Ah Matron Thorn, musically we meet again and so soon after the last Benighted In Sodom album. Between these releases he has also cropped up with new Ævangelist material and these are just a few of many projects he is involved in. With a seemingly unstoppable work ethic the Finnish multi instrumental, singer, songwriter seems unstoppable and surely has his fans and followers. This was a bit of a test for me as I was not exactly enamoured by what I have heard before but was willing to give things another try especially as Oblivion Gate are a relatively new entity. This debut album is actually an expansion of his second EP under that name which came out independently last year and has been expanded from the 4 tracks to 6. It is one of various guises Matron goes under alone and one could wonder why he seems to feel the need to not put things all under the one banner especially when everything is relatively similar?
Unfortunately, these similarities include what makes things so near to unlistenable in the first place. The biggest problem I had with ‘Carrier Of Poisoned Apples’ the recent Benighted In Sodom album was the production values or lack of them that saw the levels on everything pushed to the limits and loud in the mix. Again, as soon as this starts it is immediately obvious from the dense, suffocating and stifling presentation of the material is very much in the same vein. So too are subject matters such as Morphine a companion to previous recent songs like That Heroin Sleep and although I have no real insight into the life lived by the artist, something that is no doubt personal and self-referential. Other facets creep in too. The music carries over that grungy feeling that was explored in cover of Heart Shaped Box and the feel of Nirvana especially in the dour vocal delivery crosses over in a mix of genres including a morose form of doom, grimy blackness and repetitive shambling rhythms. It sounds like everything is unfocussed and in a near enough brawl with every instrument punching each other and the vocals wailing over the top. It’s not a pleasant listen and gets stale very quickly especially when you have 6 numbers with an average 7-minute running time each.
If you are looking for the work of a tortured artist whose music is possibly his one goal for remaining on this earth, one foot in ‘The Wisdom Of The Grave’ you are certainly in the right place. Track titles such as ‘Give Me The Gun’ and ‘In The Fields Where I Lay’ attest this. Listening to this sort of music necessitates a sense of nihilism and just one spin is enough to make you wonder when Matron stops, if it will be down to the self-destructive urges having won and although nobody particularly wishes this on him it would come as no great surprise. What else is there to say here? This is miserable and gloomy stuff and its badly produced and whether on purpose or not, seemingly not even proficiently played and very much a mess. Melodies struggle to get out via the heavy definition of plodding bass and waspish guitar work and from song to song it’s too damn repetitive making the 40 odd minutes stretch to what feels like double the length. Whatever Matron Thorn’s goals are with all this even if it is infecting his misery onto others as it seems to be, I can only wish him the best of luck. For me though the next time his work pops up which I am sure it will do very frequently in these times of isolation and quarantine; I will be giving it a wide berth.
(4/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply