I’m not really sure when this happened, but at some point in history this whole ‘underground Bestial Metal’ not-a-scene (because, god forbid anyone would call a bunch of bands who literally sound the same, a scene?!) started to resemble the Pokemon hunt which was incredibly popular among the school nerds a couple of years back. Okay I get it, it’s underground, it’s supposed to be hidden from the world of popular culture, very clandestine, you know the drill, otherwise you’re not welcome. You run around, trying to find the next thing which is going to destroy your eardrums and devour the couple of normally functioning brain cells you have left, have to jump over obstacles (small paycheck, anyone?), play fucked up mindgames with people who claim they have inside information, eat and drink strange substances to prove you belong amongst the so called troopers and warriors, whose only battle is the existing coke in the world and destroying of it, buy non-existent merch usually made in negative amounts etc. And the more of these bands you familiarize yourself with, the bigger the overlord you are.
Somewhere along the way, the actual interest in music, its story, enjoying in its atmosphere, got lost. It just turned into who has what from a band which existed for 17 minutes before disbanding, released one CD-R demo in one copy which their original drummer left at the ex girlfriends house and needless to say, as she filled a restraining order against him, he can’t get it back, so he turned to martial arts and power-lifting to the point he lost all the spare time to make music again. People who have heard that clandestine demo, will immediately tell you how ‘brutal’ it is, the brutalest ever (as pointed out, the vocabulary of most of the fans is extremely limited) and that it has a myriad of riffs. ‘Yeah, bro, but what about the music?’ and he’s looking at you like you just took his favorite gas mask and put it on your ass. While blabbering about riffs is something these people do in their sleep, as it is common to them, it doesn’t make a lot of sense in the end and it doesn’t tell absolutely anything about the music itself. Is it scary, is it violent? What sort of violence are we talking about here? Aural, visual, physical, psychological or spiritual? How did you feel after you first heard it? In what sort of situations do you turn to it now? What is it doing to you?
And then all of the sudden, Melth appeared. Former members of Kiloton formed another project which should help things get more on tracks bands from the not-a-scene lost a while ago. While some of you might already be familiar with Kiloton, this is a different beast which could be described with ‘dissonant Grind with Black Metal attitude’. The pretentiousness of Black Metal mixed with violence of Grind done the proper way, all heavily seasoned with dissonance with an almost cinematic feel to it, where you get the feeling the record is trying to absorb you while ripping apart every tissue in your body, until there’s nothing left of you.
Honestly, music like this is almost impossible to describe to someone who still believes it’s all about riffs and how many of them can be found in a single minute of recording. And, even more honestly, the atmosphere the music builds, is in most cases more important than the sloppy played riffs which are a nightmare to recreate live. What exactly is this music doing for you? If nothing, then this is not the music for you, you’re just here for the riffs. And even though there are plenty here, you probably can’t distinguish them. If it leaves you exhausted, but honored to experience it, then you’re one of my people and in this case, this is the record you’ve been looking for on that ‘underground bands Pokemon hunt’. Put your ears into it, it will eat you up. (Black Mary)
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Emerging from the equally inventive and unpredictable group of musicians who previously brought us acts such as Gotthammer, Complot!, Moulin Banal, Adversaire, Shezmu, Pénombre and Kiloton. The exact identity of the two musicians involved is still somewhat shrouded in mystery, but the musical signature of Olivier B. Emond (aka Comte Bergaby, aka C.B., aka T.K.) is unmistakable, operating here under the pseudonym O-25. And just like many of this duo’s past and present projects, Melth too is impossible to penetrate, not even with a steam-powered jackhammer.
Previously the duo has caused a minor buzz in the (deepest) underground with Complot!, giving the Black/Death War/Bestial genre a new violent twist. While they went all traditional with the sadly defunct Gotthammer, O-25 also started Kiloton with which he again explored the outer rims of the War Metal genre. Kiloton has lots of electronics and even power tools to propel the music into an even more niche of the genre, experimental and occasionally hard to swallow – try listening to the 80 minutes ‘World War V’ discography CD.
Melth, their new brainchild, is actually a combination of the slightly more classic sounding Canadian Bestial Black/Death Metal of Gotthammer with the sonic violence of both Complot! and Kiloton. The result is, and it may not really surprise, rather disturbing. The first result of their renewed musical collaboration under this moniker is this 15-minute digital debut demo tape, ‘Fatal Suffusion Of Tissues’. If there was still any shadow of doubt, the cover art chosen for this first demo is reminiscent of early Carcass or bands such as Lymphatic Phlegm, Last Days Of Humanity, Dead Infection, etc. Although musically of a different order, the result is largely the same.
It is pure violence, presented as music. Rough and relentless like Gotthammer, smothering and overwhelming like Kiloton. The rawness and the merciless hammering makes you gasp for air all the time, only given a bit of a breather in between the tracks with a few eerie samples and nauseating beeps. It might be obvious that this is not for those who are looking for safe stuff nor for folks who like their music dynamic and sophisticated. Melth is, as Agent Steel so beautifully put it back in 1987, “hammering metal into your heads”. (FelixS)
