Style: Dissonant black metal, atmospheric black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Swirling chaos, things beyond the realm of man, quantum mechanics...?
Thoughts: This album is a bit of an enigma. At one moment the band hints that they are going in a predictable direction, the very next instant they have traversed into completely unexpected waters. It makes for a fascinating listen.
Decoherence play an atmospheric and often dissonant style of black metal that is unpredictable from what the genre normally provides. Many of the staples are there: riffs that sounds more like an air siren than a guitar, unpredictable shifts in structure and atmosphere, and the constant sense of dread that comes from the dissonance mixed with black metal. All these things are present and are done exceptionally well.
Where Ekpyrosis starts to differentiate itself is in the song structures themselves. There are extended periods of the songs that fade into near dissonant ambience, making it even more difficult to discern what is going on. Furthermore the genre is known for it's blistering pace to rip the flesh off the listeners bones, not so here. Decoherence has extended sections where the band plays at not only a slow pace, but near doom metal speeds.
The song Collapse has a nearly three minute section where the band fades into dissonant ambience and slower tempos towards the beginning of the opus. It then builds tension like few other entries into the field. By the time the blast beats are unleashed, they are accompanied by a huge sense of release. This happens not only at the beginning of the song, but several times during the course of the ten minutes the track.
This is seen multiple times over the course of Ekpyrosis. The band is not afraid to slow things down when needed and crank up the atmosphere; an atmosphere that is dark and foreboding. It offers a strong contrast to the typical blistering speeds typically found within the genre. This combined with song titles that seem to reference quantum mechanics (Rearrangement Collisions, Directionless Angular Momentum) you have the makings an album that stands out in a crowded field.
Written October 11th 2023
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