Just Another Planet

After four short releases in 2022 and two singles in early 2023, Russian solo BM / post-BM act Que Metal at last put out its debut album "Just Another Planet". Though I've only heard one other Que Metal release, this one being "Somewhere in Time" that came out in December 2022, "Just Another Planet" seems equally as depressive in its theme and subject matter, if not so much so in its music, as that earlier recording. While "Somewhere in Time" was gloomy and dejected in mood, this album is a much more angry and aggressive work, experimenting also with various BM and post-BM elements, and bringing in influences from dark ambient and the use of samples to create a narrative of a dysfunctional society with no purpose, no hope and a nihilist outlook that has taken over planet Earth.

The music is recognisably BM in its riffs and structures though the guitar tones are so distorted they come out sounding more like noisy bristling buzzsaws gone completely wild and chewing up floors wherever they go. At the same time, the use of piano melodies in most songs gives the album a dark urban feel not too far from past depressive black metal / blackened rock outfit Lifelover. Though the raspy voices and the noisy grinding guitar tones haven't changed much since "Somewhere in Time", the music is definitely something else: it has a manic spirit that pursues its own path, wherever that leads, and the result is songs that seem a mixture of BM, punk, experimental rock / pop and good old fashioned rock'n'roll or black'n'roll.

With a longer album format that allows more and longer songs, Xojid can now afford to branch out into moody dark ambient / noise industrial and atmospheric BM with instrumental tracks like "And the Trees are Watching … Dreams", a brooding, introspective piece combining ambient, dark melodic blues pop and some drone. At the other extreme from "And the Trees are Watching ..." is harsh and brittle chainsaw BM / post-BM work like "Gradually Disappearing" which is as much melodic and even hooky as it is melancholy in mood and noisy and livewire bristling in tone. Later songs (from track 6 onwards) can feature depressing ambient and dreary atmosphere, occasional clean vocals and some noisy industrial influences. The harsh singing takes on a self-pitying tone as our protagonist fights against passivity, depression and madness in a world that does not care about him or any other human being.

In the way that the songs are organised, with two dark ambient instrumentals bookending the album, "Just Another Planet" has a story to tell, and not a pleasant one at that as humanity finds itself without purpose in a universe clearly unimpressed with and indifferent to Homo sapiens and perhaps even life generally, wherever it exists. Energy and fury are in no short supply as Xojid screams and roars himself to raspier death-rattle levels. Some tracks have a definite rock'n'roll feel and the pity is that the drumming seems so light that the music doesn't have the extra aggressive edge that clear snare drums might give it. The songwriting is good with short to medium-long songs packing in harsh abrasive garage punk-like riffs, runaway tremolo guitar scrabble, drone and atmospheric mood music in the space spanning nearly two minutes minimum to just under six minutes.

With "Just Another Planet", Que Metal is starting to find its own distinctive niche in a fusion of raw BM / post-BM / dark ambient / blackened experimental. The next album might be a surprise with Que Metal going even further into ambient or post-BM than it has done here.