald |
Album: | World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud |
Style: | Avantgarde metal, Progressive black metal |
Release date: | February 02, 2015 |
A review by: | R'Vannith |
01. World Music With Black Edges
02. The Germanic Entity
03. Bububu Bad Beuys
04. Future Universal Histories
05. Le Soleil
06. 2011, Or A Knight Of The Fail
07. String The Bow Of Sorrow
08. Oslo Melancholy
World Metal is an open letter to metal conventions. It reads thus: HA!
Admittedly such letters have been written before, with the unabashed intentions of confounding the short-sighted and generically comfortable. Arcturus were well known for their black breaching avant-garde style. Likewise disinherited from their Norwegian black metal forefathers, Solefald's own personality has been upending safe situations for years as well. Whoever advised that the satirical and tongue-in-cheek were unwelcome visitors in metal should take a long hard listen to Kosmopolis Sud. Bemusement ensues.
Their music is folk metal in guise, the kind of compositions that consistently allude to that particular genre in the most avant-garde of fashions with wacky tribal rhythm and electronic enhancement worked around melody aplenty. It possesses the listener with its peculiar personality of Scandinavian spirit and heritage warped beyond clear recognition by abstinence from any given folk tradition. World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud is seriously playful in temperament; a metallic oxymoron that seems self-satirical as much as socially aware in lyrical content. Solefald's approach is unusually approachable for its unusual elements and structures, providing that the listener appreciates novelty. Thankfully said novelty isn't forced but a natural incentive in the song writing.
Yes, electronic elements aren't an alien entity to metal at large, yet their use in the likes of "2011, Or A Knight Of The Fail" proffer an eclecticism enough to make even Mr. Bungle smile in Orphaned Land-esque spoken word to singing alternation projecting it with a surely stranger sentiment. The bygone presence of black metal finds its residual influence throughout the album, such as in "String The Bow Of Sorrow" or the aptly titled and record representative opener "World Music With Black Edges" and even within such examples it's barely tangible or particularly formative in the guitar tones or structure, venturing well beyond the rim of the grim to stand in the sunny terrains of the happy-go-lucky with a contrasting serious stature.
The record is enthused and all-consumed by engaging percussion in tribal-like beats and consistent rhythmic playfulness and tempo change that makes for a thoroughly infectious and generously track distinguishable affair. World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud burgeons with an odd metal made equivalence to world music, with something of an avant-garde metal constructed hint at ethnic fusion within its varied scope. It's trvly trve kvlt konfvsion.
With structural variety and vocal variance in abundance, tracks like the up-tempo "Bububu Bad Beuys" run dangerously close to ridiculous, and would easily be considered self-defeating and self-derisive were it not for the damned infectiousness of it all. Evidently Lars loves the opportunity for controlled ludicrous madness: to put his voice to work in odd repetition of "bubu" pronounced "booboo." How and why this vocal nonsense, of which there is much to be found, manages to be so irresistible is likely something to ponder as it hooks the listener with its comical and care-free creativity.
It's difficult to believe that an album of this character can be catchy beyond belief given the points of absurdity and generic disobedience in an openly outlandish performance that very nearly crosses the line between serious composition and a farce. Yet a farce this is not, as Solefald further extend a discography of idiosyncrasy that pushes enthusiastically beyond the boundaries of black metal, if not metal in general.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 8 |
Songwriting: | 8 |
Originality: | 9 |
Production: | 8 |
![]() | Written on 09.02.2015 by R'Vannith enjoys music, he's hoping you do too. |
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