Artist: Aaen Anima
Title: Pýcha a Svéhlavost + Nikdy Nepředcházejí Pád
Type: 2EPs
Label: Self Released
These two EPs from this Czech duo has no drum work whatsoever, which makes this a difficult listen for me. I originally tagged this material as doom metal but it is far more primitive than all of that genre and most of black metal as well. Each song is broken down into various compositional sections which I am not going to attempt to list or type up. As disc one begins with what seems like tuneless guitar and bass, intermittent acoustics are mixed with the electric style making this more like ambient blackness than metal. The strings add a scariness that is unsettling as the tortured voice masquerading as vocals are strained and painfully anguished. The sense of schizophrenia is inescapable as the manically depressive musical dirge is akin to garrotting yourself with guitar strings. The twisted nature of the song makes it fairly enjoyable if that is possible and one would need to be left alone to wallow in a self pitiful stupor to enjoy this fully.
The second disc comprises of two tracks and begins with more acoustic guitars; it’s a little more focused and brings to mind the more progressive elements of fellow Czech act Root. Opeth would also be a reference point for the purely acoustic based nature employed on the first track. The song adopts a variety of speeds and feels psychedelic in nature in a weird hippy sense. The strangely soothing style is very relaxing in an evil dark ambient texture as you realise that no vocals have appeared by the end of the 13 minute track. The second song treads more acoustics as the ghostly mournful vocals now emerge along with what sounds like low mixed electric guitar or bass which possess a black hint. Whether one actually sits and enjoys, or endures this style of music is debatable and it is safe to say that only the most hardened acoustic and experimental music fans should give this a go, which you can easily do by downloading any of the bands’ music from the first link below for free.
http://aaen-anima.ic.cz/mp3.htm
http://www.myspace.com/aaenanima
Martin Harris
MTUK HOME
