SHADES OF BLACK: AKVAN, ESKAPISM, PIT OF DESPAIR, IDOLOS

(written by Islander)

I got a call last night from an anxiety-prone Millennial family member asking whether I thought World War III had just begun. He said he couldn’t bear to read very much about what had just happened but knew that I would have done so quickly.

I did my best to calm him down, tried to explain why I thought this won’t turn into WWIII and to assure him we’re all safe in Seattle (I didn’t mention the funding cuts to programs that combat domestic terrorism or the 22-year-old intern who was put in charge of the main DHS hub for that).

But yes, I’ve been reading a lot. I can’t help it, even though I know it’s pointless, even though no one really knows where this is headed but every pundit has an opinion (the smart ones tick off discouraging possibilities but then acknowledge that no one knows). It seems like an odd time to be thinking about music, but as usual on days like this the music becomes something of a refuge (NCS as a sanctuary city!). And so, on we go… but where to begin?

 

AKVAN (Iran)

Well, you can guess that this beginning wasn’t a random choice today. It’s worth remembering that it’s Governments who war against each other, but it’s people who are not themselves enemies who pay the ultimate price.

Akvan‘s latest release is a single named “آیینه‌ی دق (Mirror of Decay)“. Over the last 24 hours Akvan‘s sole creator Vizaresa added the following preamble at Bandcamp:

*In Light of Recent Events*

This release was scheduled prior to the recent attacks on Iran. While today is a time for sharing music, it is also one of mourning and reflection.

The Bandcamp page also still includes Vizaresa‘s extensive previous explanation of what inspired the song, as well as the lyrics. In brief, “Mirror of Decay” is the first in a series of Akvan compositions informed by the writings of Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat (who died by suicide in Paris in 1951), and in particular by his magnum opus, The Blind Owl (بوف کور), a book that has been banned in Iran by successive regimes from Reza Shah Pahlavi through the rulers of the Islamic Republic, but still persists: “a masterwork of Iranian prose, a rite of passage for many, and a testament to the enduring power of art to disturb, reflect, and survive.”

Vizaresa explains that in this song he performed on both the Iranian tar and a microtonal electric guitar. “The result is an uneasy dialogue between classical Iranian modality and raw black metal expression — a convergence that defines Akvan’s sound and intent.”

Vizaresa‘s raw screams are shattering and the mood of the rapidly rippling melody, ethereal yet piercing in its tones, is beleaguered, even devastated. But the music is nonetheless captivating. It’s a stressful and deeply haunting experience, a profound manifestation of grief and despair.

(Vizaresa‘s prose explains the disturbing symbolic significance of the broken mirror, drawn from Iranian folklore. The lyrics, based upon the novel, are terrifying.)

https://akvan.bandcamp.com/track/mirror-of-decay
https://www.facebook.com/akvanblackmetal/

 

ESKAPISM (Ukraine)

As a result of recent events I suppose I’m inclined to dwell today on music from war-ravaged places, and so I’m following Akvan‘s new single with one from the Ukrainian band Eskapism. It’s the long first song made public from their forthcoming third album Skresnava. The Bandcamp page includes this explanation about the album:

“Skresnava” is an ancient, profound word derived from the combination of “skres” (destruction, crack) and “Nava” (the underworld in Slavic mythology). Skresnava symbolizes a thin fissure in the fabric of the universe, through which the dark, primordial force of Nava bursts forth. It represents a sudden rift between worlds, when the boundary between the living and the dead, the real and the supernatural, is blurred.

Just as Akvan‘s song is deeply haunting, so too is the beginning phase of “The Circle of Eternity“, in which deep and richly reverberating notes set the scene, then embellished by other tonal layers to create a stricken harmony. As rumbling drums arrive, Eskapism carry the melody forward with much greater sweep and intensity, thanks in part to a frantically flickering lead guitar.

Over the course of the long and elaborate song they introduce adaptations of the opening melody and both dramatically push and pull the music’s power and intensity. Scarring screams, hammering drums, and vividly darting fretwork amplify the intensity and the music’s mood of terrible desperation, while symphonic synths create vast and distressing panoramas.

The song climbs to frightening, breathtaking crescendos, but eventually Eskapism briefly take us back to how the song began, and that beautiful retrenchment might even seem hopeful. When the intensity explodes again, this time the mood seems resilient, and the finale is spellbinding.

Skresnava will be released by Naturmacht Productions on August 1st.

https://eskapism.bandcamp.com/album/skresnava
http://facebook.com/eskapismofficial
http://instagram.com/eskapism_official

 

PIT OF DESPAIR (Russia)

In line with some thoughts I’ve already expressed about distinguishing governments from their innocent subjects, I decided to turn next from a Ukrainian band to a Russian one. I discovered their debut album вина through a recent column by Ron Ben-Tovim at Machine Music. Here’s what he wrote about it, which is what lured me in:

I posted something on Blusky about the power of unexpected talent and its ability to raise your soul from the dead. Well, it’s this album that caused the stir to stir. Music as I wish it was all the time – genuine, creative, unafraid of mixing seemingly disparate musical streams into a single creative rope. In this case you have everything from depressive black metal, punk attitude (and at times actual expression), post-punk, and even indie. All coming together to form something that feels real and personal and beautiful.

The songs on вина aren’t as extreme as much of what usually fills up these Sunday columns, but they’re very engrossing, even when at their most subdued, even when they sound like lonely musings.

Dismal abrading guitars, shrill tremolo’d fevers, blasting drums, and shrieked vocal wretchedness occasionally surface, which are enough of a hook for me to include the album here. But it ranges pretty far and wide, as Ron‘s description previews. By way of example:

“боль” does feel like punk or post-punk, the bass-throbs get heavy enough to vibrate the floors, and a shrieking guitar solo at the end is a trippy addition. That big bass provides another big but more subdued pulse for “блудный сын“, which indeed sounds like an intersection of dark post-punk and depressive black metal, producing intersecting moods of desolation and yearning.

And there’s a kind of sinister surf-rock or Western twang to the riffing in “армия мертвецов“, along with an even more sinister but seductive wail to the soloing there, while the closing Outro track dismally drones, shivers like a Mellotron, and pings like sonar trying to find a way through an asteroid belt.

To be clear, despite occasional outbursts of fight and feralness, the overarching mood of the album is grim. I wouldn’t call it an unrelenting “pit of despair” (there are too many vividly bouncing beats and soulfully melancholy melodies in the mix to call it that), but to the extent it perceives a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s most likely an oncoming train. I was still fascinated by it.

https://pitofdespair.bandcamp.com/album/-

 

IDOLOS (France)

Idolos released three EPs from 2020-2023. I wrote favorably about all of them. And now they’ve released a debut album through Adipocere records entitled 132019, and of course I listened.

Mentally distracted by the shadows of war, this isn’t an ideal time for me to try to take stock of what Idolos have done here or express coherent thoughts about it (I need to get back to my depressive reading!), but I’m afraid if I delay any further I’ll fail to get back to it, which would be unjust because 132019 is an album that shouldn’t be missed.

By sheer coincidence, its futuristic, space-faring intro track flows extremely well from the closing track of that Pit of Despair album, like something that could have been included in the Blade Runner soundtrack as the credits rolled.

After that, Idolos go straight to the album’s longest song, “Thick Fiery Hair“, and there they give us head-cracking beats and gut-punching low frequencies, along with guitar layers that are both grimly abrasive and as bright as fire, fronted by a harrowing, range-spanning array of harsh, agonized vocals.

It’s an unsettling song, a hallucinatory song made even more tripped-out by a squalling dual-guitar solo. But like the intro track, it includes futuristic electronic elements and astral arpeggios that ring in the mix, as well as a seductively swirling bass melody and another guitar solo that’s a glorious spectacle — which paves the way to an also-spectacular finale.

Well, for reasons already explained, that’s the only song on the album I’m going to individually address, though I’d really like to do that for the next six! What I’ll do instead is attempt a summary:

The rest of the album provides one ambitious, elaborate, and occasionally explosive adventure after another, adventures that intertwine ingredients in changing ways from black metal, post-metal, prog rock, and cinematic scoring. Much of the time it feels like our excursions are off-planet, or perhaps time-traveling, and certainly head-spinning.

But you’ll also witness incredible drum and bass performances, thankfully not buried in the mix, which easily avoid becoming an afterthought despite all the lavish surrounding wonders and the relentlessly shattering impact of all the vocal torments.

Here’s something else that’s insane: Idolos is just the work of two people (MgRcH and Nnk), who may or may not be Venusian (if so, I encourage them to get the fuck out of here while they still can). Neither of them take credit for drums, so I guess they could be programmed, but if so, it’s genius.

https://idolos.bandcamp.com/album/132019
http://www.facebook.com/cosmosidolos