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Recommended by us on 29th May 2009
...according to our Brett on Thu 28 May, 2009.
BLARGHOWNYAGGIWGOWGOSGUYUURRGH! Ant and Phil have just been talking about the most painful things that've ever happened to them and Malfeasance by l'Acephale was the album wot got them going. I don't want to hear about bad things happening to good feet anymore, I'd rather listen to this horrifically ace combination of black metal, power electronics and dark ambient stylings with its intriguing (though increasingly fashionable) use of Eastern sounds and tunings.. There's monky chanting on it too (not monkey chanting, though that would be good). It's like the Dalai Lama stabbing up Friar Tuck (who's black now) and it's on Aurora Borealis who are doing pretty much everything right just now.* In the wake of their polarising first AB release, Mord und Totschlag , L’ACEPHALE return with Malefeasance, a lengthy and complex affair that further explores their fascinations and strikes headlong into the darkest of musical vistas.
* The album begins with ’Vainamoinen Nacht’, a distinctly ambient and largely gentle piece, as warping tones begin to collide with the intoning of the Eddas and Slavic choirs. ’Hitori Bon Odori’ continues themes found on Mord und Totschlag, repetitive acoustic riffing, joining with vocal chants and some executioner’s snare rolls. ’A Burned Village’ is a more Black Metal track, slow martial drums and staccato riffing, with layers of vocal and even some aetherial keyboard. Perhaps these last two tracks best show the nature of Set Sothis’ collaborations with Markus Wolff (Waldteufel, Crash Worship), sharing some of his vocal and percussive styles. ’From A Miserable Abode’ takes us into more familiar L’ACEPHALE territory as droning distorted guitar is swallowed gradually and ineffably under panning layers of shrieked vocals, swathes of electronic noise and maelstrom before passing over into Tibetan ritual music like some horrific and excoriating funerary rite.
* "Sleep Has His House’, a near 15 minute track of feedback scree cut through with repetitive heavy handed strumming and culminating in a curiously intoned vocal piece that recalls prime SWANS.Album closer ’Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted’ is a knowing 23 minutes with some of the quietest moments on the album, as dreamlike interludes pass into arcs of harsh noise followed by acoustic guitars before once again entering the dream state, a field recording from beyond consciousness.
* For fans of: Wolves In The Throne Room, Neurosis, Leviathan, Watain, KTL
* Tracklist
1. Vainamoinen Nacht 2 Hitori Bon Odori 3. A Burned Village 4 From a Miserable Abode (alt mix) 5. Sleep Has His House 6. Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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