Staring at the list of albums to review, I rolled my eyes, sighed and muttered “Oh I don’t know, just give me the weirdshit if no one else wants it… ” So here we are, me and Japanese noise nutters (links to Boredoms and hardcore/noise bands abound in their shifting membership) Vampillia, a collective of whose existence I was previously blissfully unaware and around whom the words ‘chaos’, ‘extreme’, ‘drums’ and ‘vocals’ were scattered like dandruff at an Anvil gig. So in other words not a clue what it might be and that album title didn’t help either.
The joy is, of course “Well, I wasn’t expecting this… ”
For a start by my standards (say, Ebony Lake) this isn’t chaotic. Eccentric, idiosyncratic and a bit ‘out there’ yes but it really doesn’t take long to get a feel for this and once you do the clever, deft structures begin to appear. The opening titular track is a bittersweet, gentle touch of wistful piano and strings; a slow and immediately evocative and touching piece. A little of that gentle, slow motion thoughtfulness that old Sigur Ros had and every bit as enthralling too. So yes, post-rock but full of real depth of feeling rather than the abstract emotionless crap we usually get spliced into black metal. It made me look out of the window and just let the emotional waves push me further out into that internal sea. ‘Fedor’ brings in the guitars in an Ulver like riff, and some operatic vocals before we scramble into some harsher riffing and growled singing, a blast of ‘chaos’ that falls back to a soft violin before the drum driven noise rises again. But it flows so beautifully it almost makes you weep. It is Ulver at their most thoughtful and Arcturus at their most emotionally beguiling, using eddies of cacophony like squalls of wind, gusts whipped up by the edges of buildings as a slow persistent breeze passes. Vampillia switch rhythmic styles so easily it’s mesmerising; rock slides into trip-hop as Boris like guitar workouts snake through ‘The Volcano Song’, dance through a screech of babbling voices and into an Elend like choral sound.
‘Silences’ is the first time that the group do indulge in a little randomness, staccato machine-gun drum bursts connected by lazy strings, pauses and hard piano but even here this is all pulled together by the choral passages and ‘Blizzard’ is the more connected, coherent twin track before harsh vocals take us through a brisk waltz in ‘Rainbow On You’. ‘Dream’ is a violin and spoken word in a language I don’t recognise which rises into a sweet piano and acoustic guitar piece, part jazz, part pastoral and all beautiful. ‘Hope’ is exactly that; a reaching and a yearning for something you simply hope will come within reach. A little sad, full of the mental fatigue of holding things together long enough to reach the goal and with such heart tugging melody lines and fascinating drum work and blossoming out into a brighter, keener world where you feel yourself suddenly striding onwards with renewed strength. We end with ‘Kizuna’ where female voices sing a strange but gentle sing to us and finally send us on our way into quiet and rippling keyboard notes.
Vampillia have given us something quite special here. A world of misty melody, bursts of kinetic energy and sweeping grandeur. Ulver, Sigur Ros, Arcturus, Elend, other lost and forgotten old bands that dared after the first wave of black metal hit us. Sweet, gentle, thoughtful and truly emotional. You could spend a weekend in the company of these curious eccentrics and this quietly exceptional album and be so much better for it. There’s nothing contrived here, no trying to be weird or chaotic. If they are then it us simply their nature and how they bring out what is within, and what is within is a light and a beauty and a warmth we all need.
Beautiful.
(9.5/10 Gizmo)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vampillia-official/142523172462482
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