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Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity review




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Band: Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa
Album: Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity
Release date: April 2021


01. Asporhos' Altering Odyssey
02. The Corrupted Sacrament
03. Liturgy For The Ekzunreh
04. Absurd Crusade Part I: Elevation In Arrogance
05. Absurd Crusade Part II: Collapse In Penance

Progressive sci-fi saxophone black metal.

I am very tempted to end the review right there, because that should be enough to make you want to check this out. But not going deeper is a disservice to Ætheria Conscientia... sorry, Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa. This French band are only at their second offering, with a previous full length in 2018, but it seems that they've already happened upon a sound that is pretty unique and identifiable to them. Which I don't need to explain how impactful that is as a reviewer. Sure, there are a lot of parallels to be drawn to other artists that have pushed the same sound forward, from Ihsahn, White Ward to The Great Old Ones. Each with more or less. But the way that Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa weave upon these influences results in a sound that's entirely their own.

First let's take the saxophone. Somehow it seems that the saxophonist, Simon Chttln, is no longer in the band, yet he still performs on the record. Also there are guest performances from White Ward's saxophonist Dima Dudko and vocalist Andrii Pechatkin. So at least on that level, the connection is made. The saxophone has already infiltrated multiple facets of metal, from tech death to post-metal to avantgarde black metal, and even to the point of primarily jazz saxophonist starting metal bands of switching their bands into metal ones, in the cases of Ex Eye and Shining (NOR) respectively. But the way that the saxophone is used here is by fully integrating it within the sound, usually more in the progressive sections rather than the black ones, but it switches from the foreground to the background to silence with ease.

The saxophone gimmick aside, the black metal that Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa approach is almost more progressive than it is black, but they can hold their own in the menace of the shrieks. More concerned with creative an almost dramatic narrative feel with their atmosphere and song structures, in a way combining the melodramatic avantgarde of acts like Ihsahn, Arcturus and Dødheimsgard, the long form progressive nature of Enslaved with the atmospheric focus of bands like Oranssi Pazuzu and Wolves In The Throne Room. The progressive sections often have the black metal dial back to just a mere ominous background presence, having the dance between the exotic guitars and the blaring saxophone be the main focus, before exploding back into blasting black metal. But even at it's most ravenous, the black metal here is melodic, polished, dramatic and progressive.

Though it is undoubtedly, it's great to hear more of this take on cosmic black metal that is in pretty stark opposition to Darkspace's, as much as I love that one. This is full of adventure, instead of full of the endless, lonely, oppressive void of space. Probably due to finding out how to travel beyond the speed of light.






Written on 19.05.2021 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out.


Comments

Comments: 12   Visited by: 121 users
20.05.2021 - 01:36
Netzach
Planewalker
Oh, this sounds really badass. Yeah, the first five words made me skip directly to the Bandcamp player. Expected something Sighy, but this sounded much cooler; needs investigating.

Superluminal travel is impossible, and would just lead into the past, anyway. Nobody wants that. Maybe they stole NASA's Alcubierre drive research; inb4 open source warp cores.
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20.05.2021 - 08:34
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Netzach on 20.05.2021 at 01:36

Oh, this sounds really badass. Yeah, the first five words made me skip directly to the Bandcamp player. Expected something Sighy, but this sounded much cooler; needs investigating.

Superluminal travel is impossible, and would just lead into the past, anyway. Nobody wants that. Maybe they stole NASA's Alcubierre drive research; inb4 open source warp cores.

Glad you liked it

Maybe they just made space smaller
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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20.05.2021 - 08:37
Netzach
Planewalker
Written by RaduP on 20.05.2021 at 08:34

Glad you liked it

Maybe they just made space smaller

That's pretty much the gist of how an Alcubierre drive works, yeah.
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20.05.2021 - 10:49
Rating: 9
silenius

This shit is fucking fantastic
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20.05.2021 - 12:35
Deadsoulman

Quote:
Progressive sci-fi saxophone black metal.


That's all I needed to hear. Didn't even read the rest of the review, went straight to Bandcamp, got my mind blown, came back here to read the rest of the review.

Like the guy above me said, this shit is fucking fantastic, kinda like Ihsahn meets Enslaved meets A Forest Of Stars meets Blade Runner. This totally has the potential to be pretty high on my end-of-year list.

EDIT: Double LP bought right away.
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20.05.2021 - 12:50
TheBigRossowski

Annnnnd, that would be my reason to. As with everyone else already, I was sold on that intro (what is is with metalheads and sci-fi? I guess we get it's the greatest genre...).

Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised at the first parts of this already. Anything "x meets AFOS" already has el Duderino on the lookout.
----
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?
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20.05.2021 - 13:04
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
I am now ashamed for not thinking of AFOS as a comparison.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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20.05.2021 - 13:13
Deadsoulman

To be fair, I'm kind of obsessed with AFOS and I tend to hear them everywhere

Back to this album, I am totally in love with the percussions on the last two tracks. Scratch that, I'm in love with the percussions on this album, period.
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20.05.2021 - 19:39
Roman Doez
Hallucigenia
Really liked the debut, need to check that one out for sure
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25.05.2021 - 22:20
TheBigRossowski

Written by Deadsoulman on 20.05.2021 at 13:13

To be fair, I'm kind of obsessed with AFOS and I tend to hear them everywhere

Back to this album, I am totally in love with the percussions on the last two tracks. Scratch that, I'm in love with the percussions on this album, period.


Obsessed? Tell me about it. I made a shirt when the debut came out in 2008 XD.

And again, back to the album - I'm listening to it more and more these days. It's really ugh, you know, far fuckin' out. That saxophone really tied the record together, man.
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That rug really tied the room together, did it not?
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27.05.2021 - 19:29
Rating: 9
Eternity'sChild

This is great stuff that, before listening to it, I didn't know I needed. Thanks for drawing my attention to it - you basically got me just by the very first sentence.
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14.07.2023 - 01:59
Rating: 8
tintinb

In recent times,this band is my best find. Totally playing the crap out of their two albums. Will keep the debut a notch higher than this one TBH.
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Leeches everywhere.
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