Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital

I picked this release up after being told that they were heavily influenced by the imagery of Silent Hill, one of my favorite video game franchises.

My verdict: Fucking. Awesome.

The Axis of Perdition isn't your average black metal band, and Deleted Scenes from Transition hospital isn't your average black metal album.... In fact, I'm hesitant to call them black metal at all. If you're looking for the likes of Mayhem and Bathory, you're in the wrong place; blazing riffs and screeching vocals take a backseat to TAOP's obscure creation of fiendish ambience so effective that at times you can forget that you're not in some horrible world beyond human comprehension instead of the safety of your own room like the pussy you are.

The sound of creaking metal, slamming doors, and grotesque imagery dot the musical landscape, with ghostly wails and terrified screams audible in between, accompanied by god-only-knows-what gives you the feeling that you are in some kind of machine factory gone wrong. One of the best part about this album is that it with no visuals in front of you, you are left to wonder, "Just what the hell could be making that noise?" Letting your imagination run free during tracks like "The Elevator Beneath the Valve" is quite effective. Play it at night, all alone, for best effect.

Vocal and guitar-based segments manage to slip in occasionally (and in one odd instance, a sudden shift to a jazzy saxophone), but unfortunately, they are nothing special. The singer ranged from monotonous moans to a more death-metal kind of growl, often drowned out by the thick, droning guitar. They do add a sort of personality to each song, but I usually found myself waiting to return to the disturbing painting that the more ambient sections were painting, and thus, I deducted a few points from my overall score.

All in all, even with the rather lackluster lyrical segments, Deleted Scenes from Transition Hospital is something that horror and noise music fans alike need to experience. It's obscure, frightening, and brilliant all rolled up in to one misshapen bundle. Traditional black metal fans, however, should know before jumping in that The Axis of Perdition is nothing like one might expect from a band in this genre.