Au-Dessus - End Of Chapter - review
Au-Dessus - End Of Chapter - review
Tracklist
01. VI02. VII
03. VIII
04. IX
05. X
06. XI
07. XII (End Of Chapter)
A review by
BitterCOld March 26, 2017
End Of Chapter album picks up where their self-titled left off. At least numerically, not sure about sonically as this is my first exposure to them. The last track on the EP was V, so naturally this album opens with VI. Imagine this form of nomenclature will get increasingly confusing the longer they churn out the tunes.
While Au-Dessus seems to be tagged as Post-Black 'round the web, with End Of Chapter Black is clearly the engine which powers this sonic vehicle, and this is a good thing. You have ominous riffing, tension building riffs employed within slowly developing songs (such as VI, the opener), full on thundering blasturabation as the basic framework for song construction and album flow. While these elements are found in all sorts of black metal, with Au-Dessus they are particularly well executed and arranged which keeps the release intriguing from start to finish rather than have a 'color by numbers' vibe you could get from less skilled musicians.
While having some knuckle-dragging, bash their instruments as fast and hard as possible moments, the pieces are a more cerebral listen, which is why I enjoyed spinning the album once or twice a day for the last week yet still struggle to adequately describe the tunes. It's almost to an extent like using black metal pieces within post-metal thematic flow for song composition.
On top of this you've got a whole bunch of other flavors interwoven within. While there are plenty of throat-shredding rasped and howled vocals, you've others stages where it seems throat-singing is utilized and on the opener, around the five minute mark, the vocal approach reminds me of an old Gene Loves Jezebel tape I owned in the mid-80s.
So if anything about this mishmash of a description makes you pause and think, "Yeah, I should probably check this out", do it.
If this is the End Of Chapter, I can't wait for the rest of the book.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 26.03.2017 by
Written on 26.03.2017 by
BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. Comments
Comments:
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You should go back and check out the EP. I thought it was even better than this new one.
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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Posts: 5289
Looking forward to spinning this. I really liked their debut. Of course the word "post" was mentioned a couple times, hence the fascination. Excellent review and thanks.
---- rekt
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Posts: 1342 Written by flightoficarus on 26.03.2017 at 19:27 Their debut EP was phenomenal.
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This ended up being my 2017 AOTY...and one of my favorite albums ever. Thanks again for the review BC.
---- rekt
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I want it so bad!
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