Chamber Of Divine Elaboration - Reverence

'Chamber of Divine Elaborations' the second album by avant-garde French black metal band Reverence, mixes dissonant, warped, atonal riffs with unsettling industrial ambience, an insectile, unconventionally programmed drum machine and weird rasped/growled chanting and eerie clean singing to create an album that will be sound instantly familiar to fans of Blut Aus Nord. Indeed, as both bands hail from France and have chosen to remain anonymous thus ...
...if not all members, given the aesthetic and musical similarities they share.

The songs mix whooshing, metallic ambience with sampled sirens, radio transmissions, chiming clocks, piano, horror-film synths and sci-fi and horror film samples with the twisted and misshapen riffs evident on Blut Aus Nord's seriously weird 2006 album M.O.R.T, and the songs lurch from slow, lethargic parts to faster sections with clattering drums, ominous, ... more

'Chamber of Divine Elaborations' the second album by avant-garde French black metal band Reverence, mixes dissonant, warped, atonal riffs with unsettling industrial ambience, an insectile, unconventionally programmed drum machine and weird rasped/growled chanting and eerie clean singing to create an album that will be sound instantly familiar to fans of Blut Aus Nord. Indeed, as both bands hail from France and have chosen to remain anonymous thus far, it seems almost certain that the bands share some if not all members, given the aesthetic and musical similarities they share.

The songs mix whooshing, metallic ambience with sampled sirens, radio transmissions, chiming clocks, piano, horror-film synths and sci-fi and horror film samples with the twisted and misshapen riffs evident on Blut Aus Nord's seriously weird 2006 album M.O.R.T, and the songs lurch from slow, lethargic parts to faster sections with clattering drums, ominous, chugging black metal passages and despondent melodicisms that remind of swedish black metal band Shining. The vocals are reminiscient of those of Shining too, coming across as a mixture of rasped growls and deranged warbling that often sounds like Shining's singer Kvarforth.

Whilst the album is very disjointed nature, frequently breaking down into passages of slow, tortured industrial-tinged stop-start riffs, it flows well as a whole, mixing these well with the sections of quiet brooding ambience and mid and fast-paced, raw black metal. It even gives way to drum and bass secions on one occasion, with the electronic beats working well in conjunction with the unsettling chanted vocals and distorted melodies.

Its a very atmospheric and engaging listen, and the bleak and dystopian artwork suits the music well. The limited digipack version also comes with a cardboard mechanism inside that folds out to push the cd upwards and outwards when you open the case, which is a little gimmicky perhaps but still rather cool.

Like Blut Aus Nord's, 'M.O.R.T', the atmospheric and darkly ambient 'Chamber of Divine Lessons' has an otherworldy 'Hellraiser' quality about it, and is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in ambient, industrial and avantgarde black metal, and mandatory listening to Blut Aus Nord fans in particular.

Tracklisting-

1. InfraCode of Perdition 08:13
2. Institution of the Dirt Archetype 07:30
3. Infected Forms of Distance 06:53
4. Inner Phaze 07:31
5. White Journey Inc 08:24
6. Astral Noise Projection 08:39
7. Pride of Inanimate Emptiness 07:49

Total playing time 55:04

Summary: Excellent avantgarde black metal

 

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