Week 2: Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless (1,324 views)

[IhateMana]

yeah lol so we're just gonna go ahead with this one cause I've never been about structure, you know?

[Baronessa]

First impressions: I liked the technicality combined with an awareness of nuance. The whole album is very noisy, but the stuff that's going on underneath the fuzz, like the guitar bends and chromatic slides, is the real star of the show. Some bass guitar would have been nice, though.

I'll probably come back to it and actually read the lyrics -- I'm not sure whether the anime connotations detract from the credibility or not for me.

"The Necropolitan", "Compiling Autumn" and "Jigsaw" were the highlights.

[IhateMana]

well that was... unnervingly accessible

[Baronessa]

Yeah, I was told to expect Venereology or Interstellar Space.

It was not that.

[Zedd Squared]

Ah hell yeah that was a badass album. Probably the best grindcore album I've heard so far (though I've only heard like 5) with an amazing production job. The guitars and drums were EQ-ed terrifically and work together to create an awesome aural assault. Chang's vocals make me think a bit of first album era Tomas Lindberg which is fun as well, even if they're entirely indecipherable.

A few random specific observations I made while listening:

-Great slower riff in Vacuum Sleeve.
-A standout drum performance in Pattern Blue, which also does a cool chunky riff at the end where the guitars are playing a slower part with blasts on top.
-There's a nice usage of higher range riffing in End of Rebirth that provides a nice contrast to the low end chugging.
-The no drums intro to Loveless creates a very threatening atmosphere (when the drums do kick in they are pretty groovy and mid tempo in a nice way though).
-0:40 in Radiant Arkham has more "full" sounding chord voicings than much of the album so far.
-The machine gun stop-start riffing in Use of Weapons fits the title quite well. Nice black metally tremolo picking towards the end too.
-Nice thrash riff at the start of Jigsaw. The tritone riff right after that reminds me of old school Meshuggah.
-Jigsaw also has some Voivod-ian vibes around 0:45 to the end with some riffing that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Negatron or Phobos albums.
-The Third Children in general is a highlight with it's longer running time and a larger variety of riffs.
-A Leaden Stride to Nowhere starts with a riff that reminds me of 90s groove metal a bit. As it goes on though, it feels like the long breakdown portion kills the momentum of the album more than adding variety which is what I was hoping from the longest song. Nonetheless, the riff that kicks in about three minutes into the track is enjoyably brutal. Makes me think of something from BTBAM's The Silent Circus album.
-Drowned ends the whole thing on a strong note, featuring more noticeably punky riffing about 30 seconds in and elsewhere than the rest of the album which is a fun extra spice.

Overall, A Leaden Stride to Nowhere is the only slight misstep I'd say, but overall it's a terrific piece of audio chaos while still having enough structure to not just sound like noise.

Also, why would the anime connotations be an issue? I'm no anime fan myself but it seems as valid a subject to write lyrics about as anything else.

[Rodney Blazershorts]

Since lyrics are apparently such an integral part of the listening experience, there are maybe 3 or four songs (judging mostly from the titles) that are loosely inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, the most analyzed, discussed, and academically reviewed anime of all time. If that's less credible than DnD or Warhammer I leave up to you.

[Baronessa]

I tend to have an aversion to lyrics that could potentially date the album's thesis heavily. I guess that might be a pretentious thing to ask of music but I like it when albums go out of their way to stand out on their own merits.

As for The Inalienable Dreamless, I did read the lyrics upon a second listen and not only do they not matter at all, they're terrible on the eyes too. Probably going to leave it at that for this album.

[Zedd Squared]

While it's certainly not always the case, I usually don't weigh the quality of lyrics as being a particularly important factor in my enjoyment of an extreme metal oriented album. I read through the first 4-5 songs and they had kind of a cool abstract vibe but they didn't really mean anything to me either. Not something that hinders my appreciation of the album though, because they accomplished their mission statement sonically so well.

[Zedd Squared]

Dec 5, 2019 21:40:52 GMT IhateMana said:

well that was... unnervingly accessible

Hey so I know this post was well over two weeks ago but, what were your overall thoughts on the album? Did you enjoy it in spite of it being more accessible than you hoped?

[IhateMana]

yeah I actually did like it quite a bit. Slower moments were my favourite though