An Axis of Perdition
Apertures


4.0
excellent

Review

by Have you tried jamming HELCARAXE CONTRIBUTOR (145 Reviews)
January 2nd, 2025 | 7 replies


Release Date: 12/13/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Deleted scenes from machine isolation.

This statement may be a bit sweeping considering my limited understanding of their discography, but from what limited bits I have gleaned from them The Axis of Perdition have carved a rather unique niche within this side of dissonance-influenced black metal (not to say Axis falls neatly within the disso-black genre itself, however). That niche is something of horror with a whole lot less cheese than we oft find, shooting instead for the surreal and cold isolation of defunct machinery and lightless lifeless factories, with all the ambient sounds of grinding gears and the fleeting buzz of electrical pulses as the only sounds traversing the dust-addled still air that encompasses vast swaths of concrete and weakened beams. A factory that is not functioning is a more frightening environment than it deserves to be, perhaps due to the factory as a testament to the unnatural. It is after all a lifeless form with a million mechanisms colliding in tandem to ensure its function, much of which is captured sonically off of Apertures.

This record is for sure a little less focused on aspects of isolation than their opus Deleted Scenes From Transition Hospital, but whether it be through intermissions of grinding steel, distant howls permeating the nuanced guitar wizardry this album exudes or plodding water drips from cracked piping. “Corrupted Pulse” is an electric introduction in the most literal of senses, with the sound of clipped power lines being jolting and abrasive, perfectly serving as both a kinetic charge and a shocking contrast to the dismal mustiness that “Metempsychosis” gives rise to. This is where Axis’s amazing propensity to intertwine melody and dissonance into a singular dance where one contorts the other, as we are introduced to riffs that are inharmonious, dizzying and chaotic, and yet flourishes of melody still shine through albeit hardly brightly, as the oddly sinister outro to “Metempsychosis” and the intro to “Chants of the Worshipful Prey” do well to represent. This harrowing cornucopia of unwieldy melodic bits, jarring atonal riffs and abrasive metallic noises of something come to a wicked head with “Private Acts of Abnegation”, with percussion that serves as a reliable bedrock to plod it all along, all the while having its own complex flourishes that never threaten to overthrow the shadowy ambiance at large. A similar concept can be applied to the vocals, which consist almost entirely of ugly, fierce (but not -too- fierce) rasps and utterances that are a tool in the arsenal upon which this mechanical ritual is crafted.

In the end we are brought to “I Am Odium”, perhaps the track that veers the furthest from mechanicalness and atonality, albeit not without sounding isolated and harrowing in its own right. While it accomplishes a rigid structure through backing gas-leak whistling faintly heard through staccato discordant chug patterns and some, ahem, sick as *** hi-hat patterns, there is a flicker of joy and beauty that crops up through the surprisingly beautiful melodies that sneak their way out of the mire. It’s a magnificent thing to behold, that a record so immersed in being abstract and fearsome could manage something that comes close, albeit not quite there, to being holistic. In this I applaud Apertures, for while it is quite obvious that Axis tends well the haunt they desire to maintain, they are not entirely confined to any limiting structure and can thread together many means to a still hypnotic and frightening end.



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user ratings (12)
3.8
excellent

Comments:Add a Comment 
Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
January 2nd 2025


11038 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

New Axis is da best evah

NightOnDrunkMountain
Contributing Reviewer
January 2nd 2025


964 Comments


Just one listen so far, but I got really into it. Well written!

NexCeleris
January 2nd 2025


1490 Comments


Haven't jammed, but this was a nice™ read. Invisipos'd.

Hawks
January 2nd 2025


97794 Comments


Will be jamming at some point in the next few days. Awesome review as always brother!

Frost15
January 3rd 2025


4036 Comments


Same. Nice rev Diddy

frozencarl
January 10th 2025


1853 Comments


really good review man, really like the intro. have never heard of this band but it sounds sick

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
January 10th 2025


11038 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Hell yeah brother

It really makes me think of when we're shutting the factory down for the weekend (I work at a printing press) and the usual EXTREMELY overwhelming noise of paper whirring and metal chucks rolling and gears squealing louder than a dying pig no matter how much W-40 you apply comes to a dead stop and it's all just big lifeless machinery. Dead factory aesthetic is weird but kinda cool ig???



Also idk if I mentioned it but for some reason it actually kinnnnnd of makes me think of modern Akercocke?



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