Nalant es lay Elil?
Why do we
like music? There are many different reasons but it all boils down to one word,
one concept: emotion. Emotion in heavy music can be many things from rage to happiness
and even love. Yet whenever we talk about a piece of music causing an emotional
response we always mean something different, something that touches a deeper
part of us, something that brings up memories and associations to things we
lost or are about to lose. Inlé is one of the very few special bittersweet pieces
of music that curses and blesses me in this fashion. Right now as I am writing
this review and of course listening to this album once again, I cannot help but
look to my side and take in my dying cat. Soon he will be another memory the
likes of which this album always brings back to me. It seems to me that it is
very fitting that an album that makes me emotional like this is based on
Watership Down. The movie was one of the very first pieces of art that truly
hit me as well. Life, like this bands discography, truly seems to be cyclical.
Fall of Efrafa are one of the premier neocrust punk bands. Neocrust is a form of crust punk that takes classic crust and merges it with all sorts of other genres including black and sludge metal but also other genres such as post-rock and screamo. While not all neocrust bands actually combine these genres Fall of Efrafa, like a master painter, take from the entire neocrust palette and thus come to embody everything what neocrust can be in a single package. A very good example of this is the main riff in the track titled Fu Inlé they take the classic double striking a single chord pattern but slow it down. The drummer could arguably still play a d-beat over it but chooses not to and thus the band creates something akin to a crust punk wolf in sludge clothing. Another example is the main riff on The Burial, it is something like a slowed down version of a riff we could also find on a newer post-black record.
I can imagine someone after reading all of this that this is a very crowded and action packed record with loads of shifts and clashes but this is definitely not the case. The ideas build and transform quite slowly creating a record that is actually quite homogenous and not very accessible. It seems all too easy to merge genres, to ham-fistedly merge various elements and then become heralded as some kind of eclectic master piece. To me true eclecticism is what we have right here on Inlé. We see the merging of the fundamental elements of various genres and not just the superficial aesthetics in terms of sound and/or feel.
Fall of Efrafa are one of the premier neocrust punk bands. Neocrust is a form of crust punk that takes classic crust and merges it with all sorts of other genres including black and sludge metal but also other genres such as post-rock and screamo. While not all neocrust bands actually combine these genres Fall of Efrafa, like a master painter, take from the entire neocrust palette and thus come to embody everything what neocrust can be in a single package. A very good example of this is the main riff in the track titled Fu Inlé they take the classic double striking a single chord pattern but slow it down. The drummer could arguably still play a d-beat over it but chooses not to and thus the band creates something akin to a crust punk wolf in sludge clothing. Another example is the main riff on The Burial, it is something like a slowed down version of a riff we could also find on a newer post-black record.
I can imagine someone after reading all of this that this is a very crowded and action packed record with loads of shifts and clashes but this is definitely not the case. The ideas build and transform quite slowly creating a record that is actually quite homogenous and not very accessible. It seems all too easy to merge genres, to ham-fistedly merge various elements and then become heralded as some kind of eclectic master piece. To me true eclecticism is what we have right here on Inlé. We see the merging of the fundamental elements of various genres and not just the superficial aesthetics in terms of sound and/or feel.
Now being
eclectic like this on its own does not mean anything. However here is where I bring
back what I said in the opening paragraph. Inlé is a masterpiece because all
what I said earlier is in service of that one thing called emotion. From the
samples out of the Watership Down film in the intro track to the liberal implementation
of post-rock song structures to the mournful melodies the guitars always play.
Every single element on this record is finely and precisely used to create an
emotional tension that finely builds and releases some of its steam in order to
build some more all the way on to the final track The Warren of Snares. When the
last seven minutes of the record starts everything build up so far gets another
final boost. The final crescendo is almost all consuming and the only thing it
leaves in its wake is this sense of mourning and loss. It won’t be alright and
this is not okay.
Final score: 99/100
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