Transient Thought 018 - Axis of Perdition - Urfe

It begins and ends with Pylon.  Pylon stands in the doorway… beckoning me in.

So embarks the narration of a man named Urfe as he travels to an island that is not exactly of this world, yet not entirely of the next either.  A world between worlds, containing both the natural and supernatural.  A land shrouded in mystery, however it is quickly revealed to be the stuff of nightmares.

Axis of Perdition is known for playing black metal heavily influenced by the Silent Hill games.  They have managed to tap into the very essence of what makes those games the pinnacle of horror and have morphed and mutilated it into their own grotesque musical interpretation.  

Urfe sees the band deviating significantly from their previous albums.  Instead of guitars and vocals creating a hellish landscape throughout its songs, Axis of Perdition has created what is in effect an ambient and spoken word album.

The primary focus of Urfe is the narration provided by Leslie Simpon (who is even listed as a full member of the band in the credits).  Through these spoken passages, we as the listeners are given a front row seat to the horrors that await the titular character as he travels through a largely abandoned city, riddled with demonic hosts and beings that claw at your sanity at every passing moment.

While the narration is clearly the focus of the album, it is not always obvious what is happening.  There are several points where the ambience completely overwhelms the senses and while Urfe is speaking, it's not entirely clear what is happening in the story.  

During my first couple of listens to the album I found these parts rather confusing and annoying.  I wanted to know what was happening with crystal clarity.  I would strain to hear any detail of what was being said or any hint of what was happening to the character I had started to get invested in.

It wasn’t until one of my later listens that it clicked.  I wasn’t supposed to know exactly what was going on here.  The main character himself is not able to comprehend the horror that he is experiencing, so how would we as an outside observer be able to understand his retelling of it?  With this realization, my enjoyment of the album increased ten fold.

Alongside the ambience there are moments throughout the album where the band does harken back to their metal roots, especially on The Great Unwashed.  After nearly an hour of nothing but narration and ambience the sudden appearance of extreme metal caught me off guard, and even after multiple listens threw me out of the flow of the album.  

It's not that the metal portions are bad or poorly executed, it may just be that they are misplaced in what is essentially a spoken word album.  They take me out of my intense listening experience and force me into a completely different state of mind.  Jarring is the operative word.

When I am returned to the narration after these brief stints in the world of metal I find myself quickly able to reacclimate myself.  The album - for me - is at its absolute best when we are thrown into the insanity alongside Urfe.  Be that a graphic description of gradually losing one's mind in darkness, a completely incomprehensible conversation with a demon, or the briefest glimpses of hope found at the very end of Grief of the unclean.  

Throughout it all I am left with more questions than answers.  Why is Urfe traveling to this island?  Who is Pylon? What does she want with Urfe?  All of these questions and more keep me coming back so that I can tease just a little bit more information from the album from each listen.  Something few albums can do with such abbadon.

It begins, as it ends, with Pylon.  Pylon is there… standing in the doorway - beckoning me in.