Review:
Demilich hold true to the melodic tradition of Finnish metal by merging the heavy metal tradition of rich tonal space liberated by abstract conceptions of harmony with death metal, layering their ideas into songs where complexity silhouettes but does not illustrate an overall thematic space via postmodernist metastructuralism. Somehow I think Frank Zappa, young and into extreme metal, would have come up with something like this.
There are brutal parts, of blasting and rhythmic intensity, while most of the rest runs through wild cyclical riffs and transitions into a confusing maze of tones that reassemble as an understanding in the head of the listener after the influence of time reducing musical input is removed. It is all guided by the unreal gutteral croaking of Antti Bowman, a visceral bloodthrust which keeps a counterpace to the liquid modulation of the music.
Active, highly inventive riffs dance around tonal centers and then invert all meaning as they approach an understanding they have defined. Each song shifts and deconstructs in a twisted way only to reveal its gradual plan for self-reformation, with each cycle of thematic peak resulting in a new apex of motif. One might call it "virus study music," as what it traces is evolution of a song from basic principles unique to that song, in an information age version of progressive music.
With an ear for rhythmic expectation like a funk band (without the cheesy slap bass effects) with a temporary insanity driving a yen for weird tonal progressions, highly verbal riffing and a slow buildup of rhythm and harmonic accents, in a style reminiscent of Ripping Corpse, Demilich place the listener into a staring contest with the self's own concept of infinity.
This album is highly recommended - underground metal shooting off in another direction, but in safe hands. It's punk in that these players are not entirely technically obsessed and play sometimes a shade unsteadily, but progressive in that they reach beyond any metal structures known to humanity to create a language: a highly abstracted and intellectual, atmospheric type of death metal that works out its fractal by making sure every anticlimax is a peak view into the next dimension of its context.
