Entry 324 - Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

 

I love listening to music that sounds like nothing I have ever heard before. There is something completely foreign... no, alien about the music that peaks my curiosity. Albums such as Ad Nauseam's latest challenge the perceptions of what is possible within the genre known as metal, perhaps even music itself.

I initially passed on these guys, thinking they were just a Gorguts rip off band. While Gorgut's magnum opus Obscura does seem to be a primary influence on the sound found within this album, the two albums, while similar are not carbon copies. Ad Nauseam takes the experimental riffing and tenancies of Obscura and moves them into a more ambient and somewhat more controlled soundscape.

Those familiar with Obscura will know what most of the riffs on here sound like, at least have an appreciation for them. The music simply sounds wrong. Like the wrong notes are being played on purpose. It's a difficult sound to get used to, and even after listening to the album for quite some time now I still feel a sense of unease with the riffs/notes.

Outside of the outright strange riffage the band ventures into droning ambient territory from time to time. Nearly every track has a point where the music pulls back and allows a eerie tone, a string quartet, or even silence take over before the band comes back in with it's raging inferno of riffs. The dichotomy is quite well done and never feels out of place when the songs change direction.

Ad Nauseam have created something strange and wonderful with their second album. I heard that the band created their own instruments and scales for this recording. I have yet to verify that, but it is the type of album that would warrant that level of detail to the craft. It's hard for me to get excited about a lot of metal these days with so many bands sounding the same... leave it to a quartet of Italians to show me that there is still some unexplored territory left in this ever expanding genre.