Review Summary: An intriguing contrast of sounds and environmental personalities.
Apodiablosis is a one man ambient project which began in late 2011. By this time, its third LP released within a year from its first, shows the artists maturity and growth; even though it’s only been a short period of time. The first and second releases of “Spiral” and “Tardigrade” show more of a monochrome appearance with atmospheres that certain one’s could get lost in. But with “Utrechtse Krop” we have more of an engaging approach where the composer effortlessly blends in an array of cohesive and comprehensive textures. The monochromatic natures of early
Apodiablosis have not been lost, rather, the maturity of this release shines in the integrations of old and new ideas. We have the use of conceptual skits, wavelength effects, overdriven ambience, occasional acoustic guitars, reverse glass effects, trebly chimes, and even rhythmic thuds all in singular fashion as well as intertwined.
When looking over the track list the focus and nature of “Utrechtse Krop” begins to unfold. “Jumentum”, the first track, is a skit that begins with what seems to be a hierarchy of divinity in which the superior gives its subordinates the ability to create humans. The perspective the superiors give to the humans is that of pettiness, which is manifested by the words of “humans quite interesting even though they are a worthless greedy lot”. From there it seems we are taken into the superior’s realm where we are able to envision the life’s of mortal souls through one that is spiritual and divine. It seems the superiors grow tired of the humans and decide to kill them and throw them “Into the Fetid Cisterns”. Now I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because up to this point you would have already went through an array of sounds that work perfectly to describe what the album seems to suggest. The very brief acoustic guitars at the beginning of “Marrow and Flesh” seem to represent the careless attitude of humans. The song then jumps into various ambient effects that hold dark mysterious manners to them which feels like you’re gazing at the humans in your realm of superiority, before the massacre that I previously talked about begins. With “Sand & Viscera” it’s obvious the smoke has cleared with the sand-wind effects of tumultuous glitters, yes glitters of purulent scatterings.
This is where the story gets really good because from this point on we are introduced into a new perspective which really solidifies the growth of
Apodiablosis. The second half of this album starts with “Fraai”, which in Dutch means beautiful. This is the contrast that I mentioned in my summary: although one may think that was brutal of these superiors to destroy the humans, the perspective of the superiors is one that is of peace and “Paean” which means songs of joy. We’re looking at two different perspectives which in turn unintentionally or intentionally lends itself to a moral; a moral of seeing things from more than one angle than just the typical of choosing. This same track “Paean” actually ends with a skit that sounds like something from a movie where a man utters words about humans achieving speed, power, and technology, but are in turn incapable of peace, kindness and all those things that make life possible. In fact, even going further, the awesome “Senocular Divinity[Haruspex]”, which is more classical ambient with synthy-eerie solos than anything else, implies seeing things with six eyes, which is a tribute to my previous words of optimistic viewpoints. “Spleen” is a complete skit as well but because of the distortion, some parts become incomprehensible, especially the latter half of the track. But I will tell you that whatever that demon like creature is saying it sure sounds sinister. I haven’t figured how the link of “Klass Vaak” ties into things as it’s Dutch for the sandman. But perhaps it’s referring to the sandman as some sort of spirit creature that comes from another realm to make children go to sleep, or in the context things, weak humans. And the sleep we’re talking about seems to refer to death as the album closes with “Body/Death”.
“Utrechtse Krop” is a very interesting and well thought out release that truly shows what
Apodiablosis is capable of. The focus here is tremendous. Everything from the conceptual natures, well thought out tracklist, and a level of composition that really encompasses the personalities the concept attempts to display, makes this album a truly successful release. For anyone interested in hearing ambient music that tries to connect with you rather than being absent, this is for you. It’s both dark and spectacular, and anyone with an open mind would greatly benefit from giving this successful current release of
Apodiablosis a try.
