Mass Culture / Fields of Locust

During the fall of 2013, the highly anticipated joint effort by Mass Culture and Fields of Locust was released in 12’’ vinyl. Featuring five songs of intense, riff-driven post metal (plus more), this is an eminent and honest release, presenting the current standpoint of both bands, while we wait for their next full length albums to come. But let us not waste any more time and submerge right into this considerable split release for the time being.

"Insanity Mutilated in Silence" is Mass Culture’s introduction to this split, a song that gradually unfolds, making its hazy substance a proper explanation for its title. Guitar drones, noises and effects create a warm but distant soundscape which is slowly encircling the listener just before the beginning of "Forewood" is indicated. The screaming vocals kick right in, while the guitar riffs are running strongly, ever-transmuting in terms of tempo changes or melodies. The assuaging but mysterious sounding chords strummed half-way into the song are soon completed with the added harsh vocals that now lead a driving rhythm of the same (yet distorted) ongoing section."Eterneal" is no different in structure, as it's another powerful song from the very beginning. A collection of sludgy, vigorous riffs and moody chord progressions, gushed one after another into Isis influenced build-ups and transitions. Aggression succeeded by a lull that is too disturbed after a short while, that is what Mass Culture’s side is about. What can be seen as a drawback though are the vocal lines that seem rather uninspired although better executed than the band’s previous effort, Amoralism.

Fields of Locust's side is rather different. It came as a (pleasant) surprise to discover that "We the Few" is an all-acoustic track, one based on the poem by Giorgos Makris of the same title. The words of the poet although unspoken are very well carved into the depths of our minds as this orchestral piece manages to (re)capture memories and images that bear as much emotional weight as the poem’s concept. Loneliness, sadness, pain, and wilderness - the images jump off from every edge of our mental self and the memories’ parade is led by the melancholic whistle of the wind instruments used. "Conqueror" on the other hand returns to familiar doomy, sludge metal of Fields of Locust in the style they brought forth with Subtopia. The transitions are continuous and necessary as the escalation of the atmosphere created. The heavy palm-muted verses are pacified by an outstanding clean guitar section with a mournful lead guitar that would certainly give one the shudders. This ancient conqueror is finally put to rest with the reappearance of the sharp screaming vocals and the perpetual riffs that drag the song to its end.

This split EP is an interesting piece of work by two significant bands of the Greek underground scene that bear great resemblances to each other yet they are so different and diverse. You only have to listen if you want to find out.

Lefteris Kefalas,
http://subexistance.com/