EPHEL DUATH

Ephel Duath is really something unique - imagine the early free-form jazz freak-out sound of the early King Crimson with a doom/death leanings. On this disc, the band took their jazz-influenced 2005 CD, Pain Necessary to Know, deconstructed it and remixed it with dark-wave Aphex Twin style beats. The deconstruction was composed by musician/producer Eraldo Bernocchi, who has collaborated with a wide range of musicians ranging from ambient/avant-garde composer Harold Budd to house/dub pioneer Bill Laswell.

This is really a thinking man's metal CD and it isn't a contradiction to note that there is very little metal on this disc. The disc is divided into nine tracks, all bearing the title "Hole". These aren't songs per se but more textures and musical landscapes. This isn't to say this is an ambient-stlye disc (ala Eno or Budd) as the musical styles on this disc range the spectrum from dark metal to progressive dub.

While there is a good bit of diversity between the tracks, the disc flows as a cohesive unit. Across all of the tracks, vocals are minimal and just serve as another instrument/sound that fits within the musical landscape. This isn't the sort of CD where you will play specific tracks as the disc as a whole is more 'experiential' and needs to be listened to end-to-end.

courtesy of the Brooklyn Rocks blog

When thinking of a band that gets its name from the Tolkien Legendarium, particularly the mountain range that borders to black land of Mordor, the usual visions of pale Norwegian fellows clad in corpse paint and black tank tops come to mind. Avant-garde Jazz Metal is not usually associated with such fantasy-based imagery, nor are electronic remix albums of said music. However, these unexpected surprises are what make EPHEL DUATH interesting, if not entirely comprehensible. The band’s newest release, “Pain Remixes The Known” is, as the title suggests, a collection of remixes from 2005’s “Pain Necessary To Know.” The music here bears only a passing resemblance to the chaotic, time signature-melting Metal (if it can even be called that) of the band’s proper full-lengths, but that is something to be grateful for on a remix album. Oftentimes, such projects seem like throwaways, done as cash-grabs and in little time as possible. Not so here.

There are a wide range of soundscapes on “Pain Remixes The Known,” from the quiet beats and hypnotic bassline in “Halo VI,” to the manic techno of “Halo I.” Many songs shift moods several times, with the aforementioned “Halo VI” featuring vocals that are at times calm and relaxed, then change to distorted and cacophonous noise without warning. Fans of the band and of electronic music in general will probably find a lot to enjoy here. For others, like the rest of EPHEL DUATH’s catalogue, it is probably worth a listen, but will not get repeated spins.

John Arminio (courtesy of the Metal Observer website)

Now, this has to be the year’s biggest surprise and most unexpected release to come out of Earache for some time now. Why? Well, because it is essentially a remix album of EPHEL DUATH’s “Pain Necessary To Know” album, remixed by Italian mastermind Eraldo Bernocchi. For those who have no idea of who I’m talking about (and let’s face it I didn’t know either), I can tell you that Eraldo is a heralded producer who has worked with such names as Bill Laswell, Mick Harris, Toshinori Kondo and DJ Disk, and is considered a pioneer in his area of expertise.

So, let’s see now, take a talented producer and let him rip through and disintegrate a whole metal album and what do you get? Well, apparently this! Ok, so it’s not just any metal album as it comes from the Italian Jazz metal minds of EPHEL DUATH, but yet it is a challenging task in its own right.

As anyone would suggest there is a flow of ideas, sounds, production techniques, arrangements and experimentations used to produce this album. Eraldo was given the green light to deconstruct the album and put it back piece by piece from the beginning. That takes balls my friends and is not as easy as it sounds. It takes experience, a wealth of ideas and a background in sound design and remixing.

Eraldo has succeeded offering us a remix album of the highest caliber. You will experience pretty much everything in sound, ranging from the usual APHEX TWIN influences to Progressive Dub, Dark Ambient soundscapes, electronic noise and everything in between reaching a point where the listener doesn’t even want to be bothered of what tag he should use to describe the end result.

Truly and utterly amazing work that had grabbed me from the start until the finish and did not let me go. But, be warned, this is not for the faint-hearted! Let’s just make things a bit simpler with the grade, shall we…???

5 out of 5

Spyros Papadakis (courtesy of the Metal Invader website)