Malivore

Metal has a genre problem. We all know it. On the one hand, genres are simply a tool of language, a way for us to identify the commonalities between a group of artists, and communicate this to others. The fact that there are so many specific tags is an inevitable side effect of a subculture as self-scrutinising as metal. What matters is when people use genre as a value judgement, smuggling in a covert critique under the tag that they assume will be understood by others. Taking this to an extreme, some artists receive the very act of classification as an afront, “surely not I? MY work is too complex and daring to be ensconced within a label!”.

This forgets that the most important thing, over and above the label, is what an artist brings to the tradition they work within. Those completely unbound by tradition usually dissolve into cacophonous nonsense. Hasard are an example of an artist capable of working within well trodden territory as far as genre is concerned, but bring their own clear and distinct set of ideas to supplement the norm. This is broadly dissonant, industrial infused black metal with obvious similarities to Axis of Perdition, Blut Aus Nord, and elements of contemporary Mayhem. But whilst these comparisons are stylistically justified, Hasard beaver away at their own clear interpretation, one so obviously distinct from its antecedents that I mention them simply to put you in the correct arena to describe the sound of ‘Malivore’.

There is a disjointed, unstructured approach to the sonic craft on this album that takes it out of the realms of metal at times. There are obvious timbral hallmarks, particular in the region of mixing dissonant black metal with caverncore. Rich symphonics display a nuanced understanding of the Western harmonic tradition, serving to lend theatrical credibility to the underlying nihilism of the dissonance. They guide the music into clear finales of dramatic import, forcing the guitars into traditional melodic coalescence. Swirling, disconnected drum patterns pulse beneath, pivoting more on the blending of fills to build meta patterns as opposed to simple metronomic devices.

But such moments of solidity are undercut by long segments defined by their total lack of solidity in any traditional musical sense. Structure remains through the manipulation of texture and dynamics, utilising the extra musical qualities of the instruments to create builds of noise and troughs of achingly eerie dark ambience. These take the compositions to a looser, informal zone when compared to the tight rigours of metal riffcraft. But as they coalesce into more recognisably industrial/symphonic black metal the underlying themes are picked up by the guitars, and transposed not into riffs in the strictest sense of the word, but certainly motifs that bear a clear resemblance to the passages that preceded them.

This makes ‘Malivore’ a unique work in the field, despite the obvious aesthetic similarities to a significant chunk of contemporary extreme metal. But appearances are skin deep. Where lesser artists use interludes, ambience, and noise as filler with little relation to the direction that the “rock” instrumentation ends up taking, Hasard use atmosphere and noise as compositional weapons. Beneath the clutter, they dictate the flow of these pieces by weaving them into the formalities of metal.

Originally published at Hate Meditations