Capital Phase of Karma

Call me silly, but I like a nice neat concept album sometimes. When I call Capital Phase of Karma "neat", I'm of course referring to the manner in which they have shoehorned the 7 sins into an 8 song album via the nifty trick of making the opener an explanatory introduction named 'Overture: Of Sins'. However, I don't really have much idea what connects the album title to the thematic content, so my appreciation of the concept can't go much beyond the titles, all of which are made of dual parts sin and example. Hopefully it will still say this when you read my review (hello, dear misguided reader), but this website currently states that the main lyrical themes that Altars Of Rebellion put into their compositions are separated between biomech and existentialism, a pairing that will certainly surprise until you hear what the actual music sounds like.

The easiest way to encapsulate the sonic germ of this Colombian trio is to imagine that a tech death group have just been handed the tabs to an album written by a symphonic black metal band. I don't believe I've ever written that sentence before, and that's in part because not many bands would choose to go the way of Altars Of Rebellion, so kudos to them for their bravery. Undoubtedly, that brings a spark of interest into their third album right away, but also constructs a few obstacles, namely that those styles are considered not to mix well, and also that you would be foolish to try mixing them without your own drummer (even if some extremely high profile guests may cancel out rumours of a drum machine). I suppose these guys lend some support to the phenomenon that the famous "Will It Blend?" series first introduced to the world, whereby materials that you firstly thought too rigid and impermeable to be broken down occasionally melted away with ease when hit with the blender's blades. For the most part, the jolting rhythm patterns and orchestral synths prove suitable bedfellows, while a thick yet ultimately smooth guitar tone assists in movement between staccato and free-flowing passages. Rather a lot of choral backing distracts somewhat, while also adding the vaguely religious atmosphere that any 7 sins concept demands; the predominant harsh vocals, on the other hand, are fairly inoffensive raspy roars that produce audible lyrics.

Of course, what I'm leaving out of that basic outline is that Altars Of Rebellion put an awful lot into their music. That leaves the entire spectrum densely covered, from the sprawl of the crazily busy drumkit and very full bass tone to the ever-changing guitar, frequent vocals, and overwhelming orchestrations. 38 minutes isn't too much of an endurance test, certainly not with regular changes in direction and sparser moments of slow breakdown or symphonic interlude, but this fullness of sound leaves features slightly indistinct from song to song and moreover forms the principle argument for why I have trouble remembering the songs. You see, the proliferation of rhythmic parts and annoying use of overwhelming blastbeats prevents any catchy aspects of the riffing standing out, not to mention deadening the orchestrations as the elevated atmosphere gets soaked up in a percussive dustball. To be honest, I can still pick out interesting parts - the great melodic solo in 'Arrogance: Intuitive'; the gothic blast frenzy that 'Gluttony: Thirst for Your Throne' begins as; the sudden nightsky sprawl in the middle of 'Wrath: The Loss of the Sense'; the sizzling guitar licks flung around during 'Envy: The Source Particle' - but I can't actually remember them once the album has finished. To give some perspective, I can't even say whether the songs have repeating parts or linear structure, because I can barely follow the music even for 5 minutes at a time.

That puts me in a conundrum that I've occupied before: Capital Phase of Karma seems a well-made and novel album, yet I don't have much good to say about the songs. I suppose Altars Of Rebellion would most commonly be compared to Fleshgod Apocalypse or Septicflesh, which is one reason this doesn't work well for me (I don't especially gravitate towards that style), though I also want to mention the Biomechanical problem. Biomechanical started off as a pretty good thrash/groovy (...death/prog) outfit and then fell foul of ambition by putting too much into every song despite - or perhaps because of - the enormous skill of the musicians involved. Now, I can see that the 3 chaps in Altars Of Rebellion are about at the level of the Biomechanical musicians and as such I can point to a couple of truly impressive moments, yet they also abuse the chaotic songwriting principle a bit less, allowing a little breathing room and some isolated ideas at moments. However, on the whole, that means Capital Phase of Karma feels like it's being complicated just for the sake of it, sort of like biomech with an existential crisis.