We live in very strange times, and I say that for two reasons. First, and likely worst of all, we’re stripping this planet bare, and we’re isn’t a fair word here. People with power and obscene amounts of money are doing this because they don’t give a fuuuuuuuuuuck about the people who follow them into this world. Second, we still want to staple artists into a corner and make them acquiesce to our every whim.
Not a ton we can do about the people stripping our planet to the bone, but if there is an actual hell for some reason, I hope there’s a torture tank where we can see these people burn. Artists such as Forest Bohrer, the sole creator behind Adzes, doesn’t seem like one who wants to be confined to a box, and the project’s excellent second record “Inver” sounds like he obviously and passionately care about what happens to this place. You can see and hear that in this record. But the other thing that’s notable is the expansion of sound, the willingness to go wherever to capture the spirit of what Bohrer has to say. A lot of this record sounds like a love letter to 1992 through 1995 grunge, which always will hit home with me. The other parts are gruesome, death and black metal pressure points, and it all feels so genuine, you can’t help but go along for the journey.
“Eroding Tides” trudges open, muddy and certain, the growls scraping away amid a fluid push that keeps your brain engaged. Things get chunkier and punchier, though that’s followed by dreamier sections, but the rage isn’t far behind. Growls crunch as Bohrer wails, “No time to alter course, and no hope to steer, hold to what you can,” as sobering a warning as you’re bound to find. “Strange Warmth of Decay” changes gears a bit musically, giving off a classic Alice in Chains vibe in areas, going melodic and grungy in a way that activates nostalgia. The power gushes as the path gets darker, guitars numb as the singing flows steadily, fuzzy energy collecting as the sturdy bass drives us home. “Abyss Watchers” starts gently, but then the growls emerge and flood everything in shadow, stretching a long, cloudy haze. “Every night, horrors unfold, horrors untold, deaths in their millions,” Bohrer howls, recounting events that aren’t exactly fiction. The carnage ramps up as the guitars release an exhaust, speaking crawls over numbing guitars, and the howls retch. The atmosphere increases, gushing and chilling, the bass clubbing as sounds hang in the air. “Rainhammer” brings edgy, driving riffs, the guitars later turning into a tingling gaze, the bass clubbing. The playing turns progressive, the leads encircling, Bohrer calling, “The night broods along with me, a fear for the future, or a fear of it,” the line cutting a tributary from your brain to your heart as melodic heat leaves a film on your face.
“Antipode” opens with chugging bass and airy melodies, the playing trudging through mud, things getting thicker and harder to traverse as the song develops. Winds enrich the surroundings, while the lower ends remain thick and filthy, the growls rushing as the sludge rises to the surface, fading into hypnosis. The title track slowly drips, a synth sheen adding dream-like pressure, and then things get grimier. The words are minimal, but the punishment isn’t as the growls lurch, and a stirring, storming wrinkle lets your mind flood with possibilities, that flow of imagination making your heart rush. “Capitaleschaton” is fuzzy and harsh, numbing at some turns, shrieks rumbling. “As the world is warped, our bones distort, yet our joys are no less for relativistic bonds,” Bohrer wails, as the playing fills with penetrating winds, icing with synth storming. The track continues to plod, sinking into your pressure points as everything faces into a halo of sound. Closer “Quietus” chimes and reverberates as piano notes drip, paving the way for moody singing. Howls break out and aggravate wounds that have not yet congealed, working with a pace that stomps but with the pressure not turned up as high. “Tides that once teemed rich with life empty as the tar expands, a blackened quietude, silencing these bleeding lands,” Bohrer calls, again lamenting a world probably scarred beyond repair. The playing then begins to settle, lapping waves crash, and Bohrer leaves us with a question worth considering and perhaps letting eat into our psyches: “Have we surrendered?”
Adzes’ form is ever changing like it does on “Inver,” a record that finds Bohrer changing along with the music, building his own streams into a greater natural power. There is concern for the path we’re on as humans, the condition our home is in because of our actions, and the torment we feel inside and where that can take us. It’s a record rich with message and music, an album from an artist whose influences are blending nicely into the overall DNA, making us wonder how future Adzes pieces will sound.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Adzesband/
To buy the album, go here: https://adzes.bandcamp.com/album/inver
Meat Mead Metal 