An ambitious project featuring Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson (ENSLAVED), Maja S. K. Ratje and Hild S. Tafjord (Noise-project FE-MAIL) and some other musicians. Originally commissioned by the Rikskonsertene in Norway to do a concert series, this project soon became a band to set out to mix Norwegian noise with metal such as (who would have thought!) ENSLAVED. This sounded very intriguing to me, and as a new ENSLAVED-album is not in sight I was anticipating to hear something new of Ivar and Grutle.
The good thing is: As my roots are deeply anchored in the Black Metal genre, I always appreciate it when a band writes lengthy, monotone, nearly ritualistic parts with melodies to sink your mind into. And Ivar Bjørnson is just the guy to manage exactly that; his guitar work is once again an adequate substitution for a drug-fuelled shamanistic vision.
The second good thing is: The combination of noise and metal works surprisingly well. Normally the sole thought that someone can actually ENJOY noise escapes me, but here it works. It adds to the atmosphere, keeps things interesting and provides some avantgardistic moments.
The bad thing is: It just is not enough. I really, really wanted to like “Travel Now Journey Infinitely” because I couldn’t imagine that someone who can write ear-candy such as “Isa” and “Below The Lights” (and yes, every other ENSLAVED-album) could do something mediocre, but there you have it. “Travel Now Journey Infinitely” seems like it is constructed out of leftover-riffs from ENSLAVED, and not all of them are THAT good. That would not be so bad maybe if the songs consisted of more than one guitar riff (okay, half of the songs have two riffs), but I am afraid there are in fact only one and a half guitar riffs on average for each song. Nope, no joke. Compared to TRINACRIA, BURZUM look like CRYPTOPSY in complexity. TRINACRIA try to build tension through drums, effects, vocals, bassguitar and obviously the omnipresent noise-elements, but what you get if you strip these is seven minutes with (mostly) ONE melody. And the song structure is nearly the same for each song, it just builds up and up and up towards a climax and ends.
This is a perfect album if you are drunk, dreamy, under the influence of some drugs or just for some background music due to its hypnotic and psychedelic compounds. And it is far from bad. But “super” is something else, too. I would have expected more of TRINACRIA due to the (obvious) connections with ENSLAVED. I can’t compare to FE-MAIL; as I said, Noise is just not my world and I could not give a competent opinion. What’s left for me after “Travel Now Journey Infinitely” is the sour aftertaste of quick money with minimal effort and big names. I believe the involved persons would do better to concentrate on their main bands rather than to work up half-baked ideas in sideprojects. That said, I resume my wait for a new ENSLAVED-album.
– Tentakel P.
VITALS:
Release: 2008
Label: Indie Recordings
Avantgenre: Minimalistic Noise Ritual
Duration: 47:13
Origin: Norway
Official site: http://www.myspace.com/trinacriamusic
Review online since: 06.07.2008 / 14:10:59
TRACKLIST:
01 – Part I:Turn Away
02 – Part II:The Silence
03 – Part III:Make No Mistake
04 – Part IV:Endless Roads
05 – Part V:Breach
06 – Part VI:Travel Now Journey Infinitely
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