The Germanic nation of Austria has not churned out much in the way of quality Death Metal over the years, seemingly annexed from the rest of western Europe such that interesting bands like Disharmonic Orchestra and our summoned entity of the week, Miasma, never really got much exposure beyond the scene that belonged to them and their contemporaries. Nevertheless, their proximity to such nations as Germany and Switzerland has tangibly impacted the music of the unsuspectingly titled ‘Changes’, with the necromanticism of Celtic Frost storming the Alpine borders and charging the album with the same energy levels as the classic ‘To Mega Therion‘. Infact, Miasma launch straight into the opener, ‘Baphomet’ as though they were resurrecting the old Celtic Frost that created majestic, story-telling structures from simple patterns of power-chords, although this introductory instance of Warrior worship serves only as a reference point for the advancements of this form that ensue. Bringing the rhythmic coherence of bands like Celtic Frost and Autopsy together with the exploratory, winding sequences of German Death Metal and even a touch of the Dutch like Asphyx, gives a better picture of ‘Changes’ as an album that holds true to it’s name, demonstrating the symbols of metamorphosis and makes up for the poorly phrased, broken English of the lyrics. Also similar to what Celtic Frost achieved on ‘To Mega Therion’, Miasma break the illusion that the aesthetics of Metal causes the consicion of simple but brutal phrasing to appear more simple (blockheaded) than examples from Classical music, using some twisted variations on the opening motif of Beethoven’s 5th symphony as a point from which to progress into some intelligent and thoroughly morbid riffing, as in ‘Schizophrenia‘. Leading the listener from one perspective to another is a sign of good art and ‘Changes’ does so on a journey through history, through life and through our thoughts, crushing all those inherited, death-fearing assumptions along the way.
Filed under: Death Metal Album of the Week — Tags: Austrian Death Metal, Classical, Death Metal — ObscuraHessian @ May 17, 2010 18:45 — Comments (8)
I can’t help thinking but that this is Death Metal written from a psychological angle; like a Freudian or Jungian take on death symbolism and social neurosis. Maybe concludes the “paranoia” trilogy we have commenced earlier with “In Pains” and “Todessehnsucht”.
Comment by Devamitra — May 17, 2010 @ 20:56
Can we really talk of “Dutch metal” as such? There certainly is a death metal scene there, but the bands are not really similar to each other as, for example, the Stockholm school.
Comment by Morbid_lad — May 17, 2010 @ 23:28
You can’t really say there is a ‘Dutch (or German) Death Metal’ sound as strong as the Swedish one – even though there are similarly manifesting traits – but since I was mentioning influences with relation to their geography, it was only the reference to Asphyx which necessitated it.
Comment by ObscuraHessian — May 18, 2010 @ 01:08
[...] a visceral counterpart to the psychoanalytical surgery of many previous albums of the week, such as “Changes” and “Hallucinations” (both appropriately originating from Central Europe), this ritual [...]
Pingback by Death Metal Album of the Week: Blood – O Agios Pethane « DeathMetal.Org — May 26, 2010 @ 23:03
If you ask me, there is a bit of a specifically Dutch sound. Sort of a shadowy, medieval type atmosphere that I mostly associate with Asphyx, Gorefest, Acrostichon, Pestilence, and the slower Sinister songs. Definitely not as much of an organized “scene” type thing as the whole Finnish death metal or Swedish death metal deal, but it’s still there I think.
Comment by the goddamn batman — May 27, 2010 @ 02:03
That’s an even more interesting observation if you include the out-of-the-shadows Medievalism of Sammath’s Black Metal music.
Comment by ObscuraHessian — May 27, 2010 @ 11:22
Enthroned as well, which I sort of take to be Sammath’s template. Plus the guy from Countess is a researcher of medieval history if I remember correctly!
Comment by Devamitra — May 27, 2010 @ 11:37
Yeah, Countess definitely has some medieval influence to it, particularly in the song structures of stuff like “Give Me Your Soul” and “Chapel of Doom”, and of course “Medieval Shadows”. I wish metal bands experimented more often with medieval music. I really like stuff like Necromantia’s “Ancient Pride” and Summoning’s “Khazad Dûm”.
Comment by the goddamn batman — May 29, 2010 @ 08:43