Carl-Michael Eide and Einar Sjurso should be well known names as innovators within the Norwegian extreme and black music scene. Between them they have played with Dodheimsgard, Inferno, Beyond Dawn, Aura Noir, Ulver, and various others but most importantly as far as their collaboration in Virus is concerned, musically this is pretty much an extension of the cult act Ved Buens Ende. They were one of many bands who started experimenting and taking black metal out of its normal confines and into the avant-garde and around 1995 many weird and wonderful albums were appearing including Ved Buens debut and only long player ‘Written In Waters.’ The band disappeared into the ether they had created shortly after this with Carl-Michael later returning with Virus and bringing out their debut, the strange and eclectic Carheart in 2003. After long periods of inactivity this was finally followed by the excellent album ‘The Black Flux’ in 2008 and I like probably many expected that to be it for a seriously long amount of time if not forever. But nothing is written in waters (sorry) it would seem as just three years later we have new album with the incredibly off the wall title ‘The Agent That Shapes The Desert’ along with news that the group are playing some select dates with likeminded comrades Ulver.
If you have never heard Virus or VBE this is likely to be an odd listening experience for you, if you have perhaps its strange forms will make sense in the great scheme of things, but then again perhaps not. The title track is full of somewhat illogical sounding rhythms which on the bed of a springing bass sound (provided by new member Bjeima) have a jazz sounding feel about them. The unmistakable vocals of Carl-Michael arrive, clear in annunciation and slowly but commandingly adding to the other already deranged musical textures. The song is not fast and is not in the realms of metal really, they have referred to themselves as an eccentric rock band and that fits perfectly. Cantering drums pick up as into ‘Continental Drift’ and repeat as the songs persuasive signature piece but the doom tinged mainframe of the number with poetic and abstract lyrics has any semblance of structured convention quickly disappearing. There is lots going on, the rhythmic thrust changes with strident and discordant guitar stabs and you can only wonder what these musical musicians have up their sleeve to woo you with next. The spring uncoils and bounces up and down with ‘Chromium Sun’ the vocals pick up and become more unstable and profound in line with the music and talk about such things as “ice cream from the sun,” making you wonder what drugs were involved in the writing of them.
Sometimes songs like the ‘Red Desert Sun’ do remind a fair bit of the mighty Voivod something that Virus do not dispute, it is obvious that the two bands paths have crossed and the wavelengths although on the whole different sometimes share congruity. Shimmering, glimmering, twisting and turning in upon itself the album progresses in convoluted but engrossing fashion as it takes us from one domain to another. There is a bit of Bauhaus about the sinister slither of ‘Where The Flame Survives.’ Final surprise is left to last song ‘Call Of The Tuskers’ as a guest vocalist sweeps in, equally as identifiable as Carl Michael. You should guess who straight away, if not think who they are sharing stage with.
There is plenty packed into the albums 43 minutes and at that length it should on the whole captivate rather than bewilder the listener. Hopefully they will not disappear again and we can look forward to more from Virus in the future but for the time being if you are looking for a strange trip drop this as soon as possible.
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