These Japanese masters of avantgarde black metal were always famous for astonishing their very own fanatics too and so far they gave us with all of their albums a masterpiece in his genre. I could enumerate their wonderful albums and you couldn’t stop me so I think my subjective attitude isn’t questionnable, that’s why I’m sorry in advance for those who wanted to get an impartial review.
In the beginning the title shows us excellently the world of this bizarre constellation: strength and musicality, sickness and beauty, black metal and broad-minded compositions. Hail Horror Hail has already started the range of strange experiments and their next station, Scenario IV in 1999 was a straight continuation of this tendence (if it doesn’t sound antagonistic in this case). The intricacy of the musical side, the clear male and female vocals and the feeling of a big Eastern journey mark well the miscellaneousness of this band who gives us also the experience of a travel through heaven and hell but mostly in Earth, because it’s everything that we could know and this is the most perfect way.
By the way, what could be eerier than the 4th Desert? What could drive more to despair than your own mind? It’s not necessary to be lunatic for the feeling: everything and nothoing is yours. Consequently, the tame of extremities is our exercise; the music which has also this mission can just help us to put it through, to dance this waltz of dread dreams and black curses. Morbid, splendid and mesmerizing, like the last track, Divine Graveyard merely unify sides which seem incompatibles, tales that have different endings (positive or negative), aspects which appear so important but which are only pale utterances (or monuments?) of the entirety.
Mirai Kawashima and his band efficiently present us their infernal vision – hail homage hail!
-Holden
VITALS:
Release: 1999
Label: Cacophonous Records
Avantgenre: Godzilla In Your Fairy Tale
Duration: 53:03
Origin: Japan
Official site: http://www.myspace.com/sighjapan
Review online since: 31.07.2010 / 02:12:36
TRACKLIST:
01 – Diabolic Suicide
02 – Infernal Cries
03 – Black Curse
04 – Iconoclasm In The 4th Desert
05 – In The Mind Of A Lunatic
06 – Severed Ways
07 – Imprisoned
08 – Waltz: Dread Dreams
09 – Divine Graveyard
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