Entry 447 - Aosoth - IV: Arrow in Heart

 I originally passed hard on this album, only because of the cover art. I thought it looked completely amateur and even though I have countless examples stating otherwise, I thought it transferred over to the music. Oh how very wrong I was.

Aosoth play an intricate and dynamic form of dissonant death metal. The songs are long and go through more twists and turns than a mountain road. While that is not uncommon within dissonant music, what is uncommon is Aosoths mastery of when to be quiet, when to be loud, when to be subtle, when to have melody, and when to be completely unhinged.

Lets look at the first track for examples of all of this. It stats out as one would expect: a ferocious riff with blindingly fast drums. As the song progresses though it slows down a little bit and allows the music to breathe. This comes to its full potential when the band fully pulls back and allows for an ambient section (with bongos of all things) to drive the music forward. This lasts a few more moments before the band comes in full force again right before the song devolves into a dissonant riff and ends... it's all over the place and I absolutely love it.

The album continues in a similar vein throughout the remainder of it's play time. The sense of dynamics that the band has on Arrow in Heart is quite impressive. So much of what makes music effective is this sense of depth, quiet and expanse when its needed. Aosoth have mastered that on this album and in doing so have created an engaging experience.

One thing that really surprised me about the vinyl release of the album is side D. This untitled track is about 17 minutes long and is largely noise and ambient based. When I first heard it I was a bit put off by it, but listening to it now it acts as the perfect compliment to the rest of the album. The chaos that is found in the riffs is not found here, this is more of a repeating hum with ambient elements, female vocals, guitar strums, and osculating sounds woven in between the low rumblings. It's unlike anything else I have ever heard from the band. Fantastic track, fantastic album.