Article by Corey M.
Irkallian Oracle make a conscious effort to sidestep many death metal conventions on Apollyon. They have been paying attention to the state of death metal over the last twenty years and noticed how many bands have traveled down the dead-end paths of “tech” and “slam” in pursuit of ever-more-extreme brutality. Irkallian Oracle eschew the brutality while trying to retain the creepy, morbid expression.
Unfortunately this poor artistic choice reduces Irkallian Oracle’s potential range of expressive techniques to nearly-nonstop tremolo guitar lines. Unlike the better black metal, these loop very quickly and very often. Mix in hesitant-sounding grunts and gurgles that lack any sort of commanding presence and laid-back drumming that just sounds ridiculous for being so lethargic. Truly this drumming is a feat; I’ve never heard blast beats with the same driving force as the drums in a hair rock, lighter flicking power ballad, but here it is on Apollyon.
Every moment of this album sounds like it should have been used as a build-up, like a segment in a good song that will drop the intensity down before ramping it back up into a crescendo. There are no crescendos on Apollyon. Apollyon is non-stop ramble of low-energy static rumbling, devoid of punctuation or dynamics. There should be a rule for every new death metal release: If it is not at least as intense as Reign in Blood, ditch it and try again (or, better yet, quit trying to make metal forever). Apollyon is less intense than any given Fugazi album. If you hate metal and have a benzodiazepine addiction, Apollyon is probably right up your ass.
Listen to Apollyon if you must on Nuclear War Now! Productions’ Bandcamp Page.
Tags: 2016, Apollyon, Black Metal, blackened death metal, boring, death metal, Irkallian Oracle, nuclear war now! productions, nwn, review
Actually really enjoyed their previous album. This one is just not for me. I think it has something to do with the overall production and the lack of intensity as stated in the review.
“Apollyon is less intense than any given Fugazi album. If you hate metal and have a benzodiazepine addiction, Apollyon is probably right up your ass.”
“Truly this drumming is a feat; I’ve never heard blast beats with the same driving force as the drums in a hair rock, lighter flicking power ballad, but here it is on Apollyon.”
Lol, nice
Apparently, one must purchase from said Bandcamp page in order to listen.
Listen to “guitars that sound like rubber bands” and save the $5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qem2YPkZbg
Is Reign in Blood really the best example of entry-level intensity?
It was the best I could think of, and I thought for a while. My idea was; death metal should be heavier and more intense than thrash, so I picked one of the more well-known intense thrash albums. What’s a better benchmark?
According to the Terrorizer review, this album has been recorded with “the goal to drag the listener down into the
deepest pits of despair”. Can it be said to have accomplished this?
By making them think that creating quality metal is a lost cause?
Pretty interesting analysis of an album. You simply wanted a “Scream Bloody Gore” and found something else and then you wrote a review about it. Then you refer to “Slam”, “Tech”, “Thrash”, “Power Balads” and “Fugazi”, as if that had any kind of relevance to the album at hand and showing how absolutly little you actually cared about understanding something from a valid perspective of music at hand. Seems to me you even failed at discrediting the album for any substantial reason at all and just wrote something “semi-mean” to fill out a page. This isn’t elitism at all, this is just being fucking lazy.
The album is shit. If you have poor taste, then you have poor taste. Many metal heads enjoy pandering dreck. A statistically significant percentage of homosexuals want to be infected with HIV.
Haha! Thanks Daniel for clarifying where the standards for this site is at.
Since you apparently have trouble with comparisons, here are some reasons that Irkallian Snoracle suck; no clear direction, no dynamics, no passion or emtotion, pointless and overbearing noise-textures.
Here’s another comparison for you: Apollyon sounds like your comment in musical form.