Album Type: Full-length
Date
Released:
17/03/2017
Label: Season of Mist
At 41 minutes, “Kwintessens” is
deceptively compact for the multitudes within.
Each track, even the instrumental interludes, displays remarkable
prowess while remaining confrontational and almost unbearably anguished.
“Kwintessens”
CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
Prelude
2.
TETRAHEDRON – The Culling of the Unwanted from the Earth
3.
HEXAHEDRON – Tilling the Human Soil
4.
Interlude
5.
OCTAHEDRON – Harbinger
6.
DODECAHEDRON – An Ill-Defined Air of Otherness
7.
Finale
8.
ICOSAHEDRON – The Death of Your Body
The
Review
Spend
even a modicum of time skimming reddit boards, Joe Rogan podcasts, or YouTube
documentaries, and you are likely to encounter sacred geometry: a broad term
for a panoply of beliefs ascribing power, intent, and divine influence in the
shapes and mathematics of the universe.
The Netherlands
“Kwintessens”, their second
full-length for Season
of Mist, focuses on the relationship between man and his deity, but
it’s clear that Dodecahedron
is set to imbue every moment with intense dread. From the opener, “Prelude”, there is an underlying martial structure – drummer
Barendregt creates an unrelenting field of percussion while ambient howls swirl
and guitarists Nienhuis and Bonis alternate between regimented riffing and
ethereal shrieks. “TETRAHEDRON – The Culling of the Unwanted from the Earth”, wrenches
between borderline grind chaos and progressive, polyrhythmic riffing – almost
like a birth spasm, violently delivering Eikenaar as “narrator” into a violent
universe: “The energy oozing /Chaos
leaking from the gashes … The primal source opened / Translating all hidden
thoughts.”
For
all the layering of dissonance and inhuman blast beats, Dodecahedron manages to find
unexpected tribal grooves in songs like “HEXAHEDRON
– Tilling the Human Soil”.
Barendregt stands out as a rhythmic beast throughout, but his fills on
this track in particular are awe-inspiring.
The production is stellar, and remarkable given the layers of guitar
work and synthetic flourishes. As the
album passes the halfway mark, on both “OCTAHEDRON
– Harbinger” and “DODECAHEDRON – An
Ill-Defined Air of Otherness”, the “electronics” work of Bonis allows the
band proper to recede at key moments, opening up ambient soundscapes that
invoke the “Drone of death… Drone of creation.”
Eikenaar’s vocals become, somehow, more tortured, alternating between a
dark monastic chant and almost rapturous sermon during album closer “ICOSAHEDRON – The Death of Your Body”. As he spews apocalyptic visions, “Kwintessens” actually feels like a
fracturing body, with moments of sheer negative space opening between
riffs. The effect is nearly tactile,
embodying the lyrics “Flesh reduced to
rags / Pierced through all possibilities / and plunged into the abyss.” Each pause invokes bottomless darkness,
like staring into a black hole.
At
41 minutes, “Kwintessens” is
deceptively compact for the multitudes within.
Each track, even the instrumental interludes, displays remarkable
prowess while remaining confrontational and almost unbearably anguished. Dodecahedron may be focused on cosmic terror,
but they root their journeys in human perception, suffering, and
perseverance. As the narrator examines
the raw geometry of his body, paralleled throughout existence, even god himself
seems weak and surmountable, while the terrible power within man allows for
metamorphoses almost too frightening to imagine. It is a harrowing experience, one that left
me feeling raw and exhausted. And it’s
one I’ll likely revisit many times, and discover new, equally terrifying facets
within.
“Kwintessens” is available here
