| Product: |
Complications: Trilogy Of Intricacy - Age Of Silence |
| Date: |
10/11/07 (60 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: An interesting concept performed by veterans of the business.
Disadvantages: No one gets to strut their stuff apart from the vocalist, who harks back to the seventies.
At first glance – if you’re a black metal fan, that is – this eccentric band appears to be some form of supergroup, comprising members from notable bands such as Carpathian Forest, Borknagar and even a survivor of early Mayhem. Closer examination reveals that Age of Silence, for all its oddness, is primarily a side project of Norway’s lighter prog metal band Winds, and seemingly a means for its members to let off steam recording experimental music without fear of destroying their already rather tenuous careers.
The needlessly over-titled ‘Complications: Trilogy of Intricacy’ narrates the story of a supermarket being opened in Hell, with Lars Nedland’s pun-filled lyrics intended as a satire of the shopping experience in general. It’s an interesting and rather funny idea, and as a limited concept perfectly suits a shorter release such as this, rather than a more substantial album where it would doubtless become irritating and repetitive towards the end. Oddly, and rather disappointingly, the general feel is that this is Nedland’s own pet project, performed with assistance from his backing band Winds, as his multi-layered vocal duets with himself, and variety of restlessly shifting experimental vocal melodies in the style of seventies progressive rock, really do overpower the supporting riffs of Kobbergard and Extant, and the surprisingly tame drums of Hellhammer. The production job is fairly sleek and keeps the sound much more in the vein of progressive metal and rock than the dingy depths of black metal, meaning that even the rare occasions that the guitars scratch away at a dirtier riff, or Hellhammer unleashes the ticking double bass pedals, there’s a distinct lack of heaviness or aggression as the whole thing stays rooted in the whimsical fable.
Each member of the gathered musical throng is experienced at the sort of experimental attitude a release such as this requires, so it’s disappointing to hear most of them fall compliantly in line to provide backing riffs and, in the case of Andy Winter’s keyboards, mere atmosphere. Winter’s contributions increase slightly with each song, culminating in a reasonable yet still stifled solo spot of sorts paired up with the guitars in the finale, but I still felt a little let down after hearing his impressive work in Paul Kuhr’s Subterranean Masquerade, a similar but far more entertaining and inventive prog metal side project that even manages to live up musically to its brilliant name. Despite each song here boasting a central instrumental section, these mostly see the established riffs continue for several bars before Nedland comes back in with ever more ludicrous manners of singing.
1. The Idea of Independence and the Reason Why it’s Austere
2. Mr. M, Man of Muzak
3. Vouchers, Coupons and the End of a Shopping Session
Lars Nedland’s infernal story moves from a generalised scene-setting introduction in the first song to an account of the shopping experience in the second, and finally its aftermath in the third; so not so much a trilogy as a story that happens to be divided into three uneven tracks. The lyrics are entertaining for the most part, even if the forced satire and obvious puns come off as a little silly and even a little patronising in their repetition, just in case the reader/listener didn’t “get” first time around that the focus on barbecue special offers was because, like, this is Hell, where there’s fire and stuff aplenty. Although he forsakes the more customary black metal screech for entirely clean singing, Nedland’s lyrics are still occasionally indecipherable due to the odd styles in which he chooses to sing them, reminding me of similar tomfoolery from the vocalists of Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator to name a couple. There’s some nice layering afoot, meaning the singer gets to replace what would traditionally be a lead guitar behind some of the verses with a simple copy of himself singing “ahh” a few times, and although there’s a distinct feeling that most of his deviancy is eccentric purely for the sake of it, it adds a nice sense of character to this E.P.
There’s a general tendency of improvement as the songs go on, all of the instruments being permitted slightly more freedom of expression in each consecutive piece, but never really succeeding in evoking the hellish atmosphere that the listener would perhaps expect. As mentioned earlier, Andy Winter is unleashed to some extent in the final song, though the decisions he makes are a little questionable to say the least: he opts to replicate a sound I can only describe as that of a 1950s B-movie UFO in the outro, and as for his chirpy leads in tandem with the guitars earlier on, he seems to unintentionally evoke the very “muzak” being condemned by the lyrics (if this is intentional, then it’s all the better for it, but it still sounds fairly rubbish). The oddest thing about this highly avant-garde and experimental release is how stilted, repetitive and dull it sounds on the whole, boasting little musical complexity or innovation and relying solely on a bloke singing out of time into a microphone about some people going shopping and burning to death, delivered in a variety of high-pitched voices.
This band released a full-length album prior to this that I would expect (and certainly hope) to be of more worth, and of course their more prominent work in Winds is quite enjoyable, if a bit bland. If you came here looking for some avant-garde black metal – and hell, who doesn’t need some of that in their lives? – there are other acts I would recommend instead, none of which allow a well thought-out, but ultimately rather daft plot to overtake the music in this way.
Summary: Age of Silence's second release (2005).
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