Full disclosure: In writing about the music of Hvile I Kaos, I run up hard against my technical limitations. It’s more than the ever-present fact that I’m self-taught and formally un-trained in writing about music of any kind, and not a musician either. In the case of Hvile I Kaos the limitations are more severe, because the principal instrument is a cello, because classical music traditions play important roles, and because esoteric studies provide much of the inspiration, and my ear and mind are even more untrained in those contexts.
A serious student of classical chamber music (and backwoods folk music) would have a far finer appreciation for the nature of the Hvile I Kaos compositions and the demands and achievements of the performances. A serious student of esoteric spiritualism, and of the invocation of demonic spirits in particular, would make far better connections between the inspirations and the music’s moods and maneuvers, which have a ritualistic conception. In my case, it may be more like serenading sheep.
Of course, these limitations and the daunting challenges that flow from them haven’t stopped me from writing about Hvile I Kaos at our site, a habit I’ve indulged off and on for nearly the last seven years (as you can see here). Sheep have feelings and I suspect are moved by serenades, but unlike sheep (for better or worse) I can attempt to express the feelings ignited by the music, which is mainly what I’ve done before and now will try to do again.
The task this time is bittersweet, because Hvile I Kaos has announced that Lower Order Manifestations, the album we’re premiering today on the eve of its July 12 release by In Vitae Manifestatio in partnership with Eisenwald and House of Inkantation, is the project’s final record.
For those who might be new to Hvile I Kaos (a name that means “To Rest in Chaos” in Norwegian), it was founded in 2011 by cellist and composer Kakophonix, with the music eventually self-identified as “Cellistic Black Metal” or “Black Ritual Chamber Musick”. The name Kakophonix might ring bells with you even if the name Hvile I Kaos doesn’t, because he has performed as a guest musician on numerous albums and on stage with other bands (most recently I saw him perform in a transfixing set by Serpentent at the 2023 edition of Northwest Terror Fest).
As the name of the new album portends, Kakophonix describes it as follows:
This collection of recorded workings is a series of invocations to eight Lower Order Spirits, as steps leading to the sacrificial altar of Moloch, the King of Fire. This is done in accordance with the practice of Sinister Magick known as Vedantic Nihilism, as outlined in the grimoire “Codex Aversum” by Caine Del Sol.
The forces presented by these workings are those of collapse, madness, death, and decay. They have served and will continue to serve those ends to devastating effect, in real life, in real time.
You have been warned.
The titles of the tracks reveal this in greater detail:
My Hatred is Just – Dechahim, righteous revolutionary zeal and blind passion.
Locusts – Gazimah, mass mobilization and collective furor.
Psalmody for the Child Offering – Ozubeh, self-sacrifice, self-denial, and self-isolation.
Shadowcast – Bhiruhim, apostasy, iconoclasm, and sly cunning.
Panic Sun – Meshahim, terror, hopelessness, and collapse.
Smite – Ienaheh, hate, rage, and vengeance.
The Golden Eye, the Grindstone – Chezezim, strength of will and iron discipline. Verity
Thy Path – Hethakheh, somber discernment and stripping away of illusions.
And now it’s time for this sheep to bleat about the music, though of course you’re welcome to just skip down below and begin listening, if you haven’t already.
The track descriptions quoted above and Kakophonix‘s reference to “collapse, madness, death, and decay” already signal that the music is emotionally intense, almost unrelentingly so, though the phases of distress change dramatically.
To create these changing phases of experience, other instruments besides the cello come into play, as do voices. The methodical thump of a primitive drum adds to the feeling of ritual, and their vibrant pounding sounds like the visceral drive for stamping and bounding around bonfires. The throb of a bass reveals subterranean presences. Strummed guitar chords and twanging notes add both vibrancy and moodiness. Rasping snarls speak the devil’s language; ardent proclamations and grunted chants brook no dissent; and manic conversations call forth wildness.
But of course, the cello stands out, itself taking the shape of spirits as well as furnishing the channel for mysterious, pernicious, and exhilarating communions. Often layered and spread between the channels, it seizes attention and manifests a spectrum of moods, and you’ll quickly discover, even in the first track, that there’s a lot of folk influence in the melodies as well as classical music, especially when Kakophonix creates dervish-like dances.
The music does dance and whirl in passages of fierce, unchained jubilation, reaching zeniths of wild-eyed convulsion. At a different and more classically attuned place on the spectrum, the cello’s music becomes beautifully soft, elegant, poignant, mournful, and stricken, as the layers build (“Psalmody for the Child Offering” is a signal example of that, and one of the most mesmerizing and deeply moving pieces on the album, but not the only one).
Also classically connected, but more experimental, are the cello manifestations that voice dissonance and discord, seeming to wail and fracture, as if revealing inner disturbances, fervent pleading, and abject hopelessness, or to part veils into some harrowing unearthly plane of existence.
In the music, fevers burn, tears fall, the desire for violence pulls away from its tethers, glory and grandeur rise up (dangerously), ecstasies flare like sparks, and unsettling dreams simmer.
Meticulous craftsmanship is obvious throughout the album — the attention to detail, the elaborate addition and deft subtraction of instrumental ingredients needed to bring particular visions to life through the ebb and flow of the music, and the ingenious intertwining of both classical and folk music traditions.
And indeed, the music is always ebbing and flowing, like a shapeshifter who is also a skilled spellcaster. There’s never a dull moment, never a fall into the mundane.
Maybe it’s not a complete injustice that someone with my limitations is writing about Lower Order Manifestations, because as Kakophonix himself has ruefully acknowledged, Hvile I Kaos “is an abnormality in the respective worlds of Extreme Metal and Classical Concert Music alike”. Maybe only he, with one foot in each world, could identify and describe all the connections. But even the connections the rest of us can make are powerful, moving, memorable, even revelatory.
And so it is indeed bittersweet to present the album now, knowing it’s the last one. But apart from this great and passionate experience, we also have the balm of knowing that someone like Kakophonix surely won’t stop making music. Something else will surely emerge, even if we don’t know (and maybe even he doesn’t know) what will come next.
Enough with the words. Now please set aside the time to enjoy a truly fabulous album from beginning to end.
Kakophonix composed the music and performed cello, guitar, bass, frame drum, and vocals.
Guest vocal contributions were performed by: Elizabeth Gore, Ø, S, Joseph Spiller, Layla Legard, Sarah Jayde, Dan Niederkorn, Ben Yehdigo, Thanatos, Nicole Day, Seth Scantlen, Cassidy Scantlen, Zola Scantlen, Iggy Scantlen, Aaron Sidell, and Mauro Bernazzali. The Death whistle on “Panic Sun” was performed by Nero Atrum.
Lower Order Manifestations was mixed and mastered by Adam Oliver. It features artwork by Frostbite, logo by Alex Zarko, and sigils by Ø. It’s available for order now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://hvileikaos.bandcamp.com/album/lower-order-manifestations
OFFICIAL EMAIL: hvileikaos.kvlt@gmail.com
OFFICIAL FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Hvile-I-Kaos-214891198546547
OFFICIAL BANDCAMP: https://hvileikaos.bandcamp.com/
OFFICIAL YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/hvileikaosofFicial
OFFICIAL SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/user-732508397