(Andy Synn opts to finish off the week with a last-minute review of the brand new album from Wesenwille, out now on Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions.)
I doubt it’s going to be much of a shock or a revelation when I say that, historically, much of Black Metal’s (f)ire and fury has been fuelled by disaffection and dissatisfaction with the modern world.
Whether it’s materialism, consumerism, capitalism… pick your poison really… many practitioners of “the black arts” seem to consider themselves above and beyond such mundane matters, which is probably one reason (among many) why so much Black Metal seeks to recapture or rediscover the glories of the pagan past… regardless of whether those glory days ever actually truly existed.
On the flip-side, however, there are still those artists who, rather than simply rejecting the trials and trappings of modernity out of hand, choose instead to embrace and channel the alienation and estrangement of our empty existence into their music, exploring the urban concrete jungle of now rather than the great vast forest of then.
And A Material God, the second album from Dutch duo Wesenwille, is the latest attempt to provide a fitting soundtrack to our everyday experiences of existential dread and post-industrial ennui.
