(written by Islander)
Yesterday I riffed on how my plans for Saturday-morning NCS roundups can fall apart as a result of Friday-night adventures, even when those adventures don’t include self-immolation. Much the same could be said of Saturday nights and their occasional wreckage of Sunday mornings. This has happened again. I’ll spare you the details.
I also forgot that my spouse planned an outing by the two of us this morning. I tried to beg off, but she’s not having it, and I don’t have the strength to resist (it takes a lot of strength even in the best of circumstances). Coupled with my extensive over-sleeping, I just don’t have time to do very much with today’s column. The only reason I’ve done anything is because nature (even mine) abhors a vaccuum (horror vacui!).
SHAMORGA (Estonia)
I made my way through Shamorga’s recent EP VPUHIVPRAH without knowing what I was in for. I took the trip based solely on the description at Bandcamp. Here’s just a segment of what you’ll find there:
Inspired by esoteric and mythological traditions, where the land of dreams is situated in the darkness of the underworld, “VPUHIVPRAH” emerges. Through labyrinths of dark corridors, basements of horror, and attics of revelations, where hallucinations and bad trips meet at the summit, where everyone contemplates their own demon.
The EP opens with “TLEN“, the longest track. There, brittle acoustic notes dismally mourn in front of gnarled droning tones that would resemble throat-singing if made by a throat. Those deeper tones are scary as they slowly writhe and gouge, and the others become scary too as the performer begins to slash the chords and cause the bass frequencies to throb.
But the really scary stuff is yet to come. The music frightfully yowls above thumping beats, and it sounds like a cacophony of vicious voices are all being strangled. Those yowling emissions contort; the drums thump more vigorously; the voices screech and scream; shrill frequencies quiver. The drums and other instruments also maniacally hammer and feverishly convulse, but the mood at the end feels like terrible agony.
“V PUH” comes next. It’s also unpredictable, also unsettling. The music sizzles and throbs, eerily wails and viciously jolts, venomously slithers and injects martial beats, sounds brazen and sounds diseased, and something like a siren miserably squirms. The vocals are no more sane or pleasant than before, but grim growls have a greater role and something less ugly briefly speaks at the end.
Third in the list is “I V PRAH“. You might feel like bouncing to this one, but the bobbing grooves are also vanquished by blasting and booming percussion. The music is elaborate madness. Sometimes it feels like an ecstatic rave or an infernal calliope, but also like a psychedelic meltdown. It urgently thrusts and vibrantly darts but also boils and burns. A chorus of crocodiles might be expressing their pleasure, or displeasure.
“V PEKLO” comes last. If you’ve made it this far, if your sanity is still intact and your patience hasn’t been exhausted, you can expect more of the same. Your mind will be boggled one more time, and hopefully fascinated one more time by the song’s labyrinthine warping and weaving. Your sinews might get triggered as well.
The EP is most definitely a weird and strangely rapturous experience. Maybe only weird and strangely rapturous minds will appreciate it. Our maybe I should just speak for myself!
Shamorga is the solo project of Wolos. It was released in late February by Unholy Icon.
https://shamorga.bandcamp.com/album/vpuhivprah
https://www.shamorga.eu/
https://www.facebook.com/unholyicon/
MERESIN (Poland)
What are the odds I would find something to follow Shamorga that’s almost equally bewildering? Well, I did. What I found is “New Religion“, the first single from a sophomore album by the Polish duo Meresin.
This song has a bit more structure than Shamorga’s experimental compositions, and a bit more melody, but it’s also a head-spinner at heart, and the vocals are as savagely ugly as whatever bestiary guards the gates of Hell.
The song moves from typhoons of feverishly roiling and brazenly fiery fretwork backed by thunderous undercurrents to wailing tones of agony and grimly marching beats. It suddenly becomes eerily ethereal, shimmering like some celestial vision. Whirring tremolo’d chords emerge and lead the music in piercing fashion back into a conjunction of storm and earthquake.
The vibrating lead guitar shivers and sends its pealing voice up toward the rafters in the midst of stop-start bursts of destructive rumbling, and the music as a whole seems to soar — a soaring catastrophe matched by the sheer hatefulness of the vocals, though there might also be voices extravagantly singing too!
This song might take your breath away, at the same time as its slashing your mind into shreds. It’s from an album named Anthems of Hatred that’s set for release by Via Nocturna on May 1st.
https://vianocturna.bandcamp.com/album/anthems-of-hatred
https://www.facebook.com/Meresin.Official/
https://www.facebook.com/ViaNocturnaCom/