Today marks the third time we’ve premiered and reviewed a release by the Venetian band Askesis. The first was their 2016 debut EP The Path to Absence (here), and we followed that with their 2018 demo Black Ontology (here). Now we have a full stream of their debut album Beyond the Fate of Death, which is set for release on October 20th by Time To Kill Records. It’s a concept album inspired by “The Myth of Sisyphus”, a 1942 essay written by the philosopher Albert Camus.
“Dawn of the Current Inferno” was the first single from the album. The band described its inspiration in these words, which we share here because they also seem to provide insights into the album as a whole (as we hear it):
“‘Dawn of the Current Inferno‘ serves as a testament to the power of artistic expression to push boundaries and challenge societal norms. It encourages us to embrace the enigmatic and the unexplained, reminding us that within chaos, there’s a hidden order waiting to be discovered. This composition is an invitation to embark on a journey of introspection, where we confront our own biases and preconceptions, and ultimately find a deeper connection to the world around us”.
When you listen to the new album in full, those words may come back to you, especially the idea that to become introspective in the current age (and probably in any age) requires us to make that journey through the chaos that surrounds and penetrates us. And make no mistake, Beyond the Fate of Death is very much a journey through chaos, in which visceral violence, frightening peril, and perplexing lunacy are as significant in the experience as self-examination and discovery.
It’s also worth remembering what inspired the album. In his essay (as this source explains), Camus undertook “the task of answering what he considers to be the only question of philosophy that matters: Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide?” And in answering that question (in the negative), Camus develops “the philosophy of the absurd”:
He begins by describing the following absurd condition: we build our life on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy; people live their lives as if they were not aware of the certainty of death.
Once stripped of its common romanticism, the world is a foreign, strange and inhuman place; true knowledge is impossible and rationality and science cannot explain the world: their stories ultimately end in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors. This is the absurd condition and “from the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all.”
It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when the “appetite for the absolute and for unity” meets “the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle.”
When an extreme metal band chooses to delve into a subject so central to human existence (what can be more central than the search for the purpose of our lives in the face of so much consternation and doubt?), you would rightfully expect music that isn’t frivolous or “small-minded”, and would hope for a listening experience that matches the fundamental and harrowing intensity of the concept. Fortunately, you won’t be disappointed.
Here, Askesis draw upon elements of black, death, and progressive metal to create sounds of turbulence and turmoil with startling power. The visceral upheavals created by the rhythm section are jarring and bone-smashing, and in constant flux, changing the patterns and tempos in electrifying fashion.
The riffing and the magnificently mercurial leads have a piercing quality, and they too change constantly, as if manifesting with shattering effect the delusion, confusion, frustration, rage, disillusionment, and gloom of human travails. And the vocals may be the most shattering sounds of all, as Nico Fabbri‘s untamed voice furiously roars, demonically howls, and splits into screaming splinters.
This clearly isn’t any kind of ordinary or orthodox blackened death metal. The songs are intricately plotted and shift like a spinning kaleidoscope, so much so that one is very tempted to affix labels such as “progressive” or “avant-garde” to the album.
The instrumentalists’ technical proficiency is a match for the elaborate and constant dynamism crafted by the songwriting; imagining such sounds is one thing, executing them is another, and fortunately these folks are up to the challenge of execution. While the production quality preserves grittiness and power, it’s also clean and separated enough that you can discern every remarkable contribution.
As previewed above, the moods of the music change as dynamically and dramatically as the pacing and the abundance of fretwork and percussive permutations.
At times the sheer mayhem in the music approaches convulsive delirium. At other times, the violence is ruthlessly methodical. But at other times the music sounds hallucinatory or bewildering, or drowning in hopelessness and despair. And still, it soars toward summits of determination and defiance. It delivers plenty of tough punch, but more than anything else it’s dazzling, a head-spinner of a high order.
Trying to map the elaborately branching pathways of the album even more meticulously would risk the patience of readers, so we won’t try. Instead we’ll end by urging you to set aside the time needed to experience Beyond the Fate of Death from start to finish, without interruption or distractions, because it really is one of the most remarkable extreme metal albums of the year.
ASKESIS is:
Laura Nardelli (bass)
Samuele Scalise (drums)
Nico Fabbri (vocals)
Gregorio Di Angilla (guitar)
Juri Vatova (guitar) in 2022.
PRE-ORDER:
https://timetokillrecords.com/collections/askesis
https://askesis.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-fate-of-death
ASKESIS:
https://askesis.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/askesisblackmetal
https://www.instagram.com/askesis_band/