Geometry and the occult have forever been deeply intertwined. With its twelve pentagonal faces, the dodecahedron is one of the five Platonic Solids; objects of mathematical and aesthetic perfection that were rooted in the mathematical mysticism of Pythagoras, their influence filtering down through the ages via Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and modern-day Satanic lore. All of which makes 'Dodecahedron' an appropriate moniker for a band so intent on the marriage of the angular and the arcane.
Their self-titled debut is a mash-up of styles, incorporating black metal, post-rock, sludge and jazz into the mix. At times it can be ferocious. 'Allfather' is an ugly, clattering, Deathspell-like cacophony of whirling, breakneck riffs, warped and distorted jazzy outbursts and precision pummeling, eventually blossoming into awkward, sludgy chugging and sprawling, depressive chords. 'I. Chronocrator' meanwhile is jazzier and more demented still; a tangential, grinding hybrid of Cephalic Carnage and Dillinger met with delirious dissonance, slow-pounding, dread-filled riffs and inhuman drums.
'Vanitas' meanwhile crawls along despondently, warped chords masking a slow-burning chimera of sludge and doom that breaks into barrages of muscular, Gojira-like mechanical riffs and some slowly-building, almost post-rocky arrangements shot through with an anaemic depressive BM aesthetic. The nicely-titled 'Descending Jacob's Ladder' offers just what its title would suggest; an esoteric, dreamlike montage of distorted frequencies, frictious droning, and a series of rasping, FX-laden screams and invocations, like some intercepted transmission from across dimensions. It might be something that's been done a thousand times before, but it has a sci-fi/occult feel to it that's verging on the cinematic.
The second half of the album is entitled 'The View from Hverfell', and is broken down into three chapters. 'I: Head Above the Heavens' sets things up with more massive, mechanical, rocking-out riffs, sinking into near-silence before 'II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos' bursts forth with some beautifully raw and cascading tremolo riffing, all freezing, plunging urgency and sorrowful warmth. It just comes out of nowhere, and is easily the album's stand-out moment. The song then changes tack completely, shifting to fuzzy, all-encompassing riffs that sit somewhere between Devin Townsend and the momentous, purposeful strides that Blut Aus Nord surface with every now and again. This sense of Hyperborean euphoria spills over into 'III: A Traveler of the Seed of The Earth', with a lofty, slowly-bouncing riff flanked by machinelike, V28-style melodic chugging, the track then finally returning to that clattering, cascading BM riff from part 2, more mellow and triumphant this time around and bringing the album to a close that feels satisfyingly meaningful somehow.
'Dodecahedron' might not be a staggeringly original listen, but it's certainly a varied and well-executed one, accentuated by an appropriately clinical and polished production and some genuinely great moments here and there. It arguably tries too hard to cover as many bases as possible, resulting in some confusion of identity, but it somehow manages to never sound contrived, avoiding degenerating into a fragmented mess by balancing out its various disparate elements across its runtime to form something that feels whole. Whatever it is.
http://www.ddchdrn.com
Ross Taylor
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