This is Ad Nauseam’s second album following their 2015 debut “Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est”. This technical death metal band from Italy has been going for 18 or so years, having previously been called Death Heaven and before that Kaos.

“Imperative Imperceptible Impulse” comprises 6 substantial tracks. The first of these is “Sub Specie Aeternitas”. Ad Nauseam prove that dissonant hyper technical metal is the right vehicle for expressing pitch dark atmospheres. Those words avant-garde and experimental cannot be underestimated here. The Ad Nauseam sound is an anarchic, based on death metal, but without a discernible shape or centre. It’s like being one short step from losing one’s mind. It’s all about the cacophonous medley of sounds, but with the drum beating ominously and all manner of dark matter floating around, it somehow keeps going and is transfixing. Welcome to the chaotic underworld. “Inexorably Ousted Sente” starts from that very place. At this point I am reminded of the loony tune riff of fellow Italians Ephel Duath. This off-tune world is menacing and dark. It is violent and extreme. It’s about fear, hallucinations and nightmares.

Gloom and menace lead us into “Coincidentia Oppositorum”. It’s like being in a darkened room where you don’t know what’s around you. The distorted soundscape is one of terror. Like Ephel Duath there are stylistically two distinct musical phases going on at the same time: there’s that distorted technical rhythm providing an imposing backdrop and a more orthodox death metal front. Or so it is until it cleverly breaks out and we’ve got noisy chaos on our hands. It’s a world of murderous technical exploration. This album is not one to sit down with and relax over a nice cup of tea, I suggest. In fact, it has an expansive, almost cinematic quality. There are even symphonic moments to enhance the atmosphere. As I listened to the ghastly twists and turns of the title track, and its anarchic progress, I reflected that it’s like a very sinister story. It’s like the days before films became “talkies” when a pianist used to provide accompanying sound, it’s like that, except that here the accompaniment is a contemptuous and abnormal guitar line and deadened percussion. As for what’s on the imaginary screen, well it’s carnage. The nightmares keep on coming. “Horror Vacui” lives up to its name. Extremely technical to begin, it descends into a creepy heart-stopping trudge through the unknown abyss of ghastly horror and death. Again “Human Interface to No God” captures the spirit of this world of blurred lines and broken patterns. The drum lays the path in its desultory way but the path is lined with metaphorical hand grenades, portrayed in the form of technical death metal distortions. But on we drive to what can only be an eternal void. There’s not a shred of normality. Tech death warfare continues to be waged around us. It’s extremely dark music for the darkest of times. There’s a rare moment of minimalist respite but only for the purpose of creating a strong tableau of stygian gloom in which we stand and reflect fearfully, not knowing what is around us. Cleverly we end on this note of fear and uncertainty.

It’s been 6 years since the last album, but it’s been well worth the wait. This album is richly atmospheric in the most disturbing way. My brain may be mashed now as a result but “Imperative Imperceptible Impulse” sparked my imagination with its deadly ambience and relentless twists and turns. Ad Nauseam go to extreme lengths, conceptualising unconventional techniques and sound techniques to create this scary artistic monster.

(9/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/adnauseamofficial

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/imperative-imperceptible-impulse