### Transcending Bizarre?: The misanthrope's fable

#### 16/02/11 || cadenz

Deranged. That word alone says it all. “The Misanthrope’s Fable” is the third album of Greek avant-gardists Transcending Bizarre? (no, I’m not unsure what their name is, the question mark is part of the band name), and a most deranged, weird and obscure disc it is. Genre boundaries go fuck yerselves, this is some seriously varied dung. And not bad dung, at that.

It seems to me that Transcending Penis’ vision is to go where no band has gone before and, inspired by the events at that well sought-after place, compose a bombastic dark metal opera that makes most people frown and go: “What the fuck is this supposed to be?” The ingredients are so numerous, that I’ll just give em to you, list-style:

-Blackish metal with fast kicks, blast beats, tremolo picking and shrieking -Bombastic orchestral passages -A deranged clown moaning/bickering -Programmed beats/loops -Soft orchestral passages -Shredding guitar solos -Pounding mid-tempo Samael-on-acid-and-then-some melodic metal -Choir and string melodies on top of everything -Bizarre circus-style shite -50’s horror/sci-fi movie synths -A fucken children’s choir

…and so on. Most of the time several of these are happening at the same time, and most songs feature everything I listed plus anything you can imagine. Sounds like Satan’s fucken soup of chaotic dissonance, right? Yes. That is quite right. But somehow Transcending Diarrhea make it work – and that is impressive work right there. They’ve got quite the ears and brains for arrangements, and most songs have a seamless flow to them. A clear production with depth helps, too.

So we know the Hellas boys can build the Ikea cupboard without getting any spare parts over, but what about the quality of the material? Well, the wood’s mostly good. There are some catchy melodies and choruses to be found, whereas some parts have the Filler stamp firmly tattooed on their foreheads. Quite a lot of the music wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as it is now, if one would strip down the grandiose arrangements. But why go down that road, as the music is clearly composed to be displayed in this fashion.

What Transcending Question Mark need to improve for their next effort is to write more catchy material. Maybe there could be more breaks and stops in the music as well, to heighten the impact of some ideas. Another area of improvement is the vocalist. He simply sounds too fucken out there at times, and that becomes a problem especially as his more “traditional” vocals don’t hold up all the time. But I guess the truth is out there, as Fox Mulder used to say, and maybe Mr. Kotzak will return cosmically enlightened from his intergalactic journey on which he now must embark, just in time to record the next slab.

Atmospherically speaking we’re not treading on very black and evil ground here, even though that’s probably what TB? were aiming for; this is more dark, brooding and mysterious. Not that that’s bad or anything, but this is supposed to be the Fable of the…ah, yes. Fable. Sometimes the choice of words says it all. Like deranged. Anyway, muchos cred for being (despite the rating text below) innovative and original, not many metal albums consist to 50 per cent of other things than metal and manage to not suck. Now go back to your madness-inducing rehearsal room or writing board, keep your vision intact and just tweak the refining process – and shit out a diamond! Thanks, please. Marry, nuncle – i’faith… Ee-hee-hee? Ee-hee-hee. Ee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee…

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Dissonart Productions
- Website: www.transcendingbizarre.com
- Band
- Kotzak: vocals
- Dim: guitars, bass
- Haris: synths, additional vocals
- Theoharis: guitars
- S.A. Akis: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Misanthrope’s Fable
- 02. The Beginning
- 03. Realizing the Blindness
- 04. Envisaging the Ideal Planet
- 05. The Murders of the Young Ones
- 06. The Empire of Mind
- 07. Descarte’s Wrath
- 08. Broad Daylight Misanthropy
- 09. The Return to Nothingness