Dodecahedron

So I've heard some rumblings during 2017 of this Netherlands band, Dodecahedron. But I hate math. Thus, anyone who despises geometry will immediately grimace. "Uhm, yes....gore-impaled vaginas, please. Much better!" This quartet provided their sophomore release this past March entitled 'Kwintessens' but I went on the hunt for their 2012 debut to see what the fuss was about. I could attempt to entertain you through the use of brief histories or other amusing anecdotes, but that would be digression. Not to mention that there's really not much to say in that regard.

A good quality to have in music is the ability to create strange melodies. Dodecahedron certainly give their best efforts to maximize this theory. The bulk of these seemingly unending songs consist of multiple guitars dive bombing and flailing around, conjuring up these short phrasings amidst erratic drum patterns. This all occurs overtop of these barely rhythmic guitars. The problem is that nothing is head-turning or memorable. It's almost as if Meshuggah's wires and gears began to deteriorate; A sudden, unexplained loss in the impeccable control of rhythmic timing all while their industrial undercurrent starts to fissure.

The second track's closing riffs occur about midway through but you'll have to wait another 2:15 before you'll know it. Then it still has to fade out. As I analyze these sounds again I find it a weak attempt at doom or sludge metal. It has the requisite elements yet they are flimsy and powerless. Another comparison to (I guess) similar artists would be Ulcerate. However, it sounds as if Ulcerate released an album of theirs at half-speed with the guy from Def Leppard as guest drummer. Sadly, "Descending Jacob's Ladder" may be the pinnacle of the album albeit a pure noise/ambient piece consisting of many manipulated vocalizations.

The final three tracks are a trilogy entitled 'View from Hverfell.' At the album's conclusion Dodecahedron attempts to blend the styles of the aforementioned tech-death masters tossing in a dash of Krallice & a pinch of Vindsval. As enticing as that may sound, don't get your hopes up. I can hear the attempt at an elaborate hypnotic experience but all I got was a headache.

It is here in the finality that Dodecahedron finally hits the fucking gas during 'Part II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos' and plays with some speed. But it all ends too soon and we are once again treated to unexciting chord clanging and trash can bashing. Without going too much further I'll say part three 'A Traveller of the Seed of the Earth' lumbers in at a whopping ten minutes and although it has a promising start it ultimately ends in failure as yet another heaping load of repetitive, twangy, feedback-drenched plucking with some snarling hermit muttering to himself in the corner...and just as I thought it would all wash away in the tide of bliss that rolls in, it resurfaces briefly, but is thankfully quickly drown out by the recurring noise swell.

This subgenre of 'progressive avante black gaze' or whateverthefuck it is, must have passed me by. I guess I don't have the insight to grasp such advancements in music. Otherwise I may have had a better appreciation of this record. Avoid.

This lot from the Netherlands shook the underground cycles quite a bit with its self titled full-length back in 2012. Dodecahedron are not the kind of black metal band that we've been used to. You know, those 'satanic' guys who bang their heads to an utterly monotonous riff for five minutes or more... Dodecahedron on the contrary sat down and created a very good album. First of all this is not influenced only by the old black metal bands but experiments on many different musical forms. Those range from math metal patterns to jazz chords being strummed and noise rock. The band also put a lot of weight on the dynamics of the album, increasing or reducing the tension when necessary and avoiding artistic stagnation.

The music was written from the band's guitarist Michel Nienhuis. He wrote most of the riffs all by himself, a feat that is really admirable considering the fact that he's been in one more band. Michel has the talent to create complex guitar lines and heavy riffs and here he shows it in its full magnitude. The electronics are done by the band's other guitarist Joris Bonis and they sound great as well, especially in Descending Jacob's Ladder. The bass has its moments but it is overshadowed by the top class drumming performance done by Jasper Barendregt. His drum rolls are simply out of this world. He can follow the intense riffing and add even more intensity while he also shows great capability in filling weird time signatures with his drumming. The vocals and lyrics are provided by Michiel Eikanaar who did a splendid job but it could be a little better. His lyrics are better than his vocalizations though and in the final three tracks they reach their peak.

Revolving around such themes as chaos, beauty, nature, life, death and generally a huge array of contrasts, the lyrics are a great read from start to finish. The closing trilogy of tracks has my favorite lyrics from the whole album. They are inspired by the visit that Eikanaar paid to Hverfell (or Hverfjall), a vast tephra cone in Iceland.

The album sounds great but knowing that the band is working on its successor I cannot help it but hope that they'll surpass it. Dodecahedron might even partially replace the empty space left by Deathspell Omega... However they should stick to being original because if there is one thing that you must admit about this album, is that buried under all the influences there is a lot of originality. And that's a big deal, so take some time and listen to this.

Favorite tracks: "Vanitas", "View from Hverfell I: Head Above the Heavens", "View from Hverfell II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos", "View from Hverfell III: A Traveller of the Seed of the Earth".

80/100.

You've probably heard of a dodecahedron before, usually as an arbitrarily-chosen word to poke fun at geometry. Because that's a funny subject. Most people don't know what it is, though. A dodecahedron is a 12-sided three-dimensional object, like a 12-sided die. Most people don't have a lot of use for that, unless they're tabletop gaming.

Dodecahedron is also the name of a Dutch avant-garde black metal band. Most people don't have a lot of use for AGBM, as I'll call it for the rest of this review. But it is a field that is growing in popularity. Deathspell Omega is an oft-cited name, and you will catch a whiff of that under the covers of their self-titled debut record.

They sound a bit like Dark Fortress taking on an avant-garde sensibility. The vocals and instrumental tones bear a strong similarity to the German band, things which are strong points in their favor. They also seem to favor many of the same chords, but lean far more heavily in the direction of dissonance. Where Deathspell Omega goes at full-speed for ultimate chaos, Dodecahedron takes things much slower, and allows a lot more variety in the tempos. They also give you some grounding, through normal chords and more apparent structures, so you can appreciate the weirdness. They use some computer-like voice distortion in the vocals at times, suggesting a sci-fi element, although the song titles reference mythology and religion.

The album starts out interesting, but it's not until the closing trilogy that the band really shines. The riffs here are superb, although the structure of the album is such that it comes off as kind of a reverse-order EP (you know, the kind where they put some awesome concept up front and then throw in some rejected ideas at the end).

The Verdict: It would be easy to overstate how good this release is. AGBM often tricks reviewers into proclaiming it brilliant in a sort of Emperor's new clothes effect. But it is genuinely quite good. I will be watching this band in the future.

originally written for http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/

The dodecahedron is a geometric figure that has fascinated mathematicians since ancient times. Its twelve faces and its complex structure earned him a thousand uses and there are many who claim to detect a mystical aspect to this polyhedron so special. These strange features are perfectly suited to the style practiced by the Dutch Dodecahedron, which just launched a self-titled debut via Season of Mist.

Rarely an album has astonished me like this one. Influences that transcend the music of this group are stunning. From the opening track, the listener is struck by a barrage of decibels assembled into a structure that defies the rules of harmony. Behind what looks like a chaos of sound, you feel a thought, an evil plan at work. The impression is confirmed I Chronocrator, which evokes the jazz fusion crossed with the most brutal Black Metal, in the manner of Anaal Nathrakh. With Vanitas, the tempo slows; the atmosphere becomes heavier and scary. The group is apparently seeking to enter our mind to instil it madness, but it is the song Descending Jacob’s Ladder that intrigues me from the first notes. It evokes micropolyphony, a musical approach based on an amalgam of “clouds of notes” creating an impression of space travel-time. Never before have had I found the use of this contemporary music in the world of Black Metal, or even Rock at all! The album then goes on with a trilogy entitled View from Hverfell (for your general knowledge, know that Hverfell is a Icelandic crater evoking the moon and at the foot of which there are lava mounds called… Dimmu Borgir). Again, amalgamation of styles and weird song writing show how special this band is, with collages, changes of rhythm and harmonic structures baffling. While Head above-the Heavens is rather homogeneous in terms of tempo, Omnipotent Chaos Inside is fragmented and multiplies distinct sequences. Latest title, A Traveller of the Seed of the Earth starts out strong but ends with a long passage ambient, hatched with jolts of violence.

An open mind is needed to fully appreciate this album. The band offers indeed an odyssey of sound that combines seemingly incompatible styles and assemble them in a brilliant way. In both a disturbing and beautiful perspective, this disc immediately position Dodecahedron among the leaders of the European avant-garde and – as such – must be followed with great interest. 8/10

Originally written for metalobscur.com

There are a lot of things that make Deathspell Omega such a special band. One factor is their ability to contrast absolutely annihilating batteries of technical riffage with stunning moments of silence, emptiness and void. This is one of the many factors that made 2007’s FAS - Ite, Maledicti, in ignem Aeternum, such a landmark recording. Cathedrals of horror levitated above dizzying voids of dead space. From time to time, Deathspell Omega would leave the listener suspended above the void, creating disorienting gaps in between barrages of the most extreme metal.

Obviously, Dutch newcomers Dodecahedron were impressed by these techniques. In general, they obviously adore Deathspell Omega. The French masters’ fingerprints are all over Dodecahedron’s debut: it’s relentlessly dark, esoteric, mystical and hyper-conceptual. It’s also part of a new brand of black metal which embraces the evil themes that define the genre, but abandons the gritty execution of the first and second wave, in favor of sharp, precise musicianship that draws heavily from technical death metal, especially Gorguts’ iconic release, Obscura. There is also a progressive flair in Dodecahedron’s sound. Much of the guitar work recalls the spidery scales of instrumental King Crimson (think songs like “Fracture,” “Larks Tongues in Aspic pt. 2,” etc.).

At its best, Dodecahedron is a battering ram of chopping technical guitar work, jazzy percussion and dizzying moments of dissonance. The opener “Allfather” hits like an earthquake; an unexpected burst of fury, that leaves you shaking. “I, Chronocrator” is a worthy aftershock; not quite as frightening, but not too far off. Dodecahedron might be too close to Deathspell Omega in style for many people’s taste, but if anyone is going to accuse them of being a clone, they have to admit that they are damn good at monkeying Deathspell Omega’s chaotic passages. The same can’t be said for all those strange ambient passages Deathspell Omega pull off with such skill. Dodecahedron tries to produce equivocal passages, but the results are disappointing. “Vanitas” is slow and lumbering, like an out of shape kid struggling to swim laps on the first day of summer. “Descending Jacob's Ladder” is full of cheesy electronic vocals ineffective waves of static. The other slow passages are equally tired and tedious.

Basically, when Dodecahedron is in 5th gear, this album kills; when they take it down a notch, they sound out of their element. On the whole, these bright eyed black metalers probably bit off more than they could chew on this debut. The thematic structure is so elaborate and the conceptual aim is so high, but their musical breadth simply isn’t up to par. Great musicians? Yes. Great composers? Only within the restricted range of technical black metal.

It’s important to remember that Deathspell Omega didn’t just wake up one day and record Fas and Paracletus; there was a decade of Darkthrone worship and intermediate recordings such as Kenose that set the stage for their magnum opuses. So let’s not discount Dodecahedron; these are talented musicians who are capable of creating some really powerful passages of technical black metal. Perhaps in time they will develop into something special. For now, their debut is a good snack for those who feel starved in between Deathspell Omega releases.

(Originally written for http://www.deafsparrow.com/)

In recent years, there has been a sudden emergence of orthodox black metal and some fantastic acts that brand that genre on their shoulders. Among these, and definitely the most well-known of the bunch, is Deathspell Omega. Their latest full-length, “Paracletus,” is without a doubt one of the most groundbreaking albums that orthodox black metal, let alone black metal itself, has yet to unearth. Beyond this band, however, Dodecahedron is another act that have been brave enough to attempt a hit at this incredibly formidable style of black metal, and they’ve pulled it off pretty damn well, following along the same path as DSO. Hailing from the Netherlands, a country that offers death metal in the likes of Pestilence and Asphyx, Dodecahedron have been around since 2006, and through Season of Mist, have released their debut self-titled. A 50-minute journey of mind-churning black metal proportions, “Dodecahedron” is an album that will further develop the possibilities in BM and expand monumentally, though not so much as DSO, in what black metal had turned into once the second wave had been inaugurated and once that genre had become trite, overused, and, bluntly put, awful.

Just as thousands of acts had been spawned in the 90’s and on, imitating the forerunners in the second wave, and proving to be no more than lame facsimiles of the originals, (in most cases), so too have Dodecahedron emerged from the ashes that “Paracletus” has swept across the earth. That’s not to say that they’re simply a copy or a rehash of DSO, as the orthodox/avant-garde genre is still quite fresh and new, but they don’t match up to its influence, one that has set the tide at the highest level of black metal intellectuality and proved that it is, in fact, possible to branch off from a genre’s common factor and still thrive in musical genius; perhaps even surpassing many, if not most, of the genre’s originals. The French are at the top of the game at the current time for avant-garde black metal, and they’re setting the standard of excellence toward which subordinating bands should aim. Dodecahedron are clearly influenced by “Paracletus” and unfortunately add little to what it had to offer, but this record is easily still incredibly original in comparison to the oceans of simple-headed BM bands, and its members are all undeniably talented and musically proficient.

“Allfather,” the opening track on the album that releases spurts of darkened aural energy, is not merely a song; it’s a statement. A statement screaming of pain and agony, of malaise and torture, of the dark arts, blackened beliefs and slithering, eerie creatures of the underground hellish mires. It’s a statement inside which there lies a 6-minute endeavor of raspy, poignant BM vocals and dissonant guitars, of a night painted black that tears in the sky and unleashes upon the world hundreds of thousands of gruesome creatures that lurk into the listener’s ear and bomb it with powerful blast beats and cacophonous, atonal riffs. At around the middle of the song there comes around a break where the bass is left to shine along with the jazzy, dynamic drums; lasting hardly at all and bursting into incredibly powerful blasts of double bass soon after; and combinations of tremolos on one guitar and eerie sounds on the other. The rest of the songs continue along similarly, all bearing their individual merits and distinctions from the rest; be it a change in speed or an increase in an evil and morbid atmosphere, the latter of which can be heard in the interlude “Descending Jacob's Ladder,” where sways of vocals and harrowing sounds compose a wholly tormenting experience. Fucking hell, that is one scarring hell of a track. Listen at your own risk. (In addition to its horrific entertainment and terror that it ignites in you, it provides a nice twist on the album as a whole and adds variation).

A single underlying thread nips a clean hole through each one of the songs; all of which are almost identical in nature but surprisingly different, refreshing and varied when taken apart and inspected one by one. The production on the record is crisp, so each instrument is clearly audible and has its own moments of glory. The vocals are guttural, raspy and vibrant utterances that spit acid with them and enrich the quality of the album. Aside from the dissonant riffs that Dodecahedron put into play, there are other interesting nuances heard throughout, namely a few fast tremolos, and riffs here and there that carry a certain sadness to them (intro to “View from Hverfell II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos”). (Most of the variation is heard on the latter tracks, all of which belong to a “View from Hverfell” theme). However, they never stray far from that pervasive orthodox style of black metal. “Dodecahedron” is a fantastic achievement by a band that has a bright--or more accurately, dark--future ahead of them and I sit on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear what more this band has in store for the metal audience.

-SmithMetal84
http://ravenousreviewswebzine.blogspot.com/

Dodecahedron is a Dutch black metal band known to play a style similar to Deathspell Omega's and other avant-garde black metal acts. You can feel evil oozing from all the twelve sides of this juggernaut, while being slowly sucked into a black hole. The music here is in a way post-black metal as well, but unlike Alcest, Fen, or any other flowery fairy metal band there is out there, this is the opposite of it. The band rarely plays anything melodic, it's mostly an abstract approach to dissonant progression and technicality, while still capable of creating brilliant a atmosphere as it alterates between amelodic riffs; reminiscent of Blut Aus Nord (especially "The Work which Transforms God") in its take on extreme and pummeling avant-garde black metal that still creates spinechilling atmospheres.

The album begins with "Allfather" a not so subtle dissonant track, that feels like a downpour of some calculated vulgarity, abrasive yet beautiful. The vocals might sound like the typical black metal vocals to the untrained ear, but these are tortured screams that float in the music, in perfect synchronisation that only veterans of the scene can pull off. The vocal nadir issome typical black metal fare, but it's usually a zenith in which the vocals sound more evil and deranged than Satan himself. "I, Chronocrator" is like an apparatus, its devices interdigitated brilliantly, yet they work in juxtapising ways, only to create a perturbing sensation that your entire existence drowns in toxic sludge, until you breathe air in the last moment. The third track, "Vanitas" features some malevolent use of... auto-tune. Yes auto-tune. The device that a myriad of talentless kids use to get rich quickly, in the right hands, can add pure bliss in even the bleakest tunes. It adds the melodies many of you expected with bated breath. Not only that, but every track has a nice and soothing riff that drifts amidst the noise generated by the pure filth and evil. "Descending Jacob's Ladder" is the point where the band begins to professionaly dabble in dark ambient that displays an aural expanse of horror and the apocalypse.

The epitome of this album is the triptych, "View from Hverfell." Take everything you've read and heard before, and multiply it. Chaos and riffs everywhere that contrast with atmospheric sections, the "post-black metal" ones. "I: Head Above the Heavens" castigates you with whips made of scorpions only to break into "II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos" that starts with some competent and apt shoegaze and breaks into ominous doom. The song that truly shatters every illusion of hope you had of survival is definitely the last one, "III: A Traveller of the Seed of the Earth." A perfect example of this band's knack to dissonantly bleak yet atmospheric black metal, this is a great way to end this album.

To recapitulate this album, it's like wine. It ages well. I'm not saying you'll hate it on the first listen, oh no, it'll just hook you in its web, but the more you listen to it, the more you'll love it. It will never grow old, get boring, or annoy you. Only invoke unpleasant emotions and feelings within you. You will have trouble leaving the room, or falling asleep.