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Cobalt > Eater of Birds > Reviews > mutiilator
Cobalt - Eater of Birds

Breathtaking progressive tribal war metal - 100%

mutiilator, April 13th, 2008

Before this new wave of progressive black metal that we are seeing more and more of each day in recent releases by bands like Deathspell Omega, Wolves in the Throne Room, Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Peste Noire, Watain, and the like, we had witnessed a resurgence in orthodox Satanism/occultism, which took music and lyrical themes to a new extreme of evil. However, with Cobalt and their aforementioned contemporaries, we are beginning to see a whole new take on extreme metal. Here we witness the blending of many other influences, and especially that of post metal experimentation (as perfected by Neurosis, and as adopted by Isis, Cult of Luna, Jesu, Pelican, etc). In turn, this provides the groundwork to create long, epic, sweeping songs that aren't afraid to use repetition and monotony to their full advantage.

Although Cobalt's first EP and full-length featured more straight-up hammering war metal, Eater of Birds takes things to a whole new level. The lyrical themes of warfare are still in place to some degree, but this can almost be conceived as a concept album due to its strong ritualistic overtones. The band itself consists of only two members and of two instruments - drums and guitar. Both members contribute vocals, with McSorley providing the bulk of this. Because of this "intimate" line-up, the music takes a new personality to it, and at times is very much like an extended metal jam session as the members play off each other in what could easily be construed as improvised metal goodness. As mentioned above, the music has a very tribal, ritualistic feel to it, made possible by Wunder's fantastic ever-changing drum-work that can range from pounding battle drums to a Neurosis-esque tribal sound. When compared to the length of the songs, the lyrics are somewhat sparse, at times simply repeating from the beginning. In turn, this yields long instrumental sections, and this is usually where the post metal influence comes in. Using repetitious style, the music becomes trance-inducing, but never fails to get your head banging. A perfect example of this is the stellar track "Witherer." At the same time, there are strong progressive elements to it, and the riffs can take on an ever-changing form as well. Dispersed throughout the album are a couple acoustic instrumentals - all entitled "Ritual Use of Fire" - but instead of being superfluous as most interludes are, they are all definitely worth a listen to for McSorley's amazing ability to music in strange musical effects with his instrumentation. Also notable is the appearance of the legendary Jarboe on the tracks "Invincible Sun" and "Androids, Automatons, and Nihilists," who has become a friend of the band and who provides her own excellent take on what experimental music should sound like.

Overall, Eater of Birds has a very cold feeling to it (perhaps the influence of being from Colorado), and since the band only utilizes two instruments, it's pretty damn impressive that they are able to achieve this. Each song is its own entity, and each is heavy- and dark-as-fuck. The tribal sections are absolutely mesmerizing and simply beyond worlds. To cap it all off, the final eponymous track is an epic 10 minute opus that I guarantee will leave you shaking on the floor, fucked up and begging for more. This album is absolutely incredible, and is easily in my top 5 best albums of 2007, and my top 10 favourite metal albums of all time. For anyone interested in pounding black/war metal with a unique ritualistic experimental/progressive side, this is definitely worth checking out.