As though transmitted from a parallel dimension, Throes Of Death From The Dreamed Nihilism (I, Voidhanger Records) – the debut record by Bekor Qilish – is a strange and magnificent avant-garde metal beast. The brainchild of Italian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Bruzzone, Bekor Qilish is a solo project, aided by a smattering of key collaborators — who add colour to Bruzzone’s already mesmeric creation. Whether the term “extreme” or “avant-garde” fits better, Throes Of Death From The Dreamed Nihilism is a whirlwind of creativity and impressive technicality.
From the first minute of the opening track “Cryptic Hatred” alone, one might wonder how many ideas can be squeezed into sixty seconds of music. Crisp riffing — reminiscent at times of an extreme King Crimson — can suddenly shift into synth-driven prog-metal landscaping. Likewise, full-on jazz-infused extreme-metal madness fluidly shifts into locked-in grooves. Such fluid dynamics are a feature throughout the album. While vicious, slicing guitars have an air of black or death metal about them, it’s pointless to pigeon-hole this release into any genre — though Bruzzone’s snarled vocal delivery gives the album a consistent black metal atmosphere.
Despite the guitar-centric approach, keyboards also play an important role in the record’s sound — though sometimes it’s not clear exactly whether the madness is pouring out of keyboards or guitars. ‘Ocean of Malice’ is a case in point. The track opens and closes with atmospheric feedback and dissonance effects and one of the album’s standout solos. It sounds a lot like keyboards, but as Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts, Behold…the Arctopus) is credited on the track with warr-guitar solo, perhaps not. Incidentally, with the music world’s other most notable warr-guitar player being King Crimson’s Trey Gunn, the earlier mentioned musical association endures.
Every guest musician on the album — Eugene Ryabchenko (Fleshgod Apocalypse, Banisher, Castrum, Locracy) and Romain Goulon (Sadist, Necrophagist) supply drums on ‘Cryptic Hatred’ and ‘Self-Destructed Destruction’ respectively; Samuele Boni (Landscape Of Zeroes) rips a guitar solo on ‘Total Infection’ — leaves a valuable mark on the record, but ultimately it’s Bruzzone who captivates with his own monstrous vision. Final track ‘Wretched Dawn’ is all Bruzzone and it’s as magnificently unhinged as anything else here — also featuring one of the album’s standout solos.
Throes Of Death From The Dreamed Nihilism is the kind of controlled madness that may have you running for the hills if a sniff of Jazz tendencies cause you to recoil. However if you relish hearing musical boundaries being pushed to sonic extremes you may absolutely love it. This release exemplifies why I, Voidhanger is one of the most exciting extreme metal labels out there. You never know what to expect from one release to the next and they put out dazzling alien artefacts like this that exist totally in their own special universe.
9 / 10
TOM OSMAN