It was written in the stars: Centipede Abyss and Apothecary were meant to join forces sooner or later. I am glad that it is not that much ‘later’, even though ‘sooner’ would have been nice too. But I won’t complain, for here we have it: the first (…and hopefully not the last) result of this unholy marriage…
Mirroring eyes with a hollowing moth…
Flæscwellere is the official title of both party’s malformed offspring, being a three-track EP with a total running time of almost twenty-five minutes (which means: lengthy elegies, of course). Everything was written and performed (with exception of the drum parts) by The Spiral Eyed, the main entity behind this project. This (human?) being (J. R.) is involved as well with Ar’lyxkq’wr, an outfit that’s part of the very same Centipede Abyss family as well. As said, the drums were done by someone else, i.e. Jared Moran, who is a Centipede Abyss alumni too (like involved with Ar’lyxkq’wr as well, or acts like Zvylpwkua, Cave or Vertebrae Fetish Totem).
Like all physical releases on Centipede Abyss, this one too is extremely limited (and hand-numbered), coming on jewel-case CD with layout done by one of this label’s eternal partners, i.e. Sir Inentropy. FYI: the latter took care of the mastering duties as well. There is, evidently, a digital opportunity as well…
Anyway, Apothecary is an extremely productive outfit, even-though they had been silent for a while. But it did not prevent the audience from sonic sweetness. No, seriously; Flæscwellere turns out to go even deeper, further, higher, than before with its disturbing, dissonant and chaotic aural extremity. The three ‘songs’ (what’s in a name) last for 8:15 to 8:19 minutes each and offer a most insane and discomfortable wall of metallic artistry.
And let’s start with one considerable detail, and that’s the sound quality. It is not ideal, to be honest, yet decent for sure. A certain amount of roughness and grimness does not hurt; actually, this kind of ‘Music’ (I know, it’s a lapsus to define Apothecary’s noise this way) deserves a lack of surgically precise fashion. But it’s important to be aware of the dinge sound-pollution that marks this EP.
The three lullabies, Each End Of A Burning Horizon (great title), Thus Conjoined To Smokeless Flame, and Jared, sorry, I mean Jaded And Effervescent (sorry, I can’t help it; it’s my twisted nature, and this soundtrack strengthens my delirium), gather post-normal sound-effects, as if a cosmic apocalypse seemed to be the defiled source of inspiration for this recording. John aka The Spiral Eyed knows how to violate any form of musical prediction, or how to refute any sense of legalized standards. Okay, it fits the label’s roster for sure. The string parts are like a malformed reinterpretation of melodicism, with somehow a hint of epicism that penetrates the listeners’ deflowered eardrums. The ‘harmonies’ are not as avantgarde-oriented as some other acts on this label (like aforementioned Ar’lyxkq’wr, a collab that involves both music(k)ians behind Apothecary), yet rather anarchic, and gone totally haywire. But, as said, that structural scenic execution of the guitars is remarkable. And compared to the past, I think that the hint of blackened chords that did characterize at least several hands full of former releases, has now unfurled unto spheres of satisfactional (this definition exist for real as from now on) mania. It’s a massive wall, these guitars, with a contradictory yet balanced technicity. His voice-torture too has evolved, with some blackened screams of the most wretched kind, and those barbaric, hideous, intolerant throat-puke-things (aka grunts). Here and there, some synths seem to suck away all remaining light and air, leaving you blind and suffocating, begging for salvation. All this gets brutally and mercilessly beaten up by the crafted rage of Mister Moran’s skin’n’cymbal-rape. Meteoric salvos, avalanche-like patterns, and skull-pulverizing beats remorselessly caress the elegiac (de)constructions with burning acid and rusty particles.
The label refers to the earlier works of Oranssi Pazazu and Urfaust, as well to Svrm, but I think that adepts of, for example, Nechbeyth, Teitanblood or Tetragrammacide, and of course any follower of the label itself too, might dig this misanthropic narrative likewise!
https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/fl-scwellere