Kvess din kniv / Excruciation Sculpting Flesh

First of all: Utarm are not metal, they have never been and might even never become part of the circus. So, what would be the point of reviewing them by someone whose focus lies on black metal? Well, the art of this band wakes memories on the aforementioned genre and the compositions show especially hints of the depressive subgenre; vocals, style of the ‘riffs’. Hence, fans of the said concept might enjoy the art by this Norwegian artist who is behind Utarm; maybe not every track, but two out of three on this release might be appreciated. Actually, this release is some sort of a compilation as it consists parts of previously released compositions: Excruciation Sculpting Flesh is taken from Mutilation Epoch, while Doomed From Lust for All That Was appeared on the split release Penumbra Booming. Kvess Din Kniv would be a new one, but as it is generally a harsh noise track and at least from my perspective a bit boring, I would recommend to skip it.

Rather the contrary can be said of the succeeding compositions. Excruciation Sculpting Flesh has a noisy introduction, but progresses later into some sort of depressive black metal influenced kind of music with a sort of atmosphere a good deal of black metal bands want to achieve but often fail at. It is intense, dark and haunting. A lot of layers can be found like droning textures in the background, intense drums, whose sound reminds on artillery fire from the distant, and especially vocals -- screams of pure desperation -- which are nothing but a slap in the face and complete the 'positive impression' neatly. Utarm celebrate the darkness with this track and on a level a good deal of depressive black metal bands are simply unable to create, due to their reluctance to combine variation and intense elements in a sound way. Here such a combination can be found and it is an intense experience to listen to it.

Doomed From Lust for All That Was, the other good composition on this release, might come as a surprise to some who are not familiar with this particular style of music. They might mistake the noisy textures in the background with actual guitars, but this is not the case. Instead, these are created electronically, which is not a big deal as they sound pretty good and give the music volume. This track is a play with ideas and the more it progresses more and more neat motives and elements enter the arena. There is are violins, some 'melancholic' piano/keyboard play, intense drum-like elements in the background. Overall, this composition is quite depressive, a bit chaotic but always fascinating due to the consistency in atmosphere. Utarm progress slowly here, but keep the tension up... to be frank, you have to like this type of music in order to enjoy it; something which I do.

Kvess Din Kniv / Excruciation Sculpting Flesh can be downloaded from the Radical Matters website, a label which focuses on rather extreme music -- noise, ambient, industrial.
http://www.radicalmatters.com/
(look for web editions)

Originally written for the Circle of Destruction magazine, but it appeared without a score there.
Writer: oneyoudontknow