Transient Thoughts 008 - Agathodaimon - Higher Art of Rebellion

 

 

Transient Thoughts is a series of shorter reviews that capture my thoughts on a given album at a given time.  Most of these reviews have not had nearly as in depth of a look at my full reviews.  These thoughts are often formulated while walking through my neighborhood, and reflect how the album impacted me in those moments.  I hope you enjoy them.

Agathodaimon's debut album Blacken the Angel came into the black metal scene in the mid to late 90's and really made an impression on me.  They had an excellent mix of keyboards and riffs that stood out from much of the other bands at the time.  The album was rough but it had a ton of potential, and I eagerly awaited the follow up.

So what happens when you take that potential and strip away everything that made it interesting?  You get an overlong album that has some truly excellent moments that are mired by a slog of uninteresting material.  That is what Higher Art of Rebellion was, and still is.  That's not to say the songs are bad… they just all sound the same.  At 80 minutes that is quite the ask of the listener.

The good: the first two songs are brilliant, especially track 2.  The first song strips away nearly all the keyboards that were ever present in the debut and replaces it with muddy guitars and heavily distorted vocals.  The combination is quite sinister and works well, especially as an opening track.

The second song is the closest to the debut in terms of sound.  Keyboards interplay throughout most of the song and the melodies are well executed by the guitars.  It has a excellent piano passage right in the middle that gives me goosebumps nearly every time I hear it.  The tempo is also higher than many if not all of the songs that follow.

Unfortunately that leaves the rest of the album.  The remaining songs are typically very similar in tempo and execution.  The sound is marred by the muddy production rather than elevated by it.  Nearly every song has the same plodding tempo, and while they are fine by themselves when you have five or six songs in a row that all sound exceedingly similar they tend to blend together.  

Unfortunately the album just is not able to overcome the drudge of songs that just come in wave after wave.  This album likely would have been much better if they cut out half of the music and condensed the ideas into 8-9 5 minute songs.  As it stands though the sum is far less than the individual parts.