Mekigah

Artist: 
Album Title: 
Litost
Release Date: 
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

Mekigah is an effusion of sounds emanating from a dark turbulent vortex… A beautiful blackened bastard child of diverse dark genres’... Does this introduction make you happy? Horny? Anxious? Scared? Or maybe all of them? In that case, I recommend you to read on!

To introduce you to this project, first this. Mekigah are a project by Vis Ortis, who did release a mini-album in 2010 under the Omajinaakoos-moniker, and Kryptus (who isn’t part of the entity anymore, apparently). With Mekigah, Vis Ortis and Kryptus recorded and released two albums before, i.e. The Serpent’s Kiss in 2010 and The Necessary Evil in 2012. Both of them were recorded with assistance of colleagues / members from e.g. Sanguinary Misanthropia and Erebus Enthroned, and brought a technical, little progressive / modern yet bizarre kind of Dark Aural Art. But there were quite some remarkable differences in between both albums, and believe me if I say that this third opus, once again, is a completely new offering, standing far away from the debut, and pretty much differing from the second effort as well.

Since Kryptus isn’t part of the Mekigah-project anymore, Vis Ortis re-styled this outfit once more, lifting up this project to dimensions not explored yet / since. Prepare for a journey into the unknown!

Seriously, with Litost, Mekigah transcend themselves by traveling into, and throughout, new sonic spectres. And it does oh so perfectly fit to Aesthetic Death’s roster! Those trusted with this label will recognize the asphyxiating approach immediately!

Let’s start with the opening ‘track’, Total Cessation Of One. It’s a scarifying, ominous soundtrack, based on semi-noisy field recordings, Death Industrial principles and Dark Ambient atmospheres. What do you think about that? Indeed, I am very aroused too! No bullocks, this opening sequence truly asphyxiates and haunts, creating the most abyssal spheres of occult and horrific sonic essence. With The Sole Dwelling, Mekigah sort of continue this path of obscure, suffocating grimness. It does combine the elementary things the opening song did breathe (taken from Death Industrial and Dark Ambient, generally seen), with elements from bleak Funeral Doom / Black Metal at the one hand, and Minimal Drone / Noise at the other. I do not think that I am exaggerating if I say that this track could have been part of the Woods Of Belial’s Deimos XIII’s recording sessions (at all).

And actually this album continues this way. Mekigah explore different angles of harsh-nihilistic aural pleasure (or is it ‘torture’?), i.e. by combining details from psychotic Ambient Noise, Minimal Industrial, mesmerizing and grim Funeral Doom, militant and / or martial Death Industrial, necrotic Black Metal, Dark Ambient, schizophrenic Black Noise, ice-cold Black Industrial, Occult Esoteric Drone, bombastic Tribal, symphonic sounds from the Other Side, and breath-f*ckin’-taking Aural Art whatsoever. There are even ritual chants, violins and / or spacy sounds involved.

Imagine a haunting, unhuman mixture of Woods Of Belial, Negligee, Chaos Echoes, Gnaw Their Tongues and Skullflower, or even the likes of Necrosadik, Khost, Black Depths Grey Waves, Zenith and In Slaughter Natives (can you imagine?...), to imagine the utter coldness this project stands for. Don’t focus on Mekigah’s former efforts, but bit welcome to a new, unexplored level of sonic sadism.

92/100