For most musicians, the goal of their creative process is to connect with their audience in a meaningful way. Among extreme metal acts, the goal is to attack them. In this ill-lit corner of metal, artists embrace confusion and abrasiveness, often seeming to treat the audience with outright hostility. Their aim often seems to be to overwhelm the listener with sound. Shrill dissonance, incalculable rhythms, and guttural vocals are performed at ear-splitting volumes.
If that sounds like a bad time to you, should steer clear of Riccardo Moccia’s new album Sensed (it should be noted that Riccardo Moccia is a man, not a band). This record is an all-out assault on the senses.
Guitars are tuned down to the basement and gained to the extreme. The drums burst at such a rapid fire clip that likening it to a machine gun somehow feels too slow (they’re programmed, though the only clue is the inhuman rate of the “double-pedaled” kick). Time signature changes easily reach the double digits for each song.
As if that weren’t enough, this mind-brutalizing sonic battlefield is the scene for an epic retelling of the history of the universe from the perspective of an eternal being, grabbing elements from ancient Asian folk music (there’s some Mongolian throat singing in an interlude) as well as Egyptian, Indian, Sumerian, and Hindu myth. The often-undiscernible rhythms take their cadence from Indian Konnakol, the oldest surviving form of music in the world.
Some of you might read that and think it sounds like the least appealing album you’ve ever heard of, too noisy and pretentious to offer anything you want. But others are you are practically salivating. For those of you into the third-eye death metal barrage of bands like Blood Incantation, this is as effective a balm for that itch as I’ve heard.
Sensed is out now.
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