Choronzon - Magog Agog CD Review

Add Your Review

2004-11-16 : Inhumanitarian : Link
Choronzon - Psychosis Ex Machina Review On Foamin' Sodomy Records, 2004


Length: 70:41
Rating:
1. Dies-Ease (Wrath)
2. The Enchanting Dead
3. Crypt-Analysis
4. Surge of Blood
5. Crossing I - The 30th Aethyr
6. Asymmetrical Red Chamber
7. Crossing II - The 29th Aethyr
8. Justified
9. Crossing III - The 28th Aethyr
10. Ornamental Crypto-Anarchy
Taking the most esoteric electronic elements possible and combining in a petri dish populated with droning metal and ethereal, raspy vocals creates a musical experience that's bewildering, terrifying, and insanely methodical at the same time. Definitely not something any fan of avant-garde or progressive black metal should miss although few will probably ever appreciate this work, Choronzon makes Aborym look cheesier than Hammerfall doing a ballad with Elton John.
While Choronzon has always been blurring the lines between drug-induced terror (terrorcore might be the best description here) and atmospheric black metal, this album pushes the line more toward the former. Psychosis Ex Machina takes several lunging steps outside black metal and integrates noise and the rhythms of black metal.
This album brings in a few new twists to the Choronzon repertoire of ``ways to freak you out of your fucking mind.'' Here, there are several layers to the electronic segments that outstrip the capabilities of every electronic section attempted by a black metal band. Interesting enough, the guitar parts on here do not resemble extreme metal much because of the dissonance is carried out more with the synths than the guitars. The metal aspects are more along older thrash metal than 90s death metal. Most of the time, guitar is an atmospheric addition to the driving beats of the drum machine and weirded-out synth leads. Also, there are now vocal samples in the interludes between the tracks (which are really dark ambient / industrial sections). Otherwise, there's nothing new added to the electronic repertoire that's worth noting.
But while most groups approach hybridization techniques as juxtaposition, Choronzon is about integration. Dynamic switching between metal as the foundation and different electronic genres keeps this album fresh and unpredictable, even if there were fewer layers in the compositions. The light / dark transition I've mentioned before is obscured and not so obvious on this album, which is somewhat of a letdown. However, there are tracks that do transition in moods drastically.
This album differs from Era Vulgaris in that it's a significantly darker and more chatic album - the more organic sounds of Era Vulgaris don't make the cut much here. In less words, it's a lot scarier and faster (ie. Asymmetrical Red Chamber) ...higher-energy with dark ambient tracks interspersed. Secondly, Psychosis Ex Machina has lost a lot of the warm, spiritual themes of both Magog Agog and Era Vulgaris. But what's replaced them are some offerings of Williams' movement into dark ambient.
Psychosis Ex Machina is a step further in the direction of noise and black metal while fundamentally resting in the realm of general extreme metal, not just black or death or thrash, etc. If earlier Choronzon was barely listenable to most music listeners, Psychosis Ex Machina is overbearing and oftentimes suffocating in the multitude of layers. Overall, you cannot assign a single label to this sort of sound and be reasonably accurate. So even my descriptions here should be considered insufficient in describing the wealth of ideas and themes on this album.
Even after dozens of listens I'm finding more things about this record and it still has the awe and entrancing feelings of when I first heard these tracks. These are the signs of a true classic to me, and as such I have no reservations giving this work my highest recommendations.