Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron (2012)

Full Length, Season of Mist
January 20th, 2012

Genre: Avantgarde Black Metal/Death Metal
Region: Netherlands

Dodecahedron were brought to my attention by Haxan over at Forever Cursed a week back so much thanks to him and his keen ears for this one.

These guys are a new and twisted group entering an unexplored space between black metal like Deathspell Omega and to bleak death metal like Ulcerate, creating some wonderfully angular, dissonant, dark music that certainly stands out from even those creepy bands with their fresh and intriguing atmospheric avantgarde-ish alien approach.

It's a hard one to describe as there's a lot going on in this record but it never feels crowded or awkward despite the various directions it takes. Creeping, discordant riffs dipped in thick ethereal atmospherics, sometimes slow like Ulcerate's most recent offering and sometimes on the fast/technical end like Gigan, Baring Teeth, and Flourishing. The bass grooves take a very pronounced approach playing off the guitars and often spinning their own path through the chaos created by pummeling percussion, while the vocal utterances hit raspy death growl levels with some elements of alienesque phaser distortions at times.

There's a spacey, cavernous vibe that cloaks this record. It can almost be called frightening at points as it stretches its slender tendrils out and grasps you coldly, injecting gulfs of swelling ambiance amongst the harsh black and death metal riffs; or even subtly melodic in the latter half of the album. This is especially true of the final three tracks which could be considered one long, winding song. Truly something epic is shown here.

Dodecahedron bring a disturbing, cloudy batch of tracks in their first effort. Extremely solid and unique, one of the first big surprises of 2012. You can listen to this in full over on their official page which is also where you can buy the cd or preorder the vinyl version (or you can get it from the label).

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