Two guys from Philadelphia put out four slabs of dark and weighty metal. That sums up “False Prism” for me. The opening tones suggest a bit of Hawkwind psychedelia but that’s just a bit part as walls start to crash around us. “False Segments”, the opener, is what will prove to be typically heavy and expansive. It seems that it’s deliberately loose at the edges. I’m not sure of the point of that, other than perhaps to envelop us in sound, which they seem to be doing pretty well at anyway. There are vocals but they come in from the background, fighting against all this din. The drums crash like a digger penetrating hard ground. “Tense” is a word I read in the accompanying description. It’s a good description. In no sense is any of this relaxing. This isn’t just deep. It’s chasmic. It’s got a frightening element to it. The darkness is of a post-industrial kind. I’d heard enough after a few minutes of the first track. I wanted to know where the band was going.
There’s a more subtle edge to the drum work of “False Cross”, which is slower, more atmospheric and more lumbering than “False Segments”. “Music for our trodden minds and sodden souls”, they call it. Trodden or downtrodden? This weighs on us heavily, like a stodgy lump of bread pudding. Ghastliness abounds but what’s the message? It’s psychedelic and avant-garde in its lack of structure. There’s clearly a post-doom aspect. Sludgy heaviness abounds and there is dark screaming. It’s a recipe for cacophony. The track “False Prism” picks up a bit with a very creepy, meandering guitar section which has all the hallmarks of old-style black metal. The screams work more in unison than before. I felt the distance and the anguish more as the old school venom explodes in its thunderous and fuzzy way. It slows down and an element of melancholy even appears through the mists. The drums are beaten like large panels. The slow and off-beat sound is magnified. The vocalist screams. There’s not the slightest tinge of mercy. “False Prism” ends suddenly and enigmatically as it began. It’s all without direction. I found that frustrating. The bizarre onslaught then continues with “True Darkness”. Again it does deviate from the album’s inexorable pattern, characterised by the screams and the relentless musical murder. I know it’s not intended to be harmonious but I found this album largely one-dimensional. There is blues rock, a lot of very heavy metal but no discernible pattern, just a tacit demand for endurance, and a bit of black metal. It’s interminable like one of those single-person black metal projects where one individual plays all the instruments and expresses his anger on the world, realising that he has no money for sound production so there isn’t any. “True Darkness”, to be fair, does slope off into some reflection. It’s quiet and reminiscent of a hot and hazy day in the desert but what has gone before has left a bad taste. An unexpected scene of stillness is upon us. The occasional sound of the cymbal and guitar can be heard. Progress is sleepy. Sound patterns emerge and sweeping, rushing noises go by to the background of the monolithically heavy drum. I can’t get excited about this. It ends with the languid drum. The last part seemed incongruous after what has gone before it.
Sadgiqacea must have been aiming at something with this album but having listened to it, I couldn’t say what it. There are elements of Neurosis, Intronaut and even harkings of Mayhem and Aborym about “False Prism”, and I suppose it does have its own character. I just didn’t get it. It seemed a lot of heavy sludge-laden exposure and dark atmospheres for no apparent reason, and I didn’t find anything remotely appealing about it. “False Prism” is grim, but not in a way that I would recommend.
(3.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
Leave a Reply