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| Photograph by Edward S. Curtis. |
Near the end of January, I reviewed a demo by a black metal band called Ad Infinitum. I liked it. Eventually, the guy behind the band read my review and liked what I had to say, so he told me to check out his full-length debut, which he had released shortly after I wrote the review of his demo. So I downloaded this album, and let me tell you that Ad Infinitum's music is excellent.
The production is as cold as deep space. The sound is dark, cloudy, and depressing. It sort of reminds me of bands like Xasthur, but more polished. It's a grim wall of sound that surrounds you with the cries of dying stars. Not only is the production bone-chillingly cold, but so is the music. The guy behind Ad Infinitum, simply known as J.G.S., handles all the instruments himself, and I must say he's really skilled with all of them. I can't really tell if he uses a drum machine or real drums. What I can tell is that they're performed really well. They mainly stick to slow beats similar to Xasthur but they also play a lot of mid-paced rhythms that feature a great deal of double bass.
The vocals consist of a scream that is drowning in reverb. The performance is grotesque and violent. I'm guessing this is what it would sound like if the void could speak. The guitars sound just as viciously cold as the rest of the music. Sometimes they play some dark shredding that sounds like a binary star system where the two stars are about to collide and tear each other apart. Other times they play some really atmospheric tremolo riffs that feel like streams of interstellar gas blowing against your skin. He then tops it all off by including some atmospheric synthesizer work that perfectly capture the cold emptiness of space.
Woven Within is filled with awesome atmospheric black metal that is as cold as the void. Best of all is that this album is available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp, so go get it.
[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]
Very glad I read this review since I am really enjoying this album, especially the spacey vibe. Now you have me wondering about the drums, if they are programmed a lot was done with making the dynamics seem more human - you can even hear when the cymbals are supposed to be or are bell hits. Maybe it's triggered? In any event the percussion on this is very engaging.
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