Matéria Negra

Opening note:
This review appears now rewritten, because the original version had a flaw, which led to a misjudgement of the quality of the performance of the Portuguese band. In the download, provided by the label War productions, the first track was actually supposed to be the last one. This newly written piece deals with the correct version now. My advice to the band remains though: remove this track altogether.

Matéria Negra by the Portuguese band Medo would be their latest instalment of extreme music art and what to expect on it can be experienced in the opener already. After a short weird introduction track the ‘black metal’ is unleashed upon the listener. In some respect the way the album opens is quite ample, because the odd as well as intelligible way in which the words are expressed are somehow representative for the entire record: it is hard to get what the band actually wants.

You Will Never Burn All The Witches, the second track on Matéria Negra tries to lure the listener into the world of occult black metal and would the band concentrate on this aspect, then the whole matter would be much better. Yet, as t666r666v666e as they are, the album has to contain a certain level of artsy pretentiousness. The riffs are nice, the atmosphere is quite good and it is actually a good way to really open this album… guess what happens next … some pointless introduction and the band continues in the same way as before.

What makes everything even worse is ever-appearing homage to the X-Files, even though it is surprising somehow and adds a certain amount of charm to the performance. When it comes to the vocals though – especially the kind of growling –, then Medo are simply unable to leave a lasting impression; bands like Kult Ofenzivy or Unholy Kill are much more able to get this aspect done right. Or take Caro Maledicta and their 2009 Benediction album. These Irish musicians expressed the vocals in such an intense manner that it was actually possible to feel the disgust and the hatred. Medo are light-years away from this.

Aside from this, the music itself is driven by a drum-computer driven, but has actually some nice play with the guitar and motives. In terms of the arrangements and riffs, then Medo attempted to move outside of the black metal realm and towards something broader as well as with more facets. Nevertheless, on in Mistério Da Nau Da Morte this concept is only brought to some sort of full circle, because the shortness of the other tracks – considering the diversions created by the countless samples and stuff – prevent any atmosphere from occurring. From a minimalist Darkthrone worshipping over to ritualistic and slightly noisy music the approaches range, but the emphasis is rather on the former than on the latter. The aspect of minimalist needs to be emphasized. The overall complexity of the tracks is generally rather due to the amount of elements used and not due to the way elements appears at a given time.

Some words on the last track:
A rather pointless – as well as bloodless – recitation of a spiritual text, while an additional voice attempts to mimic an insane person – intelligible uttering, hysterical screaming and the like – and guitars play some loose chords in the background and create some sort of vague texture. How long is this ‘performance’? Nearly eight minutes! The best thing you can do is to skip and ignore it, because it is nothing but a waste of time.

The True Endless’ 1888 release comes to mind while listening to the album Matéria Negra. Both times a rather complex topic has been attempted to be dealt with, but in each instance the band was unable to provide something meaningful. In the case of Medo the album has become such a strain to listen to that it reaches the point in being impossible. What do they want to prove? Who do they think that the target audience is? According to the Metal Archives profile they do not consider playing live, but it should surprise if they should, because how do you want to keep up the atmosphere on stage with these constant pointless interruptions? It is a strain to listen to the music on disk already. Matéria Negra is a release that went horribly wrong. Arts of arts sake! Pretentiousness for its own pretentiousness! A hundred-fifty year old granny might be scared by this output … while the rest is rather bored and tired and would turn to something with more substance.

The non-metal tracks are:
1, 4, 6, 8, 11