Artist: Transcending Bizarre?
Title: The Misanthrope’s Fable
Type: Album
Label: Dissonart Productions
Everything about this album told it was going to be strange – the description I read of the band, its name (with a question mark), the artwork, the tale and monologues within the lyrics from a character named Descarte – and I hadn’t yet heard a note. Presented to me as Symphonic Black Metal from Greece, it is simultaneously theatrical, dark and stormy. The band is aptly named but this work recalls many other high quality bands in its musical structures: Anorexia Nervosa, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren, Devilish Impressions, Behemoth, Septic Flesh, Rotting Christ and even Diablo Swing Orchestra.
Once we’ve got the intro out of the way, we’re launched into dark atmospheric Black Metal from the fairground with sing-a-long parts. “The Beginning” is engaging. It’s hard not to get carried away with this. “Realizing the Blindness” takes us further into the horror show. Pulsating and driving, evil hangs in the air. The album is told as a developing story with extracts from a long-suffering thinker called Descarte with musical narratives and Descarte’s responses. I don’t know enough about the philosopher Descartes to know if there’s a deliberate comparison here, but I guess not as this Descarte has gone beyond the rational and the thinking, like the music, portrays the delirious, dark and desperate. There’s seems to be a lyrical obsession with DNA. The sound meanwhile is big. The keyboards add weighty and malevolent moment. We move onto symphonic Black Metal of the Dimmu kind. The air is ghastly. The fury of “Envisaging the Ideal Planet” gives way to swathes of angst-ridden sadness, and following a maelstrom of darkness, we hear a Therion-style chorus. It’s very wordy and the croaking is Filthesque but this is a small percentage of the activity. Only darkness dominates. The drumming is 1000mph, the guitars are blackened, the keyboards whistle in sinister fashion like evil hanging in the air and it’s altogether punishing. A description I read refers to this as “post-modern symphonic Black Metal”. Whilst musically cohesive, it could also be considered the oddball album of the year. Above all it’s packed with quality, excitement and atmosphere.
And so it goes on. Utterly dark and sinister, the ghouls come out of the woodwork on “The Murder of the Young Ones” before performing a choral section. This precedes a rousing guitar solo. Moods change subtly as “The Empire of Mind” comes along and whilst fast, furious and menacing as ever, it’s pure theatre. I like the depth. There’s so much going on. “Descarte’s Wrath” is geared to horror film images. The opening is mysterious, then all hell breaks loose. The distorted voice of Descarte croaks with all sorts of nasty things going on in the background. Then “Broad Daylight Misanthropy” is pure Anorexia nervosa. It’s psychotic with screams and murderous music to match, pausing for a moment to allow us to reflect on all this horror. “The Return to Nothingness” is in three sections and serves as another, final exercise in pulsating horror and drama. It now sounds as if dolls have come alive in the middle of the night. The horror develops into desperate screams, and then it all terminates on a single, solitary note.
This album has many admirable qualities. It’s sheer, non-stop entertainment, it’s extremely dark, in fact it’s almost so over the top that it made me laugh in places. Make no mistake, this is a journey of horror. The music is invigorating, intriguing, interesting and always full of layers and ideas. All in all, “The Misanthrope’s Fable” is well executed and is a great album.
http://www.myspace.com/transcendingbizarre
http://www.myspace.com/dissonartproductions
