One of the several solo-outfits started by the very young multi-instrumentalist Damien Anton ‘Elisa’ Ojeda is Born An Abomination, quite a productive outlet. On March 28th I did upload a review for an album by Sadness, another project from this person, and in the near future there will be a handful of others too (for e.g. Left Alone…, more Sadness material, or Nänmëë).
Born An Abomination is one of Damien’s first projects, which he started when he was just fourteen years of age, I think. Like all the projects he’s involved with, this stuff deals with grief, loss, depression, melancholy, nostalgia, suicide – you get the picture, I guess.
Meadow is a one-track release, clocking twenty four minutes. And as from the opening phrase on, the introvert character of this artist gets pushed to extremes of desolation, melancholy, you know, I did just sum up some ideas in my former paragraph. Grieving acoustics slowly built up, and at almost three minutes, it turns heavier. The track evolves into a monolithic piece of melodic and powerful Black Metal, yet evidently of a mostly atmospheric and depressive kind. As a matter of fact, after three minutes, the outburst is quite fast and pushing, and despite coming with convincing comparisons to the Doom-Death scene, that rapid tempo surprises. But most of all: it is not that strange in result at all, this fast-paced element; on the contrary, it gives the whole a destructive character rather than an empty-pathetic one. At 5:30, another acoustic excerpt takes over, including spoken words by Damien, yet also with splendid guest vocals, floating-heavenly voices, by no one else but Akoma’s Tanya Bell (from Denmark, in case you didn’t know her). It’s like a naturally-innate evolution to the next chapter, combining Doom-Death heaviness à la the earlier nineties with blackened fierceness. Pounding rhythms, trem leads and somewhat guttural grunts march forward in a repetitively-structured manner, focusing convincingly on fine melodic creations with a cold atmosphere and a nasty attitude (quite a big difference with Sadness and Left Alone…!). At about thirteen minutes, the whole decelerates once again into melancholic spheres, with several layers of keyboard lines (with not that much fantasy there is even a violin / viola / cello sound hearable); it’s dreamy, it’s integer, it’s introspective. And Meadow continues this way. Another heavier excerpt, once again including the voice of Tanya initially, follows, searching for the perfected symbiosis of expressive empowerment and tranquil self-perspective, with quite an expressively-intense finale towards the end (listen to those blasting / blistering drum passages, in combination with the orchestral mixture of guitar riffs and synth lines). Everything finally fades away via a sober acoustic guitar chapter, leaving you, dear listener, confused, empty, alone with your thoughts…
I like the fact that this equilibrium of Doom-Death / Depressive Black parts, and the instrumental acoustic Drone / Ambient passages, are so convincingly part of one total experience, naturally cohesive, like a mind-travel, a short-movie, a lengthy dream that takes you through different dimensions.