Against the Cosmos

Anticosm - Against the Cosmos

Lacks a general direction?
78

I wonder which target group will be more surprised about what is going on here: the 'old'-Anticosm fans or those who have not been in touch with this band before? How should their early art be seen in the light of their debut album? Being familiar with this band for some time already, the first track was a kind of surprise to me. Speaking in terms of the music, some of the new facets were most certainly not expected by me.

The first impression of the debut album would be the thrash influences in the compositions, which, at least from my memory, had a smaller impact or appeared at least not on this scale on the Alcoholic Darkness demo; maybe the production covered this facet up a bit. Here, the reference is rather obvious and riffs from this genre appear on a large scale and form together with some atmospheric/melodic interludes the basis for Anticosm's art. One aspect has remained and this would the overall attitude of the band. It is not possible to state the Americans created some dark and sinister (see early Mayhem or Darkthrone) piece of music, the idea behind Against the Cosmos reminds rather on stuff that works nice on a live stage. So, catchiness and breaks are an important issue and these can be found throughout the entire album. Unlike arty bands like Emperor, the performance of Anticosm seems to be for a different audience and arguments for this can be found throughout most of the album. It lacks this artificial and at times overdone progressiveness/technicality, with which some of the established artists have to deal with.

Noteworthy are the vocals and the range of styles in which they can be found on this album; compared to the Alcoholic Darkness more facet make up the art now. Aside from the black metal screams, here some viking metal influenced choir part appears now and then, limited to certain tracks like At the Gates of the Golden Hall for instance. This small facets draws some attention to the music every time it appears, as it helps the band to break out of the concept they have composed the album with; the same can also be said about the neat little noise sample in To the Depths. So, Against the Cosmos is no 'we follow the path from the beginning towards the end approach in one single fashion' thing. There are some attempts to experiment and to broaden the basis of the music and this is a positive thing..

old versions vs. new versions
Against the Cosmos contains some older tracks, these would appear on the Alcoholic Darkness demo, but here in a occasionally revamped as well as better produced version.

You're Dead
This track was an interesting facet of the early work of the American band. It progressed gapless from the opener and kept the pace and atmosphere. The biggest difference between the two version would be the absence of the muddy sound. Moreover, the latest one would be around forty seconds less in length; sounds like being played a bit faster.

Black Hearts
One of the frustrating aspects for a reviewer are the moments in ones existence when a person has to face its own retardation. I have no idea what possessed me to praise the band's first demo back then, but the improvements in the sound and concept of Anticosm can be examined in this track to a great degree. Of the messy and unbalanced sound of the early days not much is left and powerful as well as properly arranged sound has replaced it. Moreover, it sheds light on the quality even poorly recorded songs can reach.

Sneg Sibirskiy
The band took a progression from their early days towards today and this step can be examined in the impact of the keyboards. In the first version they were drowning the guitars and this time the roles are nearly twisted around. There is still something of the synths, but they have a much smaller share in the overall concept. From an important factor they have been moved down the ladder to something like a texture in the background which is allowed to pop up now and then.

Criticism
Anticosm is not able to keep the quality of the song-writing over a certain level. Or maybe it is the invariance with which the atmospheres are presented here and which are unable to create some sort of a constant flow. Even though the songs are well performed, the compositions interesting written and graven flaw not apparent, the listener might have a hard time thoroughly enjoying this piece of art as the album as a whole is a bit confusing. Further, The Arrival would be an instrumental track, whose place in the whole concept would increase the aforementioned perception and reduce the consistency in the performance. There are a lot of ups and downs, but when it comes to their arrangement, then this leaves some room for improvement.

Through the Steppe has some feedback sounds of the guitars and these are a bit annoying, due to their shrill kind which is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the music. Moreover, sometimes a little less lyrics would be a nice thing; again this track. Even though Anticosm are merely on the limit of overdoing it here, it is still an odd thing to listen to; at least for me.

Final bits and bytes
I cannot help myself, but parts of this album sound like the band is still a bit unsure where to progress towards and not entirely certain how to compose their art. There are some surprising ideas like the creaking sound in To the Depths – pretty neat idea – or the guitars in Sneg Sibirskiy, but these are rather the exception than the rule. A larger impact have the Viking-inspired choir parts and they work fine with the style of Anticosm, this fast and slightly aggressive kind of thrash/black metal of today. Nevertheless, the black metal parts are still dominating and even though they are well performed, to me they fail to create the same fascination that some of the new stuff does. While on the one hand there is a surprising swiftness lightness in the concept, on the other one it is a bit too thick and gluey; it progresses a bit like molasses. The positive impressions overweight the negative ones, though, and the listener will get the idea behind the music without much difficulty. Some tracks might work fine with a beer or two at hand and most certainly on stage.

Recommended tracks: To the Depths, You're Dead

The CD as well as the inlay are professional printed (b/w; no-Xerox). All lyrics are printed as well as some short liner-notes.