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Otesanek: Otesanek
03/08/09 || Khlysty
Ffffff… Ffffff… One-two! One-two! (feedback screeching) MotherFUCKER!!! My ears! Ffffff… Fffff… Yo, I can’t hear didlly-shit down here, did you burn the fucking monitors? One-two, one-two… Yeah, that’s better. Are we go? OK, hi there, ladies ‘n’ germs, this is DroneBone speaking. I’m really glad you could make it and I sure hope that you can hear me nice an’ good, ‘cause tonight we’re gonna talk about Otesanek, a 2000 nifty little movie by Czech director Jan Svankmajer, that will send chills up your spine and…
Yeah, what the fuck is it, can’t you see that I’m in the middle of a speech here? Whaddya want? Uh, what? Say that again?… Really? (inaudible muttering, “Shit, this is totally fucked up”, more muttered swearing) Well, seems that there’s been a small dysfunction here. See, when I was called for tonight’s speech, no-one fucking bothered to tell me that I was supposed to speak about THE BAND called Otesanek and not THE FILM called Otesanek. Ha, yeah, you know how it is, shit happens and then you die, haha. Yeah… (deadly silence from the audience; blank stares from bearded, tattooed guys the size of grizzly bears)
OK, OK, point taken. I’ll see what I can do, (muttered “You fucks”) although I’m not exactly prepared for it. OK, this is how it goes: Otesanek is a now-defunct band from Philly. When operational, Otesanek featured six members – two of them on vocals – and they played extremely slow and painfully abrasive doom metal. In 2004 they released their self-titled first full-length, although it lasts only about half an hour and contains only two tracks, “Oceans” and “Dead In The Park”. The record was out by the Electric Human Project label and, uh, yeah, it was a REALLY SLOW record and, uh, there was feedback and shit and… (audience starts getting itchy; probably preparing to lynch speaker)
Oh, shit, oh, shit! (paper pushed in speaker’s sweaty, trembly hand) What’s this? Oh, hey, thanks. Mmmm, let’s see what else is there to say about Otesanek’s record. Hmmm, yeah, (speaker pretends not to read) well, the whole idea of this extreme approach towards doom, pioneered by bands like Grief and Burning Witch, is for the musicians to create an almost impenetrable “wall of sound”, with the use of downtuned guitars that stretch power chords into infinity. The drums are used sparsely, mainly for emphasis and not for any propelling forward of the songs, which seem almost immobile and suffocating. Vocals are also sparse, composed of anguished screams and growls and they’re basically buried in the mix, used mainly as another instrument.
Uh, what else is there? (speaker squints at the paper, now sodden from his sweaty palms) Oh, yeah, well, Otesanek employ exactly this formula, but there’s enough variation to make the record worthwhile. See, the band uses dynamics impressively to create an atmosphere of darkness and despair. From painful-to-listen-to noisy droning parts, they pass into almost-silent parts, where there’s only a subterranean rumbling, combined with the hiss of the amps. They use this strategy very effectively, making the record a very rewarding – in an almost masochistic way – experience for the listeners who are patient enough to overcome the fact that the music develops very slowly and deliberately. The two tracks of the album merge into one another, creating a sense of one long, droning, dense descent into a kind of Hell. In fact, Otesanek seems to draw inspiration from a very dark well of misery and desperation and to transform it into equally painful and morose music.
So, as far as I’m concerned, if one is into this kind of doom metal, Otesanek’s self-titled can be a very interesting addition to one’s record collection. Thank you for your attention and patience. Unfortunately, it’s already late, so we won’t be able to accept questions from the audience. (polite clapping from said audience, feet shuffling, murmuring)
(later on, the speaker leaves auditorium, walks through a park, finds a dead man there, but that’s a whole ‘nother story altogether)
- Information
- Released: 2004
- Label: The Electric Human Project
- Website: nope
- Band
- Brad: vocals
- Leslie: vocals
- Chad: guitar
- Demian: guitar
- Ryan: bass
- Rudy: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Oceans
- 02. Dead in the park
