The Apophatic Wilderness

New Zealanders Verberis show steady progress on their third album, "The Apophatic Wilderness": their new work is as distant from their previous release "Adumbration of the Veiled Logos" (2022) as it was from their debut "Vexamen" (2016). Above all, this means that the influence of Deathspell Omega is manifested on a much larger scale now. Actually, today's Verberis use dissonant guitar picking almost constantly, and, it has to be said, sometimes, sometimes they do it more intricately than Deathspell Omega themselves. The dissonance has become total/totalitarian in Verberis' music, indeed, this is Deathspell Omega taken to extremes. Come on, we would like to ask, where to move next? – well, no matter.

Needless to say, "The Apophatic Wilderness" is full of avant-garde music, it is some kind of continuous abstraction, in which the melodies are constantly changing and crawling on each other like snakes. It stands to reason, the melodies on "Adumbration..." were much more coherent, i. e. simpler, by and large. On the new work, weird melodic lines sometimes emerge during the dissonant (of course) tremolo-picked riffs, although this is a fairly rare occurrence. Unlike "Adumbration...", the old school is not given a chance to manifest itself here, perhaps its only attempt can be heard at the end of "Labyrinthine Privation", where a sad tremolo picking melody enters in one episode.

It is impossible for us to name the best composition in this dissonant realm, but definitely the last "Arteries Unto Ruin II" turned out to be the most chaotic piece: here is a "ragged" rhythm with stop-start passages (perhaps even this is the jazzy attitude) in the beginning, here is some kind of cosmic vignette in the middle, here is an almost progressive death metal solo at the end, here is an abundance of tremolo picked parts throughout the song, but it has no integrity, it seems to be glued together from pieces.

In order to fully understand the dictatorial powers of dissonance on "The Apophatic Wilderness", it is enough to notice that the voice is pushed to the background in the mix. The vocals almost always flow in a solid stream, but they only get the function of a very dense background since the first place is given to dissonant guitar picking. As a result, you can even get the impression that it doesn't really matter what message the vocalist is desperately trying to convey to the listener.

There is one interesting point with this picking pattern. During a fast blast-beat section of "Labyrinthine Privation", the guitar produces endless soloistic dissonant picking without the support of a rhythm guitar, the bass alone accompanies delicately, without disturbing the sound of tunes. The drums take this fountain of melodies, creating a stunning effect. The same maneuver is used in the last third of "Arteries Unto Ruin I", although the bass is more powerful here, it more obviously helps the guitar to create the intricate melody. Well, this is a very interesting maneuver, but it is not an innovation at all: the opening instrumental "Thanatosia" on the "Vexamen" debut was exactly like that. However, at that time it did not fit into the album's texture at all, it was quite unusual against the general black/death metal background of the album. Now this pattern sounds quite natural.

Verberis have noticeably slowed down on "The Apophatic Wilderness". Almost the entire album is a rather apathetic narration. It's like taking away the idea of depression from depressive black metal artists, convincing them to put the usual thoughts of sadness and despair out of their heads, and forcing them to copy Deathspell Omega instead. Verberis, indeed, seemed to have forgotten how to pick up pace. Or they lost all desire. Right, they burst into a blast beat in every song, but, apparently, more for old times' sake: high-speed eruptions just dramatize the narration periodically and entertain the listener, the essence of the album is clearly not contained in blast-beat attacks. The worst thing is that Verberis lose their unearthly individuality at speed, becoming even more similar to Deathspell Omega.

Blast beat-laden sections were not frequent guests on "Adumbration..." as well, however, it was mostly medium pace that reigned there and not slow at all: sure as hell, you would never think of depressive black metal when listening to "Adumbration...". While the slow parts on "Vexamen" were in the vein of Autopsy. The blast beat mayhem personified exactly the black/death metal attitude on "Adumbration...", there were, perhaps, no dissonant picked riffs over a blast beat on the previous album. And don't even ask about "Vexamen", on the whole, it was some kind of amalgam of thrash metal and black/death metal with a dash of dissonance, the album received its avant-garde touches thanks in part to its simultaneously weird and visceral production.

By the way, production-wise, "The Apophatic Wilderness", surprisingly, took a radical direction in this matter: on "Adumbration..." the production was a little soft and somewhat blurred, while on the new album the production is sharper. But even with all things considered this is more of an atmospheric work than an evil one. This is the voice that seems the only one to be evil here, filled with rage.

To be sure, Verberis create a unique atmosphere: using a formula directly opposite to the atmospheric black metal formula (i. e. "leads, tremolo and blasts"), they achieve almost the same effect. This atmosphere, perhaps, is their difference from Unaussprechlichen Kulten, who, by and large, move the same way as Verberis, but in a death metal rut: their newest album "Häxan Sabaoth" is just as sophisticated with dissonances as "The Apophatic Wilderness", but it is not atmospheric at all.

Summary. Regrettably, "The Apophatic Wilderness" is suitable only for dissonant black metal worshipers and connoisseurs who understand the nuances of this genre, otherwise you are unlikely to understand the sophisticated individualism of Verberis.