Review Summary: If this album is a labyrinth, then consider me Theseus. I know I shouldn't have featured this but I did because lol.
Overture
“Rites of Initiation documents the ill-lit, inward-leading, forever-winding pathways that eventually take hold, on a search for the authentic in an increasingly artificial world. When the boundaries between thinking and knowing, dreaming and waking, living and dying all begin to blur, a terrifyingly primal vision begins to bleed through the fragile veil of consensus perception. To surrender to it, embracing the other side is our ‘rite of passage’. We’ve crafted these songs in an attempt to sing that Transition into being.” – Drew Speziale.
“The jargon of authenticity, which sells self-identity as something higher, projects the exchange formula onto that which imagines that it is not exchangeable; for as a biological individual each man resembles himself. That is what is left over after the removal of soul and immortality from the immortal soul.” Theodor Adorno, The Jargon of Authenticity (1964). Pg. 76.
Rites de passage are found in all societies but tend to reach their maximal expression in small-scale, relatively stable, and cyclical societies, where change is bound up with biological and meteorological rhythms rather than with technological innovations…On the whole, initiation rites, whether into social maturity or cult membership, best exemplify transition, since they have well-marked and protracted marginal or liminal phases…The transitional-being or ‘liminal persona’ is defined by a name and by a set of symbols. The same name is very frequently employed to designate those who are being initiated into very different states of life. For example, among the Ndembu of Zambia the name mwadi may mean various things: it may stand for ‘a boy novice in circumcision rites,’ or a ‘chief-designate undergoing his installation rites,’ or, yet again, ‘the first or ritual rites’ who has important ritual duties in the domestic family. Victor Turner, “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Phase of the Rites de Passage,” The Forest of Symbols (1964). Pgs. 95-96.
“Finally, if one also considers excision of the clitoris, perforation of the hymen, section of the perineum, and sub-incision, it becomes apparent that the human body has been treated like a simple piece of wood which each has cut and trimmed to suit him.” Arnold van Gennep, “Initiation Rites,” Rites of Passage (1914). Pg. 72.
The ideological content of this album can best be explained by the image of Joseph Campbell buttf
ucking Carl Jung, all taking place atop a stinking mound of chickensh
it accumulated from Drew Speziale’s pet silky hens, which he plans to use as compost for his wretched New Age permaculture garden.
Enter By The Narrow Gates
ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…A crash. Drew Speziale’s chanting voice. The darkness…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…A droning wall of distortion. “These dreams of Thunder displace, Dismantled spirit's burnt bare” ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha… “Every noise indistinctly perceived gives rise to corresponding dream-representations; the rolling of thunder takes us into the thick of battle, the crowing of a cock may be transformed into human shrieks of terror, and the creaking of a door may conjure up dreams of burglars breaking into the house.” (Freud,
The Interpretation of Dreams, 1901)…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…Wow, I can’t believe it. This track alone is better than anything Circle Takes the Square did on
As the Roots Undo…“Now my footsteps take precedence as the traffic sounds fade, And this city's lungs have purged their last breath. I'm held captive at the curb before the World's End Lane”…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…Wait. What the f
uck are these spoken word parts? Jesus Christ this sucks…nooooooooo…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-haha…ooh-ha-ha-ooh-ha…
Spirit Narrative
So yeah this is a fastf
uck, a blunderf
uck indeed. There is confusion and chaos. THIS CANNOT BE. I MUST GIVE FORM TO THE SHAPELESS VOID, MOLD THIS PRIMAL APEIRON.
The song emerges out of the last song. Wow, that’s pretty deep, you know, having everything tied together like that. It really suggests that each track is just a fragmentary part of a grand cohesive whole.
What a cheap trick. Charlatanry all of it. Smoke and mirrors. Buffoonery. Knavery. Buttf
ucking complicity.
“Demiurges running free.
Arcing archangels-
Only resonate out of sympathy”
What do you even know of the Platonic demiurge, Mr. Speziale? Where were you when
Timaeus was presenting his cosmology? Yours is a metaphysics of dunces.
Thank god this song is over quickly.
The Way of Ever-Branching Paths
“‘Way of Ever-Branching Paths’ has the most labyrinthine structure of the songs on Rites of Initiation, and the lyrics were largely inspired by all those twists and turns. We realized about halfway through writing it that we were building a maze of notes and riffs. We wanted to add another dimension to that hallway of mirrors by referencing the creative and emotional challenges that arose throughout the process of completing our record. I think most of the difficulties we experienced were probably some of the universal mile-markers on a path toward creative expression, and I started to look at the parallels between the ‘artistic journey’ and the ‘rites of passage’ utilized by many long-standing cultures and traditions. Those ideas filtered into the four tracks that make up the new EP.” – Drew Speziale
If this album is a labyrinth, then consider me Theseus. I
alone possess the Ariadne’s thread to make it through this album and emerge unscathed. “Theseus made himself master of the harbour, disembarked his men, and got to Gnossus before his enemies were aware of his approach. Then joining battle with them at the gate of the Labyrinth, he slew Deuca lion and his bodyguard. And since Ariadne was now at the head of affairs, he made a truce with her, received back the youthful hostages, and established friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans, who took oath never to begin hostilities.” Plutarch,
Lives. Pg. 42.
This track is still going on? What the f
uck?
ʇɥbıן ɟo ɹǝʞɐɯ
The Ancestral Other Side
In the track “The Ancestral Other Side,” Speziale makes tacit reference to the ancient notion of the oroboros, the snake or dragon eating its own tail while simultaneously regenerating itself from the sustenance provided thereby. For many primitive cultures, this is a symbol of boundlessness, or infinity. Speziale sings:
“Through fevered visions,
Silence devouring its own tail.”
Carl Jung, one of the popularizers of the symbol of the uroboros:
The formula reproduces exactly the essential features of the symbolic process of transformation. It shows the rotation of the mandala, the antithetical play of complementary (or compensatory) processes, then the apocatastasis, which the alchemists expressed through the symbol of the uroboros.
˙soɹoqoɹo ǝɥʇ ɟo ɯsıןoqɯʎs ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝɯɐɔ ʇı uǝɥʍ pǝʌıǝɔǝp ɥʇoq ǝɹǝʍ 'uuɐɯnǝu ɥɔıɹǝ 'ǝןdıɔsıp sıɥ puɐ bunظ
………………………………………… ……………horsesh
it
………………………………………… ………………than this
………………………………………… …………………is better
………………………………………… ……………………poetry that
…………………………………………its own
………………… 8th grade
…………………………………………eating
…………………… i’ve read
…………………………………tail, but
……… the snake
…………metaphor?
………………………………rather that
…………that of
……………call that a
……………………………of me
……………………is not
…………on now. you
………………………sucking my
…………………oroboros
………really? come
……………………own dick
……………………of the
……………of empathy.”
………………sucking my
……………………image
…………… “black holes
…………………own dick
………………the true
………………in antiquity.
……………………sucking my
………………………………that exists
………………………own dick
…………………………of infinity
…………………………in an endless
………………true symbol
……………………………cycle of
………………the only
………………………………autofellatio,
…which is
