No State of Grace

This was the first metal album I ever owned on CD, and I've listened to the songs here countless times in my earlier years. With my nostalgia glasses, this album is perfect, but the realist side of me begs to look at this album more critically. My conclusion on the matter is: Yes, it's the weakest album of the currently 3 Iperyt albums, but it's still a good industrial black/death album.

Comparing this album (or band in general) to others industrial bands like I've seen people here do, like 'Blut Aus Nord', 'The Axis of Perdition', or hell even 'The Berzerker' aren't fair comparisons, for each of these bands, and all other industrial black bands are ranging from "very different", to "Holy Shit, why are you putting these in the same sub genre" ? Looking at this album on its own, it does lose much of its atmosphere established in the prior album, but still has a crazy amount of attitude and personality to dissect, and trades the colder atmosphere for more nuclear brutality and self-despair.

The disparity between the great songs, and not-so-great songs is much greater than i remember, with tracks like the self-titled album track being fucking killer and still awesome to this day, and tracks like 'Scars are Sexy' having me say "I loved this"? Don't get me wrong, there are solid parts to most of the songs, but if you're not a fan, it'll definitely be hit or miss. The lyrical content is also a step down, matching the immaturity from the band's EP, and at this point, it's wearing out its welcome.

The production and guitars feel softer on this album and lack punch at times, taking away from the "Sonic Terror" Iperyt builds itself to be. People Hater still manages to give a great performance on the album in comparison to everything else, and even delivers some melody on a portion of the final track, which in general comes out of nowhere, yet works as an existential cry in need of oblivion and nothingness.

Is this a solid follow up to the first album? No, not really. Is it good on its own? For me, it alright. I can't help but like it, imperfections and all.

Industrial black metal can be done magnificently, just think of some The Axis of Perdition and Blut Aus Nord releases, but most often it seems to fall into ultimate mediocrity. Iperyt’s second full-length No State of Grace is an inconveniently clear case of the latter category, presenting eleven tracks of ultra fast and rather bland industrial black / death metal.

The main glitch here is how the band tries to be extreme and shocking. This comes evident already via reading the songtitles like ”Scars Are Sexy” and, delving into the music, the aspect of pretentiousness comes apparent in e.g. the exaggerated drum machine speeds. Combine the 3000 bpm audio software beats to slower and remote riffs and ”let’s fuck the life from behind” (straight quote) lyrics, and I’m quite embarassed overall.

I hate to go all the way ranting an album like this, but the truth is that there’s little content on No State of Grace that would deserve the attention of even industrial metal fans. The first track, self-titled one, culminates to some nice, almost epic melodies, but that’s pretty much all I can get out of No State of Grace. Unless the bands starts to focus more on the actual content instead of the mere extreme and ’oh so violent’ attitude it has, I hold no further interest in the band. Technically, there’s no limitations for potential as the band does keep the songs together well enough, but there’s just got to be something more than that’s just trying to horrify the listener - and then even fail at it!

1 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

Iperyt are the army, the weapon, and the (ridiculous) drum machinery.

What the hell is wrong with these guys? In their newest "No State Of Grace" record we can find nice guitar riffs and a vocalist with attitude, but why did they abdicate of a real drummer? A drum machine is what we find in "No State Of Grace" and sometimes I feel it ridiculous with some techno music nuances and inhuman movements. Nowadays many bands are faced with a common problem: the lack of drummers and you may think "yes, they chose a drum machine because they couldn't find a real drummer". Well, you may be right, but in this particular case I don't think of it that way. They claim it's a sound innovation, but I think bands can innovate using other artifacts instead of this crazy reverie. Just listen and then make your opinion.

In another perspective, as I said in the beginning, the listener can enjoy some nice guitar riffs that are clearly related to death metal. However, I cannot dismiss some black metal influences.

Originally written for and posted at Riff Magazine

Industrial black metal isn’t an easy genre to pull off. In order to successfully fuse the two genres, a band must be able to both comprehend and effectively harness the chaos and primitivism inherent to black metal, and then twist it into form via the cold, mechanical precision of industrial music. Poland’s Iperyt succeeds where many other bands have failed, using technology to rein in black metal’s tendency toward entropy and forge a pummeling post-apocalyptic sonic landscape on their second album, No State of Grace.

Iperyt conforms black metal to the (relative) orderliness of drum machines and samplers on No State of Grace, while at the same time ramping up the hatred beyond the red. Hate is arguably black metal’s most important emotional component, and let’s face it, there’s plenty to hate in 2011. Lyrics such as “I am the maggots crawling out of a beggar’s wounds / I am the rapist’s seed in the anus of your wife” and “We wield the banners of nihilism / Fist-fucking God’s creation”, as well as the blasting musical genocide of tracks such as “Antihuman Hate Generator” and “Into the Mouth of Madness” offer no shortage of spite. No State of Grace abuses both the body and the mind, as the vocals, guitars and synthetic drums lock in to pulverize or sodomize everything within earshot. These machines are controlled by barbarians.

The quintet achieves their goal of total sensory overload, yet the band also knows when to pull back from the relentless mechanized battering and allow the album (and by turn the listener) to breath. These moments of calm (again, relative) are few and far between, but they do serve to make the band’s all-out assaults that much more crushing, especially the pounding, gabber-style bass drumming that’s frequently employed throughout No State of Grace. I’m no expert here, but I get the distinct impression while listening to the album that the band may be influenced by electronic music beyond the usual industrial suspects. Iperyt’s music doesn’t approach danceability by any means, but there are some thick and menacing grooves scattered throughout the album.

No State of Grace might not be as varied and nuanced as say, 666 International, but it is arguably one of the finest examples of blackened industrial brutality to come down the pike since Anaal Nathrakh’s The Codex Necro. It is an exercise in musical savagery that oozes contempt from every nook and cranny, making it a perfect soundtrack to the misanthropic rage many of us feel as we’re forced to subject ourselves to the cesspool that is humanity on a daily basis. In an era where so much conventional black metal comes off as tired and limp, and so many musicians are attempting to pretty up the genre in the name of “progression”, a filthy and furious killing machine like Iperyt is exactly what’s needed to make us feel the hatred again.

Originally written for http://thatshowkidsdie.com