Peccatum "The Moribund People" CD
[The End]
I never really thought of Peccatum as a duo until their last record, and that remains true for this brief EP, upon which Ihsahn and Ihriel are joined only by an exceptional drummer as they further remove themselves from the metal world and reach closer to some sort of dark avant-garde rock experimentalism. Make no mistake, there is distortion, and Ihsahn's snarl is somewhat prominent during a few lines of vocals, but even in "A Penny's Worth of Heart", which is more aggressive at its peaks, the bulk of the track is driven by Ihriel's sinister crooning over pulsing electronics and faint piano, and the distorted riffing is less metal than it is clashing chord phrasings and dissonant picking patterns. Not nearly as over the top amazing as their last record (which is not to say that it's bad), one of the small hitches here is the recording, which is generally quite good, but has a few culpable flaws in terms of overall force and fluidity. I assume Ihsahn was trying to make the thin harshness of his vocals a fitting contrast for the lush smoothness heard in Ihriel's singing, but I think he came up a little short, as the texture is quite nice, but he still sounds too thin and mildly irritating; and the same can be said for his guitar tone. Overall there's just too much midrange clouding things up, so Ihriel's vocals sound amazing and the synths sound quite nice, but the drums are too distant and a touch flat as a result, and the guitars feel suppressed. The end product just lacks the forceful clarity and presence of the last full-length, which hinders even the title track, which is an excellent song where the drummer gets the most room to move around, as his awesome jazzy flare works great against the subdued basslines and synths that back Ihriel's strongest vocal harmonies herein, and Ihsahn's work in this track is largely singing as well, while the guitar riffs are sort of sparse and twisted when distorted. Closing things out is an ode to Quorthon in an interpretation of Bathory's "For All Those Who Died", where once more Ihriel's somber vocal harmonies take the lead over bright piano and shuffling electronic sounds before an unexpectedly raw and true to form black metal power chord surge (in true Bathory fashion) comes in midway through with Ihsahn's shrieking screams and bashing, simplistic percussion later accented by orchestral synths. The layout looks very good and is printed with a satin finish in entirely black and white with lots of tiny text that looks nice, even if it can be hard on the eyes. And I do actually dig some of the lyrics as well: "This daily charade of portioned out compassion, Who dares to know himself in another, To tie a gallows rope of mockery and spite for the dawn, To breathe the air of night of rain of solitude." The CD-Rom portion of the disc contains a black and white video for the title track in which the quality is fairly professional, but the content is, in a word: Dreadful. Ihsahn and Ihriel trying too hard to look serious and dramatic while singing at nothing, random shots of male ballet dancers against black space, "artistic" storytelling shots of dudes in suits wearing weird masks and shit... it basically makes no sense and comes across as terribly cheesy, so... it actually sort of takes away from the track when you hear it with the visual accompaniment in my opinion. The songwriting on the two originals is very nice, and I'll be looking forward to the two's next proper full-length, but I could do without the cover (which doesn't really fit) and the video, and I'm not as impressed as I would've been were the sound quality not lacking. I'm sure less picky listeners will still be fond of this, but when held against the stellar monument that was "Lost in Reverie", I have to be a little hard on this one, you know? (6/10)
Running time - 15:11, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: The Moribund People, A Penny's Worth of Heart]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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