By: Ben Fitts
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 05/05/2017
Label: Unquiet Records |
Drown
Within Records |
Wooaaargh
"If
one were forced to classify the band’s current sound, post-metal might be the
safest category, but even that vaguely defined subgenre does not quite do the
band justice, as it fails to mention the strains of psychedelia, black metal,
hardcore, death metal and the band’s grind roots to are still very present in VISCERA///
“3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”
CD//DD track listing:
1). Uber-Massive
Melancholia
2). Martyrdom
for the Finest People
3). Titan
(Or The Day We Called It Quits
4). In
The Cut
5). Anxiety
Prevails
The Review:
Italian trio Viscera/// is hard to describe.
Although the band has its roots in goregrind (as exemplified on their 2003 demo
“Entrails Defecation”), Viscera///’s sound has since evolved into a
stylistically fluid assault that makes to strike an evocative range of
emotions, often within the same song. If one were forced to classify the band’s
current sound, post-metal might be the safest category, but even that vaguely
defined subgenre does not quite do the band justice, as it fails to mention the
strains of psychedelia, black metal, hardcore, death metal and the band’s grind
roots to are still very present in Viscera///. While their previous few
releases also evidenced this growth, nowhere in their discography does their
varied sound come together as well as on their fourth full-length album, “3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”.
The album opens on the sinister sounding and
melodramatically titled “Uber-Massive
Melancholia”. Over the nearly eleven and half minutes of the opening track (making it only the second
longest song on the album), Viscera/// display the nastiest,
dirtiest sounds in their cannon, as well as the most overt black and death
metal influences to be found on the “3: Release
Yourself Through Desperate Rituals”. The following track, “Martyrdom for the Finest People” sees
the album continue with the blackened elements of “Uber-Massive Melancholia”, but it strips away the death metal
aspects in favour of ambient and drone influenced sounds. The result is a
blackened post-metal track whose ten and half minutes manage to be tranquil
while being propulsive, a combination in line with many of the cutting edge
metal acts of today.
“Release Yourself Through
Desperate Rituals” continues
in a similar vein over the course of its next track, “Titan (Or The Day We Called It Quits)”. At just shy of four
minutes, it is by the shortest track on the album (by over four minutes) and it
feels like a blur when compared to the sprawling length of the other four
tracks on the album. But despite its
short length, “Titan (Or The Day We
Called It Quits)” manages to make as much of an impact as any other track
on the album, due largely to its hazy post-rock inspired tones and thunderous,
tremolo-picked guitar riffs.
It is followed by “In The Cut”, which, at over twelve and a half minutes, is the
longest track on “Release Yourself
Through Desperate Rituals”. Viscera/// utilize the track’s
length to touch upon every mood in album’s arsenal. “In The Cut” opens with a passage of dark, guitar driven psychedelic
rock before morphing (rather naturally) into blood curtling black metal and
diminishing into an ethereal, chiming clean section, all within the track’s
first five minutes. Over its remaining seven a half minutes, “In The Cut” rebuilds its intensity,
heaviness and energy, often dipping back down and becoming more impactful when
it rises again. The album closes with the track “Anxiety Prevails”, the bitterest, evilest, and heaviest track
anywhere on the album. While the
other tracks on the album flit through sounds and emotions, “Anxiety Prevails” stays consistently
nasty throughout its eight minutes, making it perhaps less adventurous and
challenging than the album’s other tracks, but quite possibly its most
enjoyable.
“3: Release Yourself
Through Desperate Rituals” is available here
