Unchariot - Untold Depths EP
Much like the EP in question, this review will be decidedly short. In keeping with an overall aesthetic of grim secrecy, the entity known as Unchariot have given me little to work with in terms of my typical critical spiel. I have no lyrics, web page, pictures, real band member names, or hometown. In fact, for all I know, Umbersun and Razhakor could be my next-door neighbors experimenting with dark, abrasive noises in their basement. To be perfectly honest, anyone's guess is as good as mine.
And therein lays the charm. Untold Depths might be a tiny, two song EP, but at its heart there lies joyously crude evil. Like an idol to Satan crafted from old sheet metal, Untold Depths has a delightfully messy fun to it; hell, the whole thing reeks of black metal meeting drone for wood-working class in a hick town. As abstract as these goofy analogies of mine are, the band actually does a sound job of summing things up themselves. The cryptic linear notes send out a "hail" to the likes of Beherit, Von, and Nuclear Death (all obvious influences to some degree) and have the following epithet: "Unchariot was borne of dread and collusion. It is ugly and primitive. It will evolve."
And once again, therein lays the charm. The wicked fun of this tiny slice of free music is that one has no real idea where it could go on future releases. Untold Depths is a primitive, grating, and shamanistic ode to noise; a grim clattering-and-clanking of raw fury if you will. The songs have a strange, half-improvised aura to them, quite akin to a structure's construction being distorted by accident mid-build. The weird, post-apocalyptic soundscapes of Nuclear Death are indeed present here, and I'll go out on a limb and say that the mix of droning progressions with scraping, bile-soaked black metal reeks of Sunn-O))) and Beherit in equal portions. I know from personal talks with multi-instrumentalist Umbersun that some have compared this to early Abruptum, but I see any connections between the two as being in spirit only though worth mentioning to a degree. Overall, this is utterly f*cked noise, the kind of ashen fallout from nuclear holocaust. Did I mention I like it more and more as time goes on?
Ironically enough, I'm not entirely sure why this is. The first song, "Grimbergen," is easily the better of the two and the shortest as well. Monstrous rumblings give way to what can best be described as a military cadence played by narcotics abusers. A sinister, twisted hum is what follows next, with the vocals drifting through the low-end chaos in the form of inhuman rasps and deathly-soft whispers. Though the overall tone of metallic blistering rarely changes, the vocals keep a fairly sick amount of innovative ranges to them and the drumming is increasingly free-form as time moves on. The frantic, increasingly wild burst of sound towards the end is probably the EP's main high, and overall a great end to the song.
"Eire" is almost twice as long yet still intriguing. A mix of hollow, tribal drums, freaky effects, and chimes meld into a percussive mix of quiet dread. Slowly rising from this concoction is a swampy meld of guitars and bass that sort of fizzes in-and-out of harried existence. I'd have to say this is what Stephen O'Malley's lame Khlyst project should have sounded like, at least from the descriptions I initially heard on paper. Noxious bursts of gaseous, thick sound erupt from the unrelenting pulse of evil, and the atmosphere, though slightly crude, is fairly competent at providing a feeling of mechanical suffocation. The dreary trudge is what works best, and the band smartly stretches it out till what is almost the breaking point, only to end it just in time.
Unchariot may like to keep listeners in the dark on some things, but not all. Untold Depths is a refreshingly short, well-plotted mix of misanthropy with general free-form music. At times hypnotic, at others strangely war-like, the fact that this EP is only available through the band (and for free at that) nullifies any pitiful excuse to ignore it. If you like your music bleak, cold, and mechanical, there is little that will offend here. Drop the band a line and check this out---in the opinion of this author, these Untold Depths leave plenty left to be explored.Unchariot's Untold Depths EP
1. Grimbergen
2. Eire
Rating:
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This EP may be requested (or this band contacted) at unchariot@hotmail.com
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