I'm listening to Chaining the Katechon (2008). One 22-minute song. Starts as if it was in the middle of an extreme black metal song. No intro. Full on nutbars right at the get-go. Guitars full of distortion, scraping- the-dungeon-walls vocals, drums hitting maddening rhythms I can't begin to comprehend.
The weirder it is, the more I'm interested. This hits the nail on the head. Those French posturers. Those pretentious black metal elitists.
How dare they tempt me so. They manifest my desire for weirdness with their ultra-weird music, something few other bands aspire to do.
They use a lot of techniques and sounds that other black metal bands don't. The sound varies, differs, stays interesting, fresh. Terrifying, even. It's recorded well, too, with emphasis on a lovely mixture of all sounds. Nothing is too loud, nothing is too distorted. The music swells, quells, and loops over mountains of suffering. It's not so heavy that it's stupid and you scoff at it. They kick off half the distortion sometimes and totally change up the feel of what they're doing.
They probably could have made this piece many songs, but then that would require less attention from the listener. Deathspell demands your attention, or they can just as well leave you behind. They do nothing to draw in the casual listener; they do everything to draw in the avant garde listener.
Elitists. How I love Deathspell.
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