Dodecahedron

By Júlio Valada on Jan 15, 2012 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: Dodecahedron
Label: Season Of Mist
Tracks: 7
Release Date: January 20th
Length: 52′ 21”

Riff Score: 8.0/10

Dodecahedron are a Dutch collective that’s releasing their debut album on Season Of Mist, more specifically on their Underground Activists subsidiary, and they intend on leaving this world in flames with their brand of apocalyptic black metal.

Those who’ve been watching black metal’s development over the last decade know what to expect when the words “orthodox black metal” make their way into a conversation. This relatively recent approach to the more common second wave styling has crept under the minds of many legions all over the globe, and the French scene alone has been thriving with inspirational albums and has many times been hailed as the third wave of black metal. Whether this reality is factual or not, whether this is just another byproduct or another variant of the second wave or not, is still being debated as of today and a consensus hasn’t been reached. White smoke (or in this case maybe black smoke would be more suiting) hasn’t come out of the metal fans’ chimneys and a decision as to what to make of this “trend” is still vague.

Nevertheless it would be ludicrous for me, or anyone for that matter, to try and lessen the impact that these bands had on the metal world, and names like the French powerhouses Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega have carved a name and throne for themselves in this new world of the black arts. These two in particular have been at the forefront of this battle for recognition and the later has even been transformed in some kind of unattainable deity that’s revered and feared by its followers. It’s not very hard to find out where all of this came from, as the walls of jarring dissonant and atonal riffing and avant-garde leanings, used and abused by such bands as DSO, can be traced to one of the best death metal albums ever written. I’m talking, obviously, of Gorgut’s masterpiece Obscura, which has proven to be of such forward thinking proportions and so ahead of its time that only in the past few years people around the world are finally understanding its full meaning and exploring its compositions, treating them as the much vaunted inspiration they’d been looking for ages. It’s funny how things work in a world where black and death have been polar opposites in the metal spectrum, only to be found together and bound in a clashing tormented torrent of newfound creativity.

After such works as Fas – Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum or Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars, it would be understandable that this writing style would become a new trend, but it was with 2010’s album Paracletus that the bubble finally burst and all its hidden pus has finally flown into infecting everyone around the globe with its vicious sickness. It’s here that a new era, being signaled by the new decade where we now stand, starts and a flock of clones and imitators to use lesser terms, or adepts and apostates to use more endearing terms, now appears. In this daunting scenario of the spawning of a new generation of bands appears this Dutch collective, Dodecahedron, that from early on show clearly who their primary influence is. Yes, these are the spawns of Paracletus, and their self-titled debut appears here in the same rain coat of its forefather and predecessor, reaching out at the ambrosia and trying to conquer a place for itself in this darkened world.

The album opens with the blasting brutality of “Allfather” and it’s hard to remain impervious to the sheer amount of energy displayed here, with over six minutes of claustrophobic and dissonant black metal that still has place for a few atmospheric passages and avant-garde leanings with the vocalist’s strange stuttering moans of agony. The next couple of songs take the album into a higher dimension of sound, encompassing nearly twenty minutes between themselves. The first, “I, Chronocrator”, starts again viciously brutal as the album’s opener with great emphasis on riffing and changing tempos, before it falls into a section of dissonant ambiences near the three minute mark, only to rise up again as a beast from the underworld. The bass really shines on this song and some of its moments are almost jazzy in nature. The following one, “Vanitas”, starts with a swirling torrent of tortured agonizing murmurs and bestial pitch-shifted growls, lead on by the jazzy drumming and gentle bass strumming, always maintaining a sense of tension and holding back its release for almost eleven minutes. It’s a great example of how atmosphere can be properly used without inducing boredom.

Before the final three songs which are all part of a bigger piece named “View From Hverfell”, we have another really weird moment with the interlude “Descending Jacob’s Ladder”, and classifying this proves to be a daunting task. I dare you to listen to this on headphones with the lights dimmed, I dare you! The three-piece song that remains is a continuation of the dark claustrophobic mood of the album, with Part I acting as a foreboding for the following piece of the puzzle that suddenly and violently explodes in relentless tremolo riffing and blasting brutality, until if falls down again into a gentle piece of ambience. But this is all a lure as the violence is only averted as opposed to gone, and the song continues to build up this illusion of solace on you until the final piece takes centre stage and again tears down all your hopes. This final part is the longest one and another glowing example of the songwriting ability that this bands exudes.

I have to say that this album has pleasantly surprised me, and despite all its clear influences I can say that in a way it slightly detaches itself from the “clone” categorization. The band has clear ideas of the path they’re travelling and seem to know exactly what type of songs they want to write, and more than that they happen to execute it with a flawless delivery. This is a clear continuation, or rather expansion, of all that has been described in the early paragraphs of this review and if you happen to like that type of black metal, it’s safe to say that you’ll be in for a treat. Dodecahedron strike me as a band, that despite not being unique in presentation nor sound, have enough quality to become a regular in the European black metal scene. Furthermore, their clear balance of aggression, melody, atmosphere and brutality, with a constant emphasis on creating good riffs instead of relying solely on dissonances, makes them a valid choice for recommendation. This is an album that might go under many people’s radars but I think that it will eventually earn the recognition it deserves, even if it takes some time.

By: Júlio Valada