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Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore: Black earth
12/04/11 || Khlysty
DISCLAIMER: Bohren und Der Club of Gore’s “Black Earth” IS DEFINITELY, POSITIVELY AND ABSOLUTELY NOT A METAL RECORD. There are many different labels to tag on the record, most of them completely retarded, but I can assure you that “metal” is NOT one of them. So, what does such a record have to do with GD, which proudly and correctly proclaims that “METAL DESERVES BETTER”? Well, if one’s really interested, one can easily read the review to find out. If not, there are at least two more reviews today, that –probably- deal with metal bands, which one might find much more interesting. Thank you.
Ever wondered what happens when talented and creative guys find themselves in a cul-de-sac, as far as the art they serve is concerned? Well, there are many examples of such musicians that totally abandon the genre that made them famous and move towards other kinds of music. Mick Harris, when he left Napalm Death, started doing free jazz (Painkiller), minimal dub (Scorn) and isolationist electronics (Lull). Karl Sanders, when not dealing brutal death metal with Nile, explores ambient and folk music. Isis’ Aaron Turner has about a gajillion side projects, so far removed from his –former- main occupation that it’s almost mind-boggling (plus he played with avant-black super-group Twilight). Lurker Of Chalice’s Wrest is a much more acoustic and experimental guy than Leviathan’s Wrest. The list goes on and on.
The same goes for Bohren und Der Club of Gore. These Germans cut their teeth with hardcore and grind, before turning themselves into the beast they are since 1992. What the band members did was, they totally abandoned their hard-bitten roots and started delving into a creepy-crawly kind of lounge jazz all of its own. Early on they had a guitarist, but after a couple of records, he left and was replaced by a sax/keyboard player. Not that the guitarist added any trad sense of “heaviness” in the band’s sound: his playing was more akin to some demented ‘60s surf band, than anything metal.
Anyway, in 2002 Bohren released “Black Earth”. Mike Patton –he of the one trillion records and head of Ipecac Records- listened to it, liked it mucho and re-released it in the States in 2004, thus exposing the band to a larger audience. Reviews of “Black Earth” were pretty raving back then, if I remember correctly. And not only on Pitchfork or PopMatters: even metal media seemed to take notice of these Germans’ demented and scary take on lounge jazz and rained the record with praise.
Not without reason, I must say. “Black Earth” sounds:
a) As if Khanate decided to turn their nightmarish take on doom into extremely slow death-jazz, or
b) As if Angelo Badalamenti tried to work on some funereal doom metal,
using only his favorite instruments, such as double bass, Fender Rhodes,
tenor sax and brush-hit drums. Each way you look at it, the result is
music that’s extremely slow, extremely dark, painfully minimal and
impossibly creepy, for what it actually sounds like. Bohren und Der Club
of Gore creates in “Black Earth” a morbid soundtrack to a scratchy
black-and-white movie, in which we see bodies slowly dragged upon muddy
earth, naked women lustfully displaying horribly mutilated genitals,
luxurious, empty living rooms, behind the sofas of which lay murdered
and rotting bodies.
The band spent one whole year recording “Black Earth” and the results are astounding. Every string from the bass, every brush-stroke on the snare, every key pushed on the Rhodes, every blow of the sax, everything is recorded in a painfully crystal-clear manner, adding starkness to the already sparse and imposing music at hand. The tracks –these are not songs, since there are no vocals- are long and each one is based around a basic riff, created by cavernous synths and the punchy bass. Over this riff, piano, Fender Rhodes and sax add different strata of variation, creating an ambiance of subliminal dread –one that’s as palpable, as it is indefinable. The tracks move at a glacial pace and their lengths tend toward the brontosaur-size of things, but attention and patience reward the listener with an experience that most doom metal bands hardly even approach.
See, the music is heavy, in its own manner: the stark music, the sloth-like rhythms, the funereal keyboards and the lonely sax, the dark minor melodies, all add up to create a suffocating atmosphere of pure desperation and terror. Bohren’s music is made of the darkest, blackest elements possible and the result is a towering achievement of sick ambiance and terrible beauty. Music to relax to after a taxing day of randomly murdering people? Lounge jazz for the terminally demented? Muzak for the sociopathic and the manic-depressive? Probably, yes…
- Information
- Released: 2002 (2004)
- Label: Wonder (Ipecac)
- Website: www.bohrenundderclubofgore.de
- Band
- Morten Gass: piano, mellotron, Rhodes
- Christoph Clöser: saxophone, piano, Rhodes
- Robin Rodenberg: double bass
- Thorsten Benning: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Midnight black earth
- 02. Crimson ways
- 03. Maximum black
- 04. Vigilante crusade
- 05. Destroying angels
- 06. Grave wisdom
- 07. Constant fear
- 08. Skeletal remains
- 09. The art of coffins
