[shorter review, but a fairly required necessity for sure!]
After the digitally released EP’s Flowers Of Flesh (brought out independently in Autumn 2021) and Calcified (July 2022), and the digital full-length recording Putrescence (June 2023, with some physical options in that very same year), Flowers Of Rust return with a new epos, kindly called Crude Exhibitions Of The Soul. The project is an outfit by some Jake O’Brien, an American multi-instrumentalist who used to be behind projects like Setekh or Endless Voyage X as well before.
For this newest effort, Jake did work once more with drummer JV Green (whom you might know from e.g. Burial Oath or Wyld Timez). For the physical release, Flowers Of Rust did join forces with the almighty Centipede Abyss hordes, which is one of the most prolific and notorious labels nowadays, even though the label was created less than five years ago. Crude Exhibitions Of The Soul was mixed and mastered once again by Thom Tadsen, who is, for your information, also praised for his assistance with aforementioned Wyld Timez and Burial Oath, or acts like Cringe and Trenchgoat.
For thirty-three minutes (the intro and outro included), Crude Exhibitions Of The Soul offers its audience an organic mixture of Old and Modern, of harsh and subtle, of intolerant and acceptable, and of discordant and harmonious. Indeed, there are many contrasts throughout the whole effort, yet performed with such natural flair, lacking any intention of exaggeration, absurdity or pathos.
Opener Eisengrau, a short acoustic intro, claims a vision of almost emotive, intrinsically perceptive integrity, but don’t get fooled, for the contiguous piece, the title track, cogently destroys any idea of intrinsic imperturbability. Melodious riffs, thunderous drum patterns, raw throat-raping, rumbling bass lines and subtly played melodies get canalized into a mixture of Post-oriented and somewhat melancholic, even depressing Black Metal. It comes with all ingredients that characterize this trend: well-thought changes in tempo (with slower passages and intense accelerations), breath-taking leads, an explicit vocal timbre that breathes anguish and wrath at the very same time, and a monolithic rhythm-section that fiercely supports the main theme. Sour Mercy transcends further, by adding truly beautifully mesmerizing keyboard parts and a somnambulic guitar-wall. The first half of this song is like an overwhelming piece of Post-oriented fairness, structurally rooted in the Old School yet expressed with a timeless elegance. The second half, then again, returns towards a certain DSBM-alike attitude, filled with anger, sorrow and frustration. The darkly constructed riffage and pounding rhythm section, plus those barb-wired vocals, reveal a vision of inner disturbance and unrest. Brave New Corpse, then again, continues this path, yet with a monumental addition of Sludge-laden power. The string section is like a wall of hypnotic and doomed faddiness, adding a funereal touch, pathological, wretched, catastrophic. And still, a glimpse of invincible power maintains, especially towards the end, when a rather epic resurrection seems to manifest. Bright Violence too differs, for the common elements get injected by bombastic orchestrations, some groovy breaks, brass-like additions, Blackgaze-oriented injections, and the use of trumpet (!). Here too, the composition seems to be divided into two parts, with the second half delving deeper into the nasty pits of discordance and contra-production, while still, or again, penetrating the essence with a Sludge-minded heaviness. But it works, this dissonant approach. Mother Atrophy (with its duration of 7+ minutes being the longest piece on Crude Exhibitions Of The Soul) can be considered a symbiosis of this album’s substance, mingling all previously added elements, and going even further, deeper, wider, higher, into the matter of the sonic universe. It’s an anthem-to-be, with several tempo-changes and alterations in structure. Mind the fabulous bass-lines, overwhelming drum-patterns, and intoxicating leads. The balance of slowly-crawling and anesthetic morbidity, with uncompromising intensity and throbbing velocity lifts the whole up to a level of aural grandeur; grandeur as in devastating splendor. In stark contrast, the outro, Driftwood, returns to the integer essence of this album’s very beginning, based on quiet, tranquil acoustic riffs, as if we’ve come to the end, or is it the beginning, of the full circle.
Tread the passage long abandoned, adorned by ethereal ominous walls as the night crawls in; drowning you whole in its cold murky embrace.
Anyway, once again the physical effort is extremely limited, for it has been printed in an edition of (only) 27 (indeed, twenty-seven) copies only, which will (probably) not, ever, be reissued [please, do keep one for me, dear people]. The visual side has been taken care of by Pan, a very close relative of this label’s chieftain (and member of several acts that defile and - at the very same time - venerate, this outstanding label). It represents a chalice that outreaches the tree of existence. A golden pedestal, a porcelain bowl, and blood-red veins encircling, giving a fine representation of the aural components behind this amazing release…
For fans of: Harakiri For The Sky, Austere, Vemod, Ellende, None, Sunken (fine proposal by the label’s promo-text for this release!) and the likes.
https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/crude-exhibitions-of-the-soul