The title of this album suggested that there was sophisticated intrigue or it was too clever for its own good. I missed the band’s first work, “The Perpetual Paradox”, so the only clues were going to be in the listening.
The bold-sounding riff of the opener suggested drama. As the album launches from the introduction into five hefty tracks, the progressive tinge brings Agalloch to mind. “Veiled Conception” reaches out widely. It’s irregular. The growls give it darkness. There are faint touches of melodic progressive death but instrumentally, it wanders off intensely and blackly on its own path. There’s an anarchic element and the drums roll on imperiously, but all in all it rumbles on drearily without apparent aim or purpose. This was something I found about “Antithetical Conjuration” as a whole. It seems paradoxical to say that the irregularity and range of ideas to enhance the atmosphere are formulaic, but it seemed like a group of ideas superimposed on each other with no end game. “Beg for Absolution” aims initially for funereal cosmic ghastliness. The progress is trudging. Drums trigger, apparently out of sync with the turgid display going on around them. There is mood, and it’s dark and threatening, but in spite of all the instrumental histrionics, I couldn’t find any electricity or coherent pattern. The style, which now made me think of Daylight Dies, is insistent but not in a particularly pleasant way. “Beg for Absolution” then ends with a sample mix which sounds like a cross between Daleks and a station announcement. I don’t know why.
“Blind-Worm-Cycle” is bleak and dark. In this grey scene, the drums inject activity but it doesn’t fit together. Sirening guitars add momentary interest, but for all this is a self-indulgent exercise in good musicianship, there’s no theme, or at least one that I can detect, or shape. Finally it cranks up to red alert death metal and there’s atmosphere but it’s still all disappointingly obscure in its intent. To prove the point, “Imperfect Translation” has a familiar chunky rhythm. The drummer tries to speed things up a bit. It’s like listening to Insomnium with the interest sucked out of it. After a break, it continues at the same whiny pitch. It’s repetitive and I began to wonder if there was a game to raise.
I had a moment of realisation when listening to “Concealed Within”. The title unwittingly tells the story. This track and this album are introspective. It’s an opportunity for the band to display their techniques and their ideas, but they don’t reach out from their world. So I don’t know what world I’m in and I don’t seem to be invited into theirs. Harsh, heavy, technical and progressive, “Concealed Within” goes through all the motions but that’s it. There are strange sound effects. What do they all mean? When it steps up or there’s a break, it always seems to result in a dead end. I can cope without looking for meaning but I need something to hang on to. There’s nothing.
“Antithetical Conjuration” has no life. The drum isn’t in line with the rest but it’s the whole concept that falls short for me. It’s a bit gimmicky and without pattern. The technical elements do not make up for the rest. It’s too blurred at the edges and constructed in such a way that I couldn’t find any interest in it all.
(5 /10 Andrew Doherty)
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