In This Room

This Norwegian band has established themselves as one of the most visionary and compelling within the realm of atmospheric progressive music. Beautiful, tranquil and mysterious sounds of experience and awareness can be heard on albums such as Tears Laid In Earth and Painting On Glass. However, In This Room is by far the group's most experimental and ambitious work. Waves of sonic bliss can still be heard, mostly in the album's highlight moments of "Harvest", "Sort Of Invisible" and the closing sequence of "The Barge" and "Sleep". Yet there can also be found experiments into avant‑garde music, such as the warped decent into insanity of "Sophisticated Vampires". New vocalist Ann‑Mari Edvardsen sings hauntingly one moment and soothing the next, demonstrating remarkable range and expressive dictation, able to trace a melody with a diverse array of emotions and fluctuating energies, from high-register desperate yelling to charming and alluring breathy singing, and the occasional possessed expression of dementia. Her voice is splendidly and very effectively integrated into the wide variety of musical styles and moods. Breezy and sometimes deranged art-rock, lounge-jazz, atmospheric piano pieces, and trance-like ambient soundscapes portray hushed and solitary moods, tender and melancholy yet sometimes maniacal and disturbing, but always arranged with a high degree of artistic perception and elemental detail, with thematically-considered arrangements of synths, electronic nuance, guitar, piano, and voice over subtle, inventive percussive patterns and fluid basslines.

"Absorbed by the night
Conjure up the sleep
Sleep, sleep stealing through us
Cover our eyelids with silk"

The familiar character of creativity and adventure of past works is evident here, but directed to an altered context of moods and themes, less nature-oriented and mythically framed, more modern and stylish. It is an ideal late-night soundtrack, intellectually stimulating and dynamic in mood, but also less of a unified experience than an album like Tears Laid in Earth, primarily because of its disjointed nature of sequence and often extreme contrast of mood and style between songs. For that, the album is more interesting in regards to experimentation with variation of timbre and texture, but less consistently enchanting and dreamlike, and so a different kind of journey through emotions and thoughts, more playful with perplexed perspective rather than immersed in a single frame of reflection and discovery in which many different paths are considered.

Having recently undergone some fairly significant changes in my life, I find myself re-visiting many things from years past that I'd neglected in favour of other obsessions and pastimes. This album is one of those which got a great deal of playtime from me about ten years ago, but somehow or other I ended up pushing it to the back of my mind and the only work of the enigmatic Norwegian group that I gave audition to and thought about often was the debut EP. That EP, by the way, is probably the only reason this band is on the metal-archives, and even that only showed an occasional outburst of metal qualities. Predictably, then, "In this Room" is not a metal album and that's all that need be said about that.

But why did I cast this aside for so long? I can't say! It really is a beautiful piece of work, and I always knew this, yet the memory of its mood and melodies remained sleeping beneath my conscious, awaiting, it seems, the time to make its presence known to me. That time is now, and listening to "In this Room" again feels like returning to an old friend, with an embarrassed, apologetic and quiet smile that wordlessly communicates a request for forgiveness and also speaks volumes of the disquiet recently undergone. The familiar embrace of sound is welcoming, sympathetic and just as mysterious and clever as it always was.

The careful application of synthesiser and samples, piano and guitars both acoustic and electric, and a strong female voice is really what the group has always purveyed. It's a very fine balance they strike, and their music has the marks of craftsmanship and skill all over it. The 3rd and the Mortal (still such an unwieldy name) know what they want to achieve, and they have the musical as well as the sound-engineering knowhow to pull it off to perfection. There is no pretension or limelight in this band...everyone has an equal part to play and they're not always playing it, so that when they do enter into the fold the listener is sometimes surprised, thrilled even.

Ann-Mari Edvardsen is really incredible; I'll say that right now and get it out of the way. The control she exhibits over her voice is really marvelous, and I certainly can't think of too many female singers I'd rate higher. I could listen to her weave melodies for hours, really, and the variety of timbres and dynamics she employs in the various songs here is very impressive, from wailing at the top of her lungs as though her life depends on it but without a hint of quaver in "Stream", to sultry and seductive as in "So Pure", jazzy and whimsical as in "A Myriad of Peepholes", or like some crazed little girl plunging into the unknown as in "Sophisticated Vampires". I would not hesitate to say that this is her best performance with the band, and, coincidentally or not, it's definitely the group's most focussed and complete-sounding effort, devoid of the occasional wanderings and blank spaces that made "Painting on Glass" a more impenetrable and ultimately less enjoyable affair.

The flow of the album must also be commented upon, as while it is song-oriented in the sense that what stands out are certainly the well-written and almost pop-friendly compositions and their individual moods and melodies, it's clearly meant to be digested in a single setting, in quiet and lonely surroundings, as a complete and whole experience. Most of the songs proper are followed by instrumentals, where the listener gets lost in repetitive hypnotic ambience, sometimes provided by synth and piano and occasionally played by the entire band. During these moments we forget ourselves, our minds clear and all that's left is the gentle but insistent pull of a river current. Indeed, there is an aquatic theme going on here, with the sounds of rowing actually playing a major percussive role in the fantastic lead-off track, "Stream", and re-appearing briefly in the closing piano/vocal piece, as well as being hinted at at various other moments throughout the record. The drumming is excellent, as always with this band ... clearly possessed of great skill but not commanding attention, merely blessed with a fantastically organic sound and clever, subtle playing. Acoustic guitars are given a lush, bright sound, and really remind me that this is actually one very finely produced record. We get one absolutely ugly outburst of distortion in "Did You", which is shocking because of the way it just leaps out of your speakers, and suddenly Ann-Mari is yelling the song's titular question with a furious, enraged tone at voice-cracking intensity, over and over, and instead of a metal riff to grab onto we have some roaring, hissing noise rock monstrosity that leaves me feeling drained every time.

Cleverness pervades the entire work. "Harvest" is a gentle and sad piece that seems to revolve around Ann-Mari's warm singing and a simple piano line, but when the climax of the song actually arrives, it's not in the form of a vocal hook as we might expect, but a powerful clean guitar melody that buries itself in the brain ever-after. "Sophisticated Vampires" contains a thrumming, hypnotic bass presence that you can really feel when it's pumped at you from a good audio system, and it's juxtaposed with keening, disconcerting high-pitched guitar wails and odd, rambling and girlish vocals to create a feeling of madness. "The Barge" is a lulling piano instrumental under which you can hear the sound of gentle waves, and this leads directly into the mostly piano-and-vocal-only album closer, "Sleep", a gorgeous piece of music in which, like the opener, Ann Mari does take the spotlight for a while, this time singing just as passionately but with a resigned, aching quality to her voice as she cries "bury someone...bury someone...".

There's also a hint of whimsy, both in music and lyrics, which is welcome and helps to create a record of several layers and a natural progression of moods. "So Pure" is a sexy, slow jazz groove in which the drums seem miked differently (maybe they're even electronic?): very loud and clanging, with cymbals and syncopated snare hits lending an almost funk groove to proceedings while a bass plucks away and Ann Mari delivers her lines with an extremely seductive tone and, no doubt, a beckoning smile. "A Myriad of Peepholes" is all synths, samples of weird radio noise and vocals, but it also boasts a jazz influence, and an oddly lighthearted sensibility. "Sort of Invisible" has lyrics that are almost conversational as a girl mocks and disparages what seems to have been a family she knew, or lived with, for a time. For the most part, actually, I can't make much of what seem to be highly personal, abstract and possibly psychedelia-tinged lyrics, but they are well-written and their obscurity, if anything, adds to the emotional weight of the album.

I consider this the band's swansong. After "In this Room" they had some lineup changes, took the number out of their name (which was still just as ungainly as before) and made some hodgepodge of an album that barely resembled the band of the past and contained some pretty bad male "goth mumblings", from what I remember. Although most people recall the Kari Rueslatten days with ultimate fondness, I keep returning to "In This Room" and feeling that it's really the most complete and satisfying work the group was able to concoct. While it's not a record for all times, I feel the band accomplished everything that they set out to do with it, and encompassed a startling variety of moods and sensations. It helps that Ann-Mari is something of a vocal chameleon who, while remaining distinctly herself, seems to be able to adapt effortlessly to different soundscapes and employ a host of singing styles and techniques. I hope she still sings with just as much passion and ease today. The band she was a part of for a time were an incredibly talented bunch of musicians who showed remarkable ability as well as restraint, and had one of the finest penchants for contrast and beauty, all while making it seem effortless and as though they'd been doing it for a lifetime. It's unfortunate their musical career was so short, but, baring in mind the inexplicable half-assed moniker alteration, you could say that they departed on the highest of notes. Sleep in peace.

Following the unpredictable progression from doom metal to unclassifiable music, The Third And The Mortal composed and released a compelling piece of art into the world back in 1997, and called it In This Room.

An opening track that could fit nicely in their debut full length if it had just a tad more distorted guitars welcomes us to this now unpredictable musical ground, spilling emotion all over the place, as the song explodes in some of the best female vocals I've ever listened to, backed with music that manages to be heavy and overwhelming without the use of distortion. This is probably the closest thing to metal you'll find in this album (apart from the rather noisy second half of Did You and the japanese bonus track Elephantine Waltz).

After this great opening is done, the rest of the album finds itself submerged in soft but complex and constantly changing textures, layers of fine and melodic sounds rich in ambiance and romanticism. But while I described their previous effort as somewhat elegant, and somewhat gloomy, this album feels a lot more laid back and mysterious, while still maintaining that musical elegance this band has had since day one. Tracks like So Pure (one of the best off the album, or so I feel), is an amorphous, seemingly improvised and jazz-inspired piece of music which only has an irregular drumline as a base, while everything else, including vocals, seem to be at the same time made on the spot and as fitting as they could ever get. This is one hypnotizing track if I've ever listened to one.

Some other songs seem to play with some sort of bizarre black humour, especially reflected on the excellently controlled vocals (Sort Of Invisible, for example), while others go deep into the emotional phase of the band, following the trademark drum-based melodies of distant and ghostly guitars and pianos entangled in pure emotion (Harvest for example), so there's a wide range of feeling and structures, styles and objectives going on between each song, which only makes it harder for me to give a concrete impression on what this album actually sounds like, or feels like.

Overall, this album seems like the result of solitude-induced madness, a point in which a person goes from feeling incredibly sad (Tears Laid in Earth), then falls to the bottom of a depressive pit to the point of getting used to it (Painting On Glass) and finally becomes so insane they don't even care anymore (In This Room). This album is not for those looking for doom metal, or any kind of metal at all, at that. Whatever traces of doom that could be found on their previous album are now completely gone, replaced by whatever you want to call this, just wonderful and tranquil music with bizarre and noisy moments, some sort of organized chaos (nevermind the paradox) which pushes music to a place where it seldom goes. To round things up a bit, this album is basically a mixed bag of chillout/triphop-inspired, post-rock/avantgarde-oriented music which is as hard to label as it is to completely appreciate. So if you like strange music as much as I do, you should definitely listen to this album, and band.

Originally written for the paper version of the Terror Cult Zine
http://www.terrorcultprod.glt.pl/