Shores

The closest that extreme metal has ventured into the realm of overt dadaism has been among the more depressive fringes of the black metal, a style that often defies the very conventions of metal music. Often times the musical results can flirt a bit more with a post-rock feel between the droning character of the instrumental content and the raw, unbalanced character of the production practices employed. All of that considered, there are few bands that have veered a greater distance outside of the norms of metal than the experimental crowd, and among the more unique sounding adherents to this niche is Finnish duo Circle Of Ouroborus. Then again, the sound that they have seemingly stumbled upon with their 2006 debut LP Shores is not without precedent, particularly when considering the unmixed and garage-like character of certain early French adherents of the black metal scene.

It has often been noted that this band has a sort of latent hardcore punk demeanor to their music, drawing comparisons to the likes of Nuit Noire, but this particular studio offering contains very little in the way of overt punk tendencies and has more of a droning, post-rock vibe that carries heavy parallels to the Les Légions Noires bands of the French scene, and more specifically Mutiilation and Belkètre. The shimmering character of the fuzz-driven guitars, whether they be gliding through a set of minimalist tremolo leads or pounding on a mid-paced groove; combined with a largely dissonant sense of tonality and an extremely distant and tinny drum sound gives things a rustic, garage demo feel. Nevertheless, despite the generally loose demeanor of things, there is a precision behind the droning doom character of songs like "Invocation" and the mid-paced, depressive stride of "You Are Just Mirrors" that goes beyond an amateur bedroom project.

Taken on its musical merits alone, this is an album that is fairly conventional in spite of its raw presentation, but things take a rather drastic and utterly bizarre turn when it comes to the vocal presentation. There is a case to be made that this album's latent punk tendencies are largely wrapped up in Antti Klemi nonchalant, mostly out of tune middle ground between an apathetic croon and a disinterested spoken verse. There are occasional fits of garbled rage more befitting a conventional black metal affair, but for the most part, these songs have sort of a shoegazing quality that could be likened to an early Meat Puppets recording. Some moments on the more grooving rocker turned d-beat romp "The Cloak" find this unorthodox vocal approach working with the music around it, but otherwise Antti's marble-mouthed semi-singing proves to be a clashing element that detracts from the album's relatively solid presentation.

It goes without saying that an album like this is an acquired taste, and even among the more fringe adherents of the raw variant of black metal, this music may prove to be a bit of an adjustment from familiar territory. There is something to be said for the sentiments that these songs would work better as instrumentals, but the lyrics do provide some necessary topical detailing to keep the longer offerings on here from becoming overly repetitive, it's just that a more conventional sepulchral growl or even an unconventional series of depressive wails would work better than the "I've got some words but I don't really give a shit" approach taken here. Not a bad offering to be sure, and even contains some solid layering of ideas that goes a bit beyond the Varg Vikernes brand of minimalism that was popularized following Filosofem, but there are definitely stronger offerings out there.