In common with the rest of humanity, I am not omniscient but I can research things. My initial reaction seeing “Nigredo Expulsion” was to think that this title was something like what Luis Suarez said to Patrice Evra that day. It’s a sinister and superficial view of course, and couldn’t be further from the truth. “Nigredo” means blackness but is an alchemical word referring to putrefaction. Amenta is an Egyptian term, meanwhile, for a secret world, or Underworld where the Divine sons could be hidden away while waiting for the wrath of the Gods to pass. I looked at the lyrics and saw short but poetic lines about turbulent gushes, the empyrean curse and Elysium. It is left to Finnish band Venus Star, coincidentally, the name of the brightest star to enlighten us in this, their third album and unravel the mysteries of this dark world.
This is no holds barred stuff. From the outset, or Side Ve as it’s called, we are greeted with a thunderous explosion of drumming and bass. It is relentless and constant. The lyrics may read like poetry but they’re delivered curtly in black metal style as a series of growled statements. It stops. It starts again and the exercise of pile-driving through a thick, imaginary wall, continues. “Mesmerising dark metal” is what they call this. I detect faint but fleeting tinges of colour in the instrumental work of “Dark Feathers”, which has similarities to its predecessor “Trans-Plutonic Traffic”, but there’s never going to be much difference in this world of threat and darkness. The assault slows down a little and takes the logical step of engaging in momentary doom. Resilience is necessary.
The constant sludge fest proceeds with “Underworld Splendour”. I can’t say it intensifies or becomes any deeper because we’re at the bottom limit already. Did I detect a bit of stoner? Yes, I did. “New Aeon Comes” has a variation on the ballsy riff. The growling preacher of mangled cynicism – “The shining ends … the twisted dagger … does no justice to the arrow of truth” – rasps on mercilessly for another short episode in the bleak and black world of Venus Star. Doomy images reappear on the scene on “Resume the Bestial Word”, the start of Side St, as the chords lengthen and it all gets spaced out, maybe in more ways than one. With the doom comes ponderous but not funeral melody. The vocalist is too enraged for funerals. “Ash and Fire” intriguingly threatens to pick up in pace, but it’s like there’s a retarder, brought on by the permanently enveloping wall of sound. If there were any chinks of light, then the lumping crash-bang-wallop would put paid to that, as indeed it does to all life forms. Sheer heaviness abounds and prevails. I puffed my cheeks out in near submission as the pounding beat and overwhelming weightiness of “It is Not There” progress the onslaught. The preacher preaches. Surprisingly it takes until the last track “Daggers” for a sustained doom vibe to develop. A repetitive rhythm – no change there – rumbles on. There’s a kind of 70’s feel to it. There’s still no chink of light. You’ve probably got the story by now. But what is the story?
I cannot claim to understand or know about all that was going on lyrically or thematically but I do feel that I paid a visit to the underworld here. Moreover it’s the epitome of murky underground music, to the point that there’s precious little information about Venus Star out there. With all music, we all have our ideas and impressions of what we listen to. “Nigredo Explusion” took me away from reality into an alternative version. It’s an ultra-grim one. It’s not original and reminded me in some ways of a very heavy version of old school experimental metal, but this did for me. In spite of being aurally assaulted in merciless fashion for thirty odd minutes, I enjoyed that visit to the underworld. I don’t know whether this or if indeed anything was supposed to be the reaction but I felt strangely comforted at knowing what was going to happen while listening to “Nigredo Expulsion” to the point where existing reality was outside my radar and I was now with an old friend. Yes, that is strange.
(7/10 Andrew Doherty)
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