return to section: THE CYCLOTHYMIC PANOPTICON

return to section: MENTAL ELECTRICITY

return to section: MENTAL ELECTRICITY MMVII

It’s post-black-metal time, so unless you have a tolerance for long, bizarre words, techno beats, and jazz passages, then you should probably quit now. Opening track ‘The Axis of Diagram’ immediately draws comparison to Ephel Duath, due to the free jazz saxophone noodling, but this quickly fades as the music starts to move towards more of an industrial sound, very close to Aborym or DHG, with an Ihsahn-style solo briefly included. The title track is a spoken word number with a carnivalesque keyboard sound, slightly reminiscent of Arcturus. The final three tracks get increasingly electronic, the last one evidently being a remix of the first – though I had to work that out for myself, as the label helpfully didn’t provide a track-listing! Track 4 is laced with elements breakcore and gabba, while track 5 shifts gears entirely, being a slow, largely ambient interlude. Bard Faust provides a spoken word narration on ‘Through Drowsy Daydreams’, which incorporates a trip-hop influence during the middle segment.
The tracks on this EP show a lot of promise, and I’m keen to see what this band is capable over a full-length album. All in all, this is an impressive little release from a band that I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on in future.

Luke Goaman-Dodson