Primitive Deathcult

Primitive Deathcult is the newest EP from French death metal/avant-garde band Koprotpsy, released on January 21st of 2017, via Sepulchral Silence Records. The EP consists solely of one 27 and a half minute long track, an idea that isn't original, but a decision that I feel can generally make the flow of an EP or LP better by not breaking up the songs.

The record starts with a lengthy intro, totaling a little over eight minutes. The intro consists of sounds, mostly - horses' hooves running through water and mud, what sounds like some strange tribal-esque woodwind instruments, what might or might not be death growls, and some vocals reminiscent of black metal. The intro piece eventually comes forth with some acoustic guitar, and the same strange vocal/instrument, which unfortunately crops up all over this record. I typically don't mind intros of this length, but then again, they normally serve some sort of purpose. An intro this long doesn't seem very necessary to me, especially when it's just... strangeness for the sake of strangeness, which this seems to be, certainly not at home on a release billed as death metal, black metal, and extreme metal.

But now, on to the actual music. At around the 8:18 mark, we're greeted with some speedy double bass that sounds as though it's miles away, as does the heavily distorted electric guitar that's chugging along in the background. The production instantly shows itself as being, well, not very good. All of the instruments sound very distant, and the overall sound reminds me of some underground slam record I heard once. This just screams "muddy production" to me. Not to say bad production instantly makes a bad record - look at Norwegian black metal in the 90s. The difference is the production there lent to the music's charm and worked well to convey an evil, foreboding atmosphere - on Primitive Deathcult it's just kind of annoying, you have no idea what is even going on. This comes from the production, but also from just how much is happening. This record is trying to do way too much at once for it's own good.

Another thing are the strange Middle Eastern sounding strings in the background that kind of just show up and go away, it seems like it's something that could have maybe worked out, look at Nile, but they didn't know what to do with it, so it just didn't go anywhere. This is the main problem - this is a very, very repetitive piece of music, that brings up a lot of ideas, and then doesn't do anything with them.

Around the 15 minute mark, there is a sort of breakdown - a bass riff and more chugging, distorted guitars, with some pretty typical death growls. This is a high point, believe it or not, because finally all of the annoying Middle Eastern themes go away. They're replaced with this ambient vocal arrangement in the background, which is mostly inoffensive - I'll certainly take it over the strange, droning instrument that it replaced.

This lasts about a minute or so, and then the track goes almost completely silent for a small portion of time. After the short silence, guess what? More acoustic guitar and Middle Eastern sounding instruments, that sound more like they were programmed, honestly, as do all of the drums on this. The other really obnoxious thing at this point is the vocalist doing some droning death growl over top of everything, it didn't need to be there. The rest of the record just goes back and forth through the Middle Eastern-esque instrumentation and the boring, chuggy distorted sections.

If there is one word I could use to sum up this release, it would be... boring. This release is very boring. This is more of an experimental, avant-garde piece than death or black metal. In the end, I think what this was going for was a kind of Nile vibe, but it falls short, incredibly short, and ends up being a monotonous chugfest that has more than a few elements that neither lend themselves to the music, nor even really belong in the piece. Maybe this could have served as a nice drone track or something of the sort, because there is certainly something provoking thoughts of maybe a tribe or cult of cannibals or savages in the first ten minutes or so, however the whole piece is so repetitive and boring it loses any appeal it could have had as a decent drone piece. If this artist had marketed his music as an avant-garde drone project, that would have been one thing. It isn't very good for drone, either, because you could be listening to something like Sunn O))) or Earth, but going into this expecting a death metal record was very disappointing. 30%.

Although Koprotopsy has simply been labeled as 'death metal' here on the archives but that tag barely explains whatever is going on here. A fairly new outfit from the avant-garde/experimental metal hotbed that is France nowadays. The music heard on Primitive Deathcult is an experience in uncharted territories for the most part.

The name and starting moments of this EP plant morbid visions of a tribe of ruthless savages serving a panic-stricken sacrifice to a malevolent, devouring creature. Tribal drum beats, ritualistic clanking set a hypnotic mood early on. The droning throat singing and the cavernous, bellowing groaning add to the eerie atmosphere. These eccentric vocalizations are used throughout as instruments. About 6 minutes in a folky oriental melody breaks in with repetitive acoustic plucking, a flute and the same bell/whistle clanking. Plenty of instruments that aren't really common in metal or western music in general are heard here during the recurring oriental interludes. When the 'metal' finally makes an appearance it presents a groovy bass-heavy tone that almost resembles a German tank on the prowl...not talking in hyperbole here either! Too bad it isn't utilized as much as one would like.

Now not long after this point is when one hears almost everything this monolithic track has to offer. So apart from a couple of surprises, Saint Vermaine, the multi-instrumentalist here, relies on repetition of previously used ideas...and that is where Primitive Deathcult loses its mystique. There is a moment towards the latter half where a drum machine goes absolutely haywire and breaks any immersion left on road to the finale. Some double bass work is pretty questionable and shoehorned too, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and playing arbitrary patterns. After a solid foreboding intro and unique instrumentation and ideas implemented in the middle part the track falters towards the end failing to send off the listener with a memorable climax.

This EP is definitely a far cry from traditional death metal if it can be considered that at all. Although I can hear Sunn O))) (the eerie brooding atmosphere), Bolt Thrower (massive bass & guitar tone), Melechesh (folky/oriental melodies), Tengger Cavalry (unique vocal style), Sepultura (tribal beats) here but this is completely different from the aforementioned bands or any other band for that matter. The mouthful of a title may seem like a self-parodying joke but that is the best way I could possibly describe this. If the ideas here are explored thoroughly and refined more it may usher in a new genre of extreme metal. Now that might be a carelessly sensational statement but this direction/sound has a lot of potential in my humble opinion.

Fans of dark, atmospheric, experimental music should pick this up. It might not be metal enough for some but those who give it a try will find something new here.