Are you looking for otherworldly blackned death metal, perhaps? Do you revere H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos? And you do not loathe bands throwing in some melodiousness and very much varying tempos? If you're in for that kind of traits in death metal, then Italian chaos mongers Azrath-11 (or without dash, or Azrath XI) and their sophomore album 'Ov Tentacles and Spirals' might be exactly what you're searching for!
The 2011 debut album 'The Shrine ov All Hallucination' and I have never physically been at the same point of space and time, but I have telepathically probed it (well, some of its songs I listened on that tube thing, you know), and found it is pretty well "out there". Finding this second album was pure luck, basically. It was sold for pretty low price and a few snippets of it sounded cool, so I bought it. It happened so that the whole of it was good and would have been worth the full price. Something that does not happen but every now and then with these findings from bargaing bins, because I do not want to listen to whole albums before buying them. I still want to experience some suprising moments, whether positive or negative. And of course, the artwork as well as the lyrics.
While covering Morbid Angel's slithering classic 'God of Emptiness', A-11 do not really sound like them but here and there ('Surge' and its follower being good examples), or generally, US death metal styles. Instead they are clearly more influenced by Polish hordes like Behemoth, Vader and Lost Soul, and such practitioners of ominous, eerie and otherworldly sonical crudity. Ultra-blasting drums and tremolo or palm-muted guitar riffing (think and lacerating tone) meet slower parts, where two lead guitars interact, conjuring up mystical melodiusness, and the drums are used with imagination, serving some full kit experimentations (Naer Mataron's Asmodeus Draco Dux is the drummer here, and he also took part in songwriting). And sometimes mixing the other way around. Perhaps it's needless to mention that the songs mostly do contain progression. There's also full-on blasting stuff, like 'Maelstorm Descent', though.
Generally, this is definitely aggressive and bestial, but also odd and ominous, sometimes rather dissonant, blackened death metal. The music is multi-faceted (or perhaps multi-tentacled) and isn't easily ingested. Soundwise, this is clear and punchy (thanks to the audible bass guitar), but a bit too compressed; it definitely could be more airy for more voluminous atmosphere. A few sound effects, like churning sea and ominous horns, were added to boost Lovecraftian vibes, and there's some keyboards in carpet-style playing. The vocals are raspy throat growl in low and lower pitches, which is powerful enough, even though a bit low in volume at times. This fish-human voice is occasionally accompanied by more high-pitched growls, even with a few lines of clean hollering and chanting.
Azrath-11 are able to grasp a listener with their tentacles (now do I need to remind that this includes lyrics inspired by the Cthulhu mythos, thee who thought about them "tentacles"!?). Suitable cover artwork should catch eyes of those interested in horrors of the Great Old Ones. In this form, it is already lethal, if nothing totally unique; it has its characteristic, for sure, but also does not trample far at all from quite usual regimes. As this came out in 2013, it is nice to notice, that the band are finally tracking their next album. Bring forth the unearthly! Ia! Ia!
Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Lane
08/30/2021 17:11
