Yet another newly formed band in front of me here and again one with calibre in the ranks with members from outfits such as Wolfhetan, Infaust and MOSAIC. Hailing from Thuringia Germany they are a slightly difficult act to categorise as perhaps the label blurb suggests mentioning all the gods of old school death metal along with the likes of Ruins Of Beverast, Eclesios are most certainly death metal as the five fairly lengthy and dense tracks here contest. I guess the latter aforementioned band’s comparison comes into things via the ephemera of chanting monks and tolling bells which seep into their songs like a spectre of doom but on the whole, this is a fairly challenging album that takes a fair bit of time to get to grips with and peel back its substantial layers.
The opening title track sets the scene gradually building with those ecclesiastical tones, before slowly oozing out slow bass heavy tones and eventually exploding into a death-laden beastly craggy lurch. Vocalist E who is also seemingly the drummer of this trio expresses things in at first clean tones before snappily barking out his parts along with the occasional ghastly scream. As the drums pound and guitars churn it’s all rather hideous and disgusting in tone. This is not a comfortable listening experience but a challenging one and despite mention of well-known artists it has a pretty unique stance and is hard to pigeonhole. There’s a bit of an avant-garde feel from the bass work and one gets the feel that the players like to experiment stylistically and chop and change things as they progress over these labyrinthine hymns, which have little in the way of salvation found amidst them. Seeing as their mission statement is apparently to hark back to a time when “extreme metal was a weapon against conformity” they certainly seem to have done just that.
Wails and croaks ride around the roughshod instrumentation of track ‘Eclesios’ itself, a guitar peels a strange slithering solo and the whole stop-start and variation of pace from fast and furious to slow eerie noise with chants and hollered out oration is really quite strange. The singer is at times like a deranged priest at his pulpit and whatever his exact sermon is, it is pretty damn harrowing. The problem here is twofold, firstly trying to make sense of it and secondly deciding if I actually like it and over repeated listens, I am still uncertain over either task. N.O.S. has a filthy vibe over it and a coating of crust and one gets a rancid feel from the billowing smog flowing from the speakers. Yes, enjoyment is not the word to use here, it’s a bit more of an ordeal than anything else but I can dig that, music is always meant to be challenging otherwise what’s the point of it?
The last couple of tracks are slightly shorter and what a great title ‘Nuclear Vulva’ is but overall, this is a “temple made from bones, flesh, skin and blood” that you are really going to have to fathom for yourself. One thing’s for certain it has a ghoulish and rank miasma about it that is definitely and defiantly unsettling.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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