return to section: THE CYCLOTHYMIC PANOPTICON
return to section: MENTAL ELECTRICITY
return to section: MENTAL ELECTRICITY MMVII
Extreme Metal seems to suffer from a polarisation of personality, you have to suffer po-faced posturing on the one hand or juvenile high jinks on the other. It's refreshing when met with jesters who may well indulge in tomfoolery yet demonstrate an intelligent mind turning the tricks.
And so HESPERUS DIMENSION set off to confound with feints and foils as they hammer home their industrialised Black Metal. From the beginning the japery is evident with a squawking saxophone scrawling away all over the song sheet, it adds a twist of dark mischief before the mechanical kick of martial drumming delivers its programmed pummel. "The Cyclothymic Panopticon" is steeped in the aroma of 19th Century science, where physics meets theatre and the cosmic background adds to the arcane ambience.
The mainstay of this EP is the driving percussion and the abrasive guitar, it's the varying adornments that bring to mind a triangulation of THE AXIS OF PERDITION, ABORYM and LIMBONIC ART, albeit with an attendant humour that those three worthy references lack. It would be bleak if it wasn't for the cheek, the whimsy of the title track and the somewhat absurd "Immortal Portal Mortal" ensures that these two tracks act as custard pies ready to be lobbed into the fizzog of anyone who takes this musical misadventure too seriously. The heftier tracks are an extravaganza of cold drive titillated with swathes and tinkles of otherworldly synth that either wash over the whole like gusts of solar wind or that appear fleetingly like phantoms from the beyond.
The essence of HESPERUS DIMENSION is the guitar and drums, the guitars have an astringency to them, metal is their meat and the edge they possess means that they slice through all in their path, especially when the pace is increased, whereupon they guillotine away and heads will roll. The programmed drums patter away with inhuman detachment for much of the time but there is much evidence of more insistent battery when the emphasis is taken away from the double bass, in all they fit hand in glove with the mission statement and the synthesised slamming still has pulse quickening capability.
Like a side show tucked away in some dark corner of a travelling fair, "The Cyclothymic Panopticon"provides plenty of entertainment of the slightly sinister variety. This freak show tends towards the amusing until the Dr Jekyll of the first track turns into the Mr Hyde of the last. "The Diagram Of An Axis" demonstrates what happens when you drink from unlabelled potion bottles, sinews stretch and cognisance is blurred, the drums turn apocalyptic and the whole timbre is one of menace, you wouldn't be inclined to stick your finger in this hole, much as its chaotic charm compels you to do so.
Beware then, the ring master may come across as friendly and inviting but once within the confines of the big top, the clowns have their own plans for you and best not to think about what lurks in the shadows.
Mac
