Zebulon Kosted (S.O.D.D. remixes ZK)
So I think it’s pretty much a given by now I have some simple techniques when reviewing a release. I pretty much like giving a response based on first impressions. Now, as an avid fan of the entire family of Metal (and like any good fan) some things truly need a few listening’s before really appreciating something new. For me, Slipknot was truly the first band I listen to that had speed or double bass; however, they are far from being speed metal. They were easy to pick up as an avid young teenager who hears the pure aggression of their first “official” album. Picking up a magazine a few months later featuring my new found audio saviors, I seen an advertisement for both “Children of Bodom” and “Six Feet Under”. I instantly researched these bands on Napster and began my first freebasing experience of what is known as Extreme Metal!
While delving into the depths of the ebony cove of Metal’s vagina, I’d seen pictures of, and intimidated by, the depiction of black clocked hellions. Demonized, hellhound warriors riddles in leather and corpse paint. These juggernauts stared brimstone eyes into my fragile and weak soul, and charred it into the nocturnal beast that I am, sitting behind this computer today! Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir! Hail, the mighty Satanic Kings of Norway, and Scorched Gods of England.
Or so that’s what I thought after some time with them. I’ve never been a lyrical guy in that I didn’t care what was said, but I liked looking at what they were saying, and enjoyed what they were saying. It was like a horror movie with the thrills. But it wasn’t always so. Not so much with Dimmu Borgir, but way more prevalent with Filth was the vocal’s themselves. The first few times I heard their songs, Dani Filth’s voice annoyed the ever-living piss out of me! I couldn’t take it. But then I realized how interesting the music itself was, and how talented and dark it was. This would also prove true with the first time I heard Mayhem, Attila killed it for me (Now I recognize as a brilliant album). Transylvanian Hunger was by far the most atrocious thing my ears had ever heard, and by that time I was WELL into Black Metal. But still, that symphonic cheap advertisement Black Metal.
After eventually getting away from the fuzzy navels and wine coolers of Black Metal, and chugging head strong into the Porters and IPA’s, I began to realize even more what artistry and complexities were out there, and that things could be shaped from other things, and you eventually begin to realize you can actually take a (we’ll call) third wave black metal band and etch it’s lineage to the original Oslo scene (Because each band of their own didn’t sound exactly the same, but had that core element, and each exemplified something of their own “subgenre”). Even after chewing that nasty bitch for a while, you can pick backwards and you can see where the early 80’s bands actually used certain elements that would help craft the future scene. It truly is the first wave, but with all intent and purposes, I tend to call them “proto-black metal” simply for the fact neither scene has anything to do with each other, though the later claims much influence from the former.
And that leads up to this (yes, sorry for an entire page for this lead up)! With over 10 years of being a black metal addict, slicing and slurping anything and everything, you come to the point you can usually pick up a release and have a good feel for it. Even on some of these occasions you can tell it will have a lasting effect or never change your prospective. With this remix album I can without a doubt sum it in one sentence: This is the quintessential album that captures what Black Metal is!!
I don’t say that light heartedly, but it is the sorcerer’s stone, the rosette stone, and the Holy Grail! I will not, however, say it is the best, the most defining, nor the undisputed champion; but, to date with listening to everything from Hellhammer, to the True Mayhem, to Burzum’s Fallen, I’ve never heard anything that actually sonically represents perfectly what Black Metal is. I’ve never heard the originals from ZK, nor have I listened to an extensive amount from Strings of Distorted Doom; however, knowing that the mastermind behind S.O.D.D. has an extensive knowledge in electronica music with his Grim Funeral Techno and his admiration of the experimental fields of ambient doom and ambient black metal, he’s helped capture everything there is. Many different people have many different meanings to black metal, as do I. Its mainly region based, and then its subgenre based. Passed that you have a more metaphysical side that is very anti established religion, yet within that some that are religious. You have some hipsters that have a manifesto that eludes that it is transcendental (which I will agree is partially true to a degree, but not always). What it really boils down to is that it is kind of like Magic: The Gathering. You have some very set defined rules that can not be broken, but you have those special abilities that totally go out and beyond the realm and make it the best fucking thing EVER! Even with the very Satanic/Anti-Christian mentality, you still have this nasty itching yeast infection called un-black metal (horse shit).
But what I see, beyond whatever one may label as the true definition, I think we can all agree to some degree Black is more relative to “Negative” or “Anti”; as in, Negative polarity or Anti-Matter! It’s not truly a bad thing, its just reality in an opposite realm of reality. In a world of rainbows and unicorns, rainclouds and ravishing lone wolves are signs of evil and hatred. But in this realm of dark waters, these are a sign of true freedom, rebellion, and aspiration for one self. It’s more beautiful. You need darkness to see the bullshit in the light.
This release does this. It gives the ambient feeling (a true characteristic of black metal derived from the emotional feel of music theory) of absence, void, abyss, hollowness. But in the world we delve in, this is truly a place whole and pure, true and proud! Anti-realism, meta-reality! It’s perfectly captured at its core. For the most part this album has a single instrumental track (or two) in the beginning of the album, and beyond that under the hypnotic drone, you occasionally hear a chug accompanied by a blast beat and growl. Superb excellence!
ORDER NOW AT : http://www.satanica.org (darkwave section)
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