Mindly Rotten - The Most Exquisite Agonies

(27 Apr 2011)

*Generic paragraph of praise to Colombian Death Metal scene goes here*

Now that that's out of the way, time for the generic counterargument to start the review:

But the fact is that it's hard to tell CDM songs apart. From a superficial perspective, the only things that change are how extremely thin the guitars sound, how unintelligible the vocals are, and how much the snare sounds like the one from St. Anger. It's only with quite a lot of patience that someone will be able to penetrate the \m/trueness\m/ and find what's genuinely interesting. There is a lot of that genuine interestingness here on The Most Exquisite Agonies.

At first it seems an absolute mess, because it is. It's really difficult to tell when anything starts and anything ends, let alone know the structure of the songs. Everything goes in its own direction, VERY fast, and only at times is the idea of rhythm applicable. But that's one of the things that make this album so interesting in the first place: The music becomes so chaotic that there are hardly any musical characteristics left, just pure texture and atmosphere. And when some actual music comes through, it's fantastic and melds and changes the rest of the muck accordingly.

The way the album progresses also works in favor of this. The Most Exquisite Agonies starts out directionless and difficult, and then sort of peels layer by layer of noise, until by "Immersed On Chaos" the music becomes perceptible and beyond awesome. The sound doesn't change much throughout the album, just becomes more controlled. Sort of like if they were trying to hunt down a lion with a toothpick and succeeding. Then, here and there, the guitars start adding in some melody, some unexpected really brutal moments and the riffs hiding behind all the speed start getting interesting. The album starts having an impact.

This album takes some time to appreciate, but it's, intentionally or by accident, one of the most interesting to ever have been made. If you're looking for a quick fix of headbanging, go listen to something else. This is music to sit down with and listen carefully, as you feel your eyes opening wider in startlement, until they fall out of your sockets.

Standout tracks:

Immersed On Chaos
Old Iniquity
Mindly Rotten
Blood's Taste