Label: Zwaertgevegt
Date: June 28th, 2024
Here’s an idea, taking one of my recent rants into consideration, why not take your EP, have a fine discussion with your friendly band which also has an EP’s length of material set for publishing and push it out as a full length split vinyl? If this couple of Dutch extravagant black metal entities can do it, what’s stopping others? Fans get value for their money and the bands get to share their fanbases with one another and perhaps even grow their own a bit. Okay, this is surely easier when you are basically neighbors, share members and are part of the same circle of bands, but no band can convince me they don’t have friends in other bands.
Meanwhile, the Dutch black metal syndicate works like a steamroller. Max Verstappen could envy their productivity. And that’s all beside the point, since the key here is in the ratio of quality and quantity. There’s a serious percentage of high quality black metal releases getting out of the Netherlands in recent years. There’s also a wide variety of differing directions, within the genre, they are taking. It’s been quite some time now since my thesis, that the country is ruling the European black metal scene, grows in evidence. Here’s another proof, in the form of two acts which have their fingernails stuck in black metal, while roaming around the musical spectrum, looking for ever stranger tools to express their emotions.
Starting from side “B”, given that I’m following Meslamtaea for over five years now, the band freely roams between scopes of sound ranging from black metal to progressive rock and jazz. Finding that nothing is off limits when it comes to art, on this release, I would say, black metal gets the biggest cut of the cake. Sure, it is refined, filled with variety of outside influences, but still primarily black metal. That cannot always be said about their work, but here we are. However, it’s important to underline that this is hardly a strict shift in musical direction for the band. It is simply the case with these tracks. They needed a prevailing black metal tone and the band followed their lead.
Still, there’s enough calm moments, where the atmosphere rules over the aggressive posture of Meslamtaea. Already the second track on their side of the record, “Bitterzoet”, offers a progressive note which elevates it to post black metal, though there remains a traditional streak almost for the full duration of almost six minutes. Its follower goes along the similar line, but the closing track, “Samen Zielsalleen”, works on an avantgarde scale, incorporating post black metal to a higher degree.
Naturally, Meslamtaea is already a highly experienced act when it comes to carefully arranging these pieces into flowing rivers of commanding lava. Among their many talents, this one should be credited the most, since it would definitely all fall apart without it. This way, the band is capable of delivering engaging material time and again. Though, this time, they are paralleled on the flip side of this vinyl. Even surpassed when it comes to experimentation with the sound.
Namely, the add-ons that The Color Of Rain musters on top of a fairly dramatic (cinematic?) black metal basis are many and hard to list. Take the opening track (not counting the introduction), for instance. At first glance “As The Empires Fell” could be construed as a fusion of Cynic, Cradle Of Filth and Opeth. Dark, aggressive and progressive, plus all kinds of symphonic, given the background keyboards and chants. As a perfect example of theatrical performance in black metal, this one with its follower, “And the Abyss Stared Back”, beckon the majestic execution which characterizes The Color Of Rain. They’ve even added elements of electronica, mostly in the effects occasionally laid on the vocals, as displayed the cleanest in the mentioned introduction. From then on it spills from time to time into other tracks. I wouldn’t quite add Voivod to the list of their influences, but there’s an apparent freedom of composition and rejection of imposed standards which are the main feats when these guys work on their material.
While at that, there’s no incoherent musical babbling here either. Everything is neatly lain into place, so that the songs are handling expression of their creators without hindrance. Varying in emotion just as in time signatures, The Color Of Rain will make you scream, shout, but also despair. Like in “Take Over Me”, I would really like to meet a person who stays silent when the chorus calls to “take over me”. Not easy to induce something like that, in what is predominantly extreme metal.
And they all stared into the abyss that domes our steel and concrete existence, as portrayed on the front cover. Until nothingness conquers all!
Unfortunately, though I keep calling upon it, the world at large is still very much ignorant towards what’s going on in the Netherlands. Hence, this piece of plastic is limited to just a hundred and fifty copies. Thankfully though, the real creative underground will be left unspoiled and the few invocated will be treated with further torches guiding the way. Shame for the others though… If you’re fast enough to get a copy, you should consider yourself among the lucky few. Keep a watchful eye on the Dutch.
