Dying Vision is a group of musicians from Poland. Now there are many excellent musicians from Poland where there seems to be a blackened death factory producing such people, but two members of this band were of particular interest. First there is Starash, a founder member of Devilish Impressions and generally unsung hero like many true metal warriors who contributed his wisdom and creative talent to the band’s psyche for around ten years. Then there is vocalist Virian who supplied eternal darkness to Lilla Veneda’s excellent and highly original album “Diagnosis” (2012). But the strength of these bands lies in the collective, so with great anticipation I braced myself for a full-on multi-angled assault and battering.
And that’s basically what I got. What makes this kind of work interesting is the subtlety of the angles and the way the demonic knife is twisted. Of course I could have been surprised and found that “Univerself” was about birds and bees and stuff, but that was never going to happen. This album rises above industrial reality and takes us into a hostile universe surrounded by a partly symphonic metallic cloak. The metal pomp which begins the 40 minutes of hardship gives way to a heartbeat, and then explodes as “Mental Attraction of Aeons” hits us fast and hard. Symphonic wafts penetrate the urgent air. It’s technical, melodic and exciting yet it’s ghastly and dark too. Instrumental twists add ominous colour like razors randomly slashing throats. The vocalist plays his part in this really rather enjoyable horror fest. “Mental Attraction of Aeons” is like being dragged along the ground by the hair. There’s no escape. The darkly veined, technical adrenaline rush then continues with “Inner Wishing Well”, another cleverly constructed ode to bleak outer worldliness. Again this track twists and turns in its mechanical way, there’s sprawling violence and even a moment or two of melancholy before the explosion resumes.
“Univerself” is thunderous and black. The skill lies in the channelling and fusion of dark imaginations, and this album does that. “Spiritual Artefacts (Recall of Delight)” takes up the baton and overwhelms us with its combination of chaos and majesty. It wouldn’t work if there was any compromise. Dying Vision see to that by loading their tracks with fizzing tension. Vocally, there’s a strong range as we surge through imaginary horror and swamps but there are a couple of strange clean vocal inserts on “Revelation of Galatea’s Sister” and “Watchmen of the Atrocious Queen”. I’m guessing that their intent is to create further drama by introducing a plaintive human voice but even in this album of complex patterns, its weakness sounded a bit wimpy and didn’t fit in for me as the swampy echoes had done previously on “Mental Attraction of Aeons”. “Night Brings us a New Fairy Tale” is an exercise in bludgeoning. It’s not exactly the calm before the storm but the tension mounts as “Watchmen of the Atrocious Queen” reaches to the sky in heightened desperation. It’s harsh but the sophisticated rhythmic patterns bring majesty. The drum provides its continued uncompromising authority while the keyboard player subtly enriches the swirling scene on “Peculiar Galaxy of Thoughts”. Swaying movements create the vibrations. Meanwhile the vocalist sounds like he’s dying. All that’s left is “The Only Vision …” which neatly rounds this complex work off by thundering through our veins and capturing atmospherically the infusion of the self in this overpowering universe. “It would be easier if nothing exists, then none would ask why there is nothing”, croaks Virian. For an album about nothing, “Univerself” is impressive.
It’s a compliment to say that this album is recognisably Polish in its style. Suffering and chaos are captured majestically. Dying Vision give us little space to breathe in this comprehensive work. At first I struggled to take in the whole concept after being drawn in by the magnificent “Mental Attraction of Aeons” and “Inner Wishing Well”, and I didn’t think that “Univerself” had the zest of Lilla Veneda’s “Diagnosis”. But having listened to it a few times, I realised that this is just less extroverted. The power is on the inside. The violence will swirl round you and sweep you up, and the quality lies in the subtle and sublime musicianship which makes “Univerself” such a rich as well as darkly atmospheric album.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
http://dyingvision.bandcamp.com/releases
Leave a Reply