Disappointment

For all the darkness and anger rife in extreme metal, I have always found it to be well of affirmation, a source of light, strength, a resounding yes to life. Subgenres that lean into depressive themes therefore have a tendency to leave me flummoxed (barring some notable exceptions in funeral doom). All of the constructive potential of extreme metal is stripped away for the sake of self-annihilation, a narrow corridor of individualist limitation and mental void.

‘Disappointment’, the debut album from Melbourne’s Fryktelig Støy, has some useful instruction for reluctant depressives such as myself. Conceptually, the album borrows from the stories of mythological and historical figures, using them to serve as mouthpieces for personal stories of betrayal, disappointment, and resolve in the face of abuse. This supplements a state of despair – one chiefly articulated through the music itself – with motivation, defiance, a glimmer of purpose even.

The album is deeply wedded to its themes, to the point that it informs the DNA of the music itself. Stylistically it borrows from DSBM, doom metal, dark ambient, industrial, and even – via the high drama of the vocals – performance art. But structurally, Fryktelig Støy take a more freeform approach than is common for extreme metal. The tracks do not pivot on the accumulation and interchange of riffs as metal so often does.

Instead, loose themes and refrains are played out and reinterpreted from various angles. Genre alchemy sees a simple note cluster articulated via doom metal, a galloping black metal blast, then a loose noise rock jam. Themes are resituated across multiple contexts. ‘Disappointment’ is a highly emotive work, with the vocals adopting a spoken word approach over formally structured phrasing. Largely distorted but with lyrics more than audible, they take on a clean, Celtic metal croon for the track ‘Boudica’ because of course they would, but at other times Em Støy could be a worthy successor to the wanton fury of Lori Bravo. But more than that, the music follows the narrative arc of lyrical themes, building in intensity, speed, pitch, and layers of additional noise as the emotional waves of each piece rise and fall.

The result is a linear, flowing narrative of despair juxtaposed by hope, free of the jarring transitions and structuralist dogma typical of extreme metal. The presentation is there, but reinterpreted into a work with a very specific conceptual axe to grind, one that informs not only the lyrics and atmosphere, but the very way in which the music is constructed and articulated.

In this sense ‘Disappointment’ is a piece of experimental metal in every sense of the word. The final product is about as cohesive as they come, offering a clear narrative arc discernible even if we set aside the lyrics. The most abrasive and alienating elements of various extreme metal subgenres are lifted piecemeal as material to craft this specific vision, but rather than this coming across as an act of unanchored postmodernist play – as is so often the case is so often the case – Fryktelig Støy’s vision is that pronounced, fully realised, and expertly delivered that ‘Disappointment’ presents as a standalone work of conceptual art, one that just happens to be wearing metallic clothing.

Originally published at Hate Meditations