Peccatum Review! [LONG]
The Rattler
by Peccatum (1999, Candlelight Records)
Now before I start this, I'd like to remind you that this review was NOT
written with any Anti-Emperor bias in mind. I have said it before on here
and I'll say it again that I have loved all of Emperor's albums to date
(even "Anthems") and already have a copy of "Equilibrium IX" reserved for
me! I am not simply slagging off Ihsahn for the sake of it, the frank
fact of the matter is that "Strangling From Within" is the most
hilariously piss-poor piece of work I've heard in ages. I'm listening to
it for the third time now, as I write this, and even now find it
difficult to restrain the odd giggle or two at it's ludicrousness. Even
so, I will *try* to remain as fair as I can...
Where can I start tho? I went into this with an open-mind, since I'm
fully aware of Ihsahn's talents and was expecting something at least
interesting if not surprisingly excellent. The packaging worried me a
little (*someone* has just found out how to use Adobe Photoshop it would
seem!) but nowhere near as much as the words written within. To put
things bluntly, the lyrics on this album make Abbath and Demonaz look
like William Blake and with song titles as relentlessly laughable as "The
Song Which No Name Carry" (Hey, it's bad grammar, thus it must be TRUE AS
FUCK!), "The World Of No Worlds" and, my personal favourite, "I Breathe
Without Access To Air", I had a strange feeling I might not be in for the
smoothest of rides.
This is obviously a 'concept' album, but the incoherance of the lyrics
makes it impossible for me to figure out the story, although it appears
to be along the lines of the main character dying horribly and delivering
her soul to Satan (or something like that). I don't think they put much
effort into this tho, because on the back of the CD case "Part One: The
Black & White Was Meant For Nothing, THe Shadows Meant For All" has five
songs and "Part Two: The Carrier Of Sorrow Transforms" has four, but in
the lyrics insert it's the other way round, with the piece "The Sand Was
Made Of Mountains" not quite knowing in which part it fits. It could've
been a typo but considering the high pretension that's put into the liner
notes about how much effort went into making this record, I think it
could've been avoided... Speaking of the liner notes, my personal
favourite part is "PECCATUM PERFORMS ART FOR THE SAKE OF ART" which I
don't think *ANYONE* should *EVER* have to say with a straight face.
Unfortunately, it appears this whole album is taken very very
seriously...
The opening piece, "Where Do I Then Belong" (more dodgy grammar,
tr0000!), is very very vaguely Current 93-ish to begin with. There is a
very echoey spoken word vocal that sounds like that of a little girl
speaking phrases above acoustic guitar lines and violin lines
(unfortunately both instruments are sequenced and it shows) as another,
more sinister male voice, starts to override her while the track goes on.
The influences have obviously stemmed from something like 93C93's "Rosy
Star Tears Fall From Heaven" but whereas that track *still* sends shivers
down my spine, this sounds a bit pants. The sequencing is certainly very
competent and speaking as an amateur desktop musician, I couldn't
possibly deny that Ihsahn is a dabhand with MIDI... Unfortunately, it all
sounds very much like Nintendo music and doesn't fit the 'dark mood' that
the vocals are trying to acheive...
Anyway, this introductory number soon slips into "Speak Of The Devil (as
the Devil may care)" (NOT the same song that appeared on a recent
Terrorizer CD, BTW), which is a bit heavier, but still relies big time on
sequencing. The lyrics, opening with the line "Once Upon A Forest" are of
a Cradle Of Filth variety and musically it attempts to take on the
cinematic/operatic qualities of their recent "CruŁlty & The BŁast" opus.
Fortunately, CoF at least *knew* they were being completely over-the-top
and very silly. Peccatum, on the other hand, seem to have missed the joke
totally. As VIOLENTLY OVERBLOWN clean male vocals (think Pavarotti, think
very off-key), courtesy of Lord PZ, interchange with Ihriel's female
operatics above a very dodgy 'trad metal' background, I can't help but
laugh. To say that they are getting a "little too into it" would be an
understatement. This is one of the most overblown and pompous vocal
tracks I've ever heard and since neither singer has the greatest range in
the world, it sounds quite appalling. Of course, this all pales to half
way through the song, when Ihsahn breaks into *THE* most masturbatory
guitar solo this side of Yngwie J. Malmsteen!! It's terrible! It really
is. You can almost see the audio-semen fly across the studio as he wanks
his piece for about a minute and a half. There's some 'grim' vocals
brought into it at one point, as the drum machine speeds up slightly, but
they sound about as 'grim' as an episode of Teletubbies, then the song
ends with more over-the-top caterwauling. The first time I heard this
song, the tears of laughter rolled down my cheeks. *THAT* is how bad it
is.
The third song, "The Change", *IS* the one that appeared recently on the
Terrorizer Compilation CD and is probably the best bit on here. It's
ultra-fast Black Metal with lots of fairly-raspy snarling and very swift
synth-drums. I suppose it sounds a little bit like Limbonic Art so it's
really not all *that* impressive. Half-way through it, I'm convinced the
riff from Manowar's "Fighting The World" pops up for two bars, just
before it heads back into the third verse, which merely provides yet
another giggle. Still, in fairness, if the whole album was like this
track, it would be a bit more pallatable... That's not saying much, mind.
"The Song Which No Name Carry" is perhaps the worst on here. The backing
music sounds a little like a very-very watered down Strapping Young Lad.
Vaguely industrial but not at all heavy. Lord PZ and Ihsahn growl a bit
over the top of it before it veers off wildly into Burton C.Bell style
'clean vocals'. Yes, Peccatum is drawing influences from Fear Factory
and, as much as I find FF boring, they at least do it better than this!
Funniest moment of the song is before the second verse when the music
stops for about 3 seconds and Lord PZ goes "HO HO HO HO HO HO!" in a vain
attempt to laugh evilly (he sounds like Santa) just before coming back to
growl "I died. I died again. I died even once more"!!! Words just can't
describe the massive amounts of unintentional hilarity contained in some
of these lyrics. There's a lot of synth noodling in the middle of this
which isn't particularly good and then we get some female screams of
horror which remind me a LOT of Cradle Of Filth. I never would have
thought that one of the pioneers of Norwegian Black Metal would resort to
drawing influences off of third rate technometal entertainers (Fear
Factory) and comedy pantomime loonies (CoF). If I wasn't laughing so
hard, I'd be crying. There is no way in words to sum up how terrible this
song is.
"The Sand Was Made Of Mountains" starts off with two lines in Norsk, so
it must be true as fuck. ;) Unfortunately, it then turns into a poor
Limbonic Art clone, marred further by incessant guitar wankery courtesy
of Ihsahn. I think he plays a constant twiddly, widdly, noodly solo
throughout almost the entirity of this tune. There's plenty of
'headbanging' moments in here too, as the drums cut in and cut out and
Lord PZ sings "Theee sannnnd wasss made of moooountains" in a kind of
over-zealous Matthew Barlow stylee... And then that fucking solo starts
again. I'm glad I didn't have to clean up the studio after all this
wanking.
"I Breathe Without Access To Air" (surely the worst BM title ever? Or
perhaps they were choking on their own pretensions?) begins with an
acoustic passage (played on the synths again - why? does he not have an
acoustic guitar handy?) and then breaks into more semi-industrial-metal
nonsense with Ihriel handling operatic female vox again. I have a problem
with this. The problem is that Ihriel is *not* very good at this. Her
range seems to go from "irritatingly high" to "even more irritatingly
high" and actually deriving any kind of melody from that is tough.
Instead, it just grates and grates as she wails and howls feeble lyrics
like "There is no option, there is no freedom / When abandoned in the
state of manifestation" (www.dictionary.com?), accompanied by the odd
incoherant snarfing noises from Ihsahn and Lord PZ. They're probably
growling "I wish she'd calm the fuck down and shut up", but it's
impossible to tell. Oh yes, and we get another Vai-esque wank solo in
this one too. It seems the main influence here is again Cradle Of Filth's
last album, as the interchanging of male/female vocals and the way the
lyrics run seem to be telling a story and attempting to be very 'visual'
(if you've heard "CruŁlty and the BŁast" then you'll know what I mean)...
Unfortunately, where CoF tried to imitate over-the-top Hammer Horror
movies, Peccatum seem to be aiming for Ingmar Bergman and failing
miserably.
Seventh opus, "The World Of No Worlds", begins in a similar (fast,
blackish) way to "The Change" and almost hits a few Emperor-esque synth
lines before retreating into Helloween-style harmonic guitar work and
then, horror of horrors, turning into a lounge record. I kid ye not. Lots
of hi-hat jazz trickery and piano as Lord PZ sings further nonsenical
bollocks like "When I opened my eyes, I could again device (?) / The way
I saw when I was, but I was not yet born" in his laughter-inducing
'clean' vocal. The lounge angle drops for a little while about half-way
through and it turns into a poor man's power metal as Ihsahn vanishes
forever up his own arsehole in a furoure of Malmsteen impersonations.
Then we get back to the jazzy swing (played in major and sounding not
unlike bad elevator music) for a little while before the song 'climaxes'
tediously with a very long fade-out!!! A fade-out!!! Oh dear oh dear.
"And Pray For Me" is the final vocal track on the album and features more
of Ihriel's tune-free screeching intermixing with Lord PZ singing "And
Praaay for meeee" in the style of Hammerfall's Bierkeller-Knees-Up
backing vocalists, at the end of each verse. The music is pretty
straightforward Iced Earth style power metal in melody, but again is
(probably inadvertantly) given elements of Fear Factory-esque industrial
by the glossy production and the excessive drum machines. The guitar line
slowly starts going beserk at the beginning of the track and by the end
of it, you can smell the smouldering fretboards. This is not a
compliment. The synths sound like a fairground organ. Even worse is when
the guitar starts harmonising with them. You almost expect Ihsahn to
start shouting "Roll up! Roll up!"...
The final piece is Ihsahn noodling about with Cakewalk Pro for about 10
minutes and, in all fairness, does show off his sequencing prowess quite
well. It's very pompous and orchestral, a bit like "Opus A Satana" with
40% free self-indulgence included in the package. Unfortunately, it is
all rendered ludicrous by the mercilessly pretensious title: "AN OVATION
TO ART"! Oh my God, is there no stopping this man from disappearing up
his own anus?? Please! "An Ovation To Art"? Who does he think he is??
Peter fucking Greenaway?? Oops, sorry, I said I was going to *try* to
restrain during this review... Ah well.
Thankfully, this is the closer and I can sew my sides back up and take a
deep breath... Overall, "Strangling From Within" is ireedeemable. I'd be
hard pushed to think of positive things to say about this record. I don't
think I've ever heard anything so pretensious, so self-indulgent, so
pompous, so patronising to the listener and so ridiculously over-
ambitious. The fact that they seem to be taking it so viciously seriously
just makes it all the worse. Yes, it *IS* incredibly funny, but for all
the wrong reasons. I don't think it could even work as a Black Metal
Parody, since it's so far up it's own arse it's now on a different astral
plane to the rest of us.
The whole incestuous background to Peccatum (ie: Ihriel is Ihsahn's wife,
Lord PZ is Ihriel's brother) and the fact that two out of the three band
members are about as much use as a fish's bicycle just makes the thing
even worse. I pray that Ihsahn has got ALL of this awfully indulgent
rubbish out of his system now and that the forthcoming Emperor album will
be stunning enough to wipe the memory of "Strangling From Within" from my
brain forever. If not, then I've just wasted two lots of fifteen quid!
Final Conclusion: This record should be played to budding musicians as a
warning. Attached to it should be a note with the words "If you ever
think of making an album like this, shoot yourself first and spare the
rest of us".
--
"Frosty the Snowman
Was peeing against the wind
In a ravenstorm" - 'Immortal Haiku' by Annatar Gorthaur.
*** UNDER THE BANNER OF FNOOGLE WE RIDE! ***
Svartedaun
>favourite part is "PECCATUM PERFORMS ART FOR THE SAKE OF ART" which I
>don't think *ANYONE* should *EVER* have to say with a straight face.
There is the problem... One doesnt create art to keep up the practice of
creating art... Utilizing art to convey 'art' without any concern for a
substantial reason seems like an illusion of what a great many think art is
about (not to say the one experiencing the art cannot simply just take the
aesthetic and leave the substance, but the artists themselves SHOULD think
about substance IMO)... Oh well its whatever the individual makes it I
suppose, as pretentious and useless as it is past superficial values...
> Peccatum seem to be aiming for Ingmar Bergman and failing
>miserably.
Ved Buens Ende convey Bergman well (not sure if its the intent, but I get that
feeling from it), even if its like watching Bergman on LSD... Beyond Dawn as
well...
Beware the depths of the woodland lake,
Danger is lurking there,
For Nock, who seems to sleep,
will take you down to his watery lair.
* Henrik Ibsen *
SpookyKabuki
rattl...@hotmail.com (The Rattler) wrote:
> "Strangling From Within"
> by Peccatum (1999, Candlelight Records)
(review omitted in the interest of space)
I first heard of Peccatum when I saw that they were touring w/ Emperor
this spring. After finding out a bit about them, I put them at the top of
my "must find" list - a more classically based abstract opus by Ihsahn?
But Rattler, whoever you are - you are one funny motherfucker. I feel
like I still need to find the damn thing now just so I can enjoy it as
much as you did, I mean, if it's that bad it could replace my Wesley
Willis CDs or the Pat Boone metal tribute disc as all-time howlers. Props
to you and your writing, I appreciate both the warning and the good laughs
I got from your post...
-SK
David Chiaradia
>
> "Strangling From Within"
I will not recite any of your writings, but I must say this: I bought
the album this weekend and I like it a lot! It is a strange album and
nothing to do with "ordinary" metal. You like this or you don't. It's a
kind of album to listen to alone in the dark before you're planning a
mass-murder or something like that.
I think that people who like the latest Arcturus (La masquerade
infernale) or "Hail horror hail" from Sigh or early stuff from Soulgrind
will certainly like it. Although the music is less weird and in my eyes
more metal, without the industrial touch.
Also people who are into avant-garde doom metal (more in the vein of
Opeth) or fans of (clear and not to clear) female vocals could
appreciate this.
But it is a good advice to listen before buying.
David Chiaradia
--
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<* Nightwing *>
Matti Maikola
money on that
terrible "Thorns vs. Emperor"-cd. Thorns aren´t that bad (though nothing
remarkable either),
but apart from the Thorns-cover "Aerie descent", the Emperor-tracks are
mostly worthless
industrial noise. Ok, there´s also classical adaptation of "Thus spake the
nightspirit", entitled
"Thus march the nightspirit", but something´s gone horribly wrong with that.
Whereas I consider
"Opus a Satana" ( classical version of "Inno a Satana" ) a truly remarkable
piece of art,
"Thus march.." just sounds like something out of Warcraft 2...The sound is
far too computer-like,
and the arrangements are pompous enough to be utterly ridiculous. I´d
probably laugh if I hadn´t paid
full price for this cd. Give a good listen before buying.
-Matti Maikola-