Elysian Blaze - Blood Geometry   

An epic monument to bleakness

As someone who spends a hell of a lot of time listening to drone and doom, I’m well acquainted with songs and albums of considerable length and have often felt a sense of amusement when others who are not so inclined have looked on in complete befuddlement at some of the track lengths on my favourite albums. That slightly smug sense of mirth disappeared in an instant, however, when I sat down to tackle the latest offering by Adelaide’s Elysian Blaze – an album that spans two discs and runs for an outrageously long two hours and ten minutes.

Elysian Blaze’s sound sits somewhere between that of Denmark’s Nortt and the US’ Xasthur – both of which are (or in the case of Xasthur, were) one-man black metal projects, as is Elysian Blaze itself. There is a heavy hand lent towards the atmospheric bleakness of the latter day work of the former while there is a relatively simplistic though claustrophobic black metal approach that draws the comparisons to the latter. The mixing of these two styles is a pretty successful one (primarily because it has been done by countless others to great effect so we know that it works) though, for me personally, I feel that Elysian Blaze has the balance a little wrong with a tendency to favour the atmospheric side over the black metal side a little too much for my liking. It’s a choice that would’ve been absolutely fine had the album run for half its length but, with these gargantuan proportions, Blood Geometry has a tendency to drag its feet a bit and finds itself more of a mood piece that’s better suited as background music than as an album to be consumed directly.

None of what I’ve just said means that Blood Geometry is a bad album – because it certainly is far from that – but what it does mean is that it’s one that isn’t necessarily at the top of the priority list when you’re searching for something to listen to unless you’re actually looking for something that meets its narrow and specific background listening purpose. For me, I found it a great accompaniment while reading a book or when nodding off to sleep, for example, but struggled to identify with it during other, more active listening pursuits.

That aside, one of the real highlights on Blood Geometry is the excellent utilisation of synths and keys. Now, obviously synths and atmospheric black metal tend to go hand in hand but the dense layering mixed with smart decisions about when and where to bring them to the fore sets sole band member Mutatiis’ implementation apart from many of his contemporaries. Whether it’s during the album’s more atmospheric moments or during its heavier, black metal moments, the dark and rich texture created by the synths serves as a common element that grounds and bridges the album’s two poles, creating a consistent musical underpinning and a clarity of vision that is an utterly essential quality for an album of such a hefty, daunting length.

Blood Geometry is not going to be an album for everybody but nor does it try to be – it is an album that is immensely challenging yet ultimately very rewarding provided you are willing to listen to it and absorb it on its own terms. It’s actually quite a strange feeling to recommend an album while simultaneously knowing that I’m unlikely to really give it the number of repeat listens that such a recommendation would usually imply, but that’s largely a consequence of the kind of material that this album offers – something that’s highly enjoyable but only when consumed in the right place at the right time.

(Osmose Productions)

Added: July 4th 2012
Reviewer: Michael O'Brien
Score:
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