Well, this certainly flipped the script on me. On the surface of things, this was to be just a regular common or garden black metal release for reviewing, which upon listening to I would be washed away in a sea of bitterness, spite and monochromatic misanthropy. But no, this is something different – bracingly so. I can’t say I’m 100% sold on what Averse Concept are doing with their sound on this release, but it has certainly intrigued me enough to sit up and take notice. ‘Symbol of Loss’ is a concept EP which examines loss and the attempt to overcome it, taking a very different musical stance from the vast majority of extreme bands.
Averse Concept open the EP with a graceful, melancholic guitar ringing out from the silence, soon to be overpowered by a swelling fuzz of distortion, crackling and fizzing a speedily picked black metal riff. After this riff is when things begin to get curious, revealing the post-black metal underbelly of this project. The vocals are supremely enunciated, and even though harsh, have a very ‘human’ feel to them as opposed to grim trolls or burping gremlins. There’s a touch of hardcore style to the voice which slips in and out (particularly notable in ‘Resigned Devotion’), which still sounds alien to my ears – it was a shock at first, but even when I think I’m becoming accustomed to them, a physical shudder will bring me right back around again. The vocals are undoubtedly the biggest sticking point for me, as the hardcore-esque ‘yap’ is one of my least loved in the harsh style. Still, there’s a good portion of blackened hissing, just not as we generally know and love it.
The band’s bio reads “No gimmicks, nor attempts to be evil”, and that rings true throughout. This is as far from grim and frostbitten as black metal gets, and at times it’s hard to call it black metal at all. It has a lot of the trappings, the tone, some of the riffs, but it’s a different beast altogether and very much in the ‘post’ school as alluded to before. There are a lot of rhythms and guitar techniques which are from a world millions of miles away from black metal, touching on everything and anything in between in the world of guitar based music.
In summary this is more Deafheaven than Dark Funeral, while managing to sound like their own entity rather than a band tearing strips off any well-worn formula and rehashing it as their own. I had to give this a lot of playback as it took a good while to fully sink in, but even then – I’m still not fully hooked as mentioned previously. Replete with a strange production job and ‘guys in a garage’ vibe, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the fuck these guys were thinking when putting together such an eclectic musical concoction. One moment I can be really enjoying their vibe and everything ‘works’, the next it simply annoys the shit out of me reeking of clueless heavy handedness. Well, you can’t win them all I suppose. One thing is for sure, for better or worse; Averse Concept certainly stand out.
(6/10 Lars Christiansen)
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