Immense Intense Suspense

Usually avant-garde music comes across as completely detached from it’s time. In fact that is even part of the appeal I think. Music that just seems to be almost completely divorced from the rest of mankind. In reality however avant garde music like any other form of music is closely tied to the time it was made in even though sometimes our ears seemingly want to tell us something else. I can think however of a couple avant garde metal albums that are very clearly tied to a specific period in time, the famous classic example in metal is Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium of course. That album blew so many doors open back in the day but nowadays comes over as just one of the more quirky but also influential 80’s metal albums. While not nearly as influential or groundbreaking, Immense, Intense, Suspense is kind of a similar album. This is one of the most peculiar albums in the history of metal but at the same time it is also very clearly a product of the mid 90’s. From the production to how the various ideas are executed it really is like a time capsule and for that alone it is worth listening to.

As with every classic Dutch doom/death band the Celtic Frost influence is clearly present. One could make a very strong argument that this is the only record that is a direct continuation of Into the Pandemonium. Essentially pretty much element on that album has been expanded upon and updated with all the experiences and elements of the early death metal scene. The symphonic elements and switching between different styles of vocals they are all present on this record. The early Napalm Death style blast beats and the mournful sense of melody are a couple examples of the newer elements Phlebotomized added to the formula. One thing I find personally interesting is that some moments on this record remind me of the Timeghoul demos especially on “Dubbed Forswearer” of course this is a coincidence as overall this record is much more closely tied to The Gathering’s Always. One could even argue that this is the experimental, heavier and younger brother of Always and in my opinion with improved riffs and melodies. There are some real catchy moments here.

This makes it seem that this record is really not all that avant-garde but just a continuation of what already had been done. That is actually true, that is absolutely why this record is a time capsule of the mid 90’s. What makes this record avant-garde is how quirky and haphazard the songwriting is. Not only are there sudden tempo changes, the songs have pretty drastic shifts with little warning. The use of keys and violin as present on this record was innovative and experimental in 1994 but today comes over as more of a peculiarity as of course many more bands have gone much further with these elements. Yet in many ways these newer bands also applied these elements in a fashion that is much more aligned with standard approaches to songwriting.

I am definitely not saying this record is flawless because everything on this album is avant-garde and that this is just all intentional. However the issues that are present are fairly minor. The wild song structures while usually pretty appealing at times just don’t quite work. The brief passage with clean vocals on Barricade just sounds amateurish. Some of the synths sound like escapees from a Nintendo 64 game. However none of these issues come close to being a deal breaker. It seems like the only way to make an avant garde album that is nearly flawless is by keeping the avant gardeisms to specific elements of the whole. Pretty much every record I know that is as quirky as Immense Intense Suspense is flawed and I think that is part of the charm.