PLASMODIUM — Entheognosis (review)

Album · 2016 · Avant-garde Metal

2/5 · 2016-12-15
adg211288

Probably more than any other genre of metal including progressive metal, avant-garde metal is one style where you really can't go into it with any idea about what you're about to hear. That's its nature. Plasmodium is one such act from Australia, whose membership is currently anonymous. Entheognosis (2016) is their debut album, released initially as a free/name your price download via Bandcamp. Entheognosis contains just four tracks but all of them are of extended durations. The shortest is the second, Reformoculus, at 10:01 and the longest is opener Limbic Disassociation at 21:45. Between the four we've got over an hour's worth of music.

The band describes their own sound as 'Undulating Psychedelic Darkness' but I honestly don't find much here that makes me think of musical psychedelic characteristics, but there is an atmosphere of a kind to the album as Plasmodium certainly manages to conjure up a kind of dark, spiritual vibe on Entheognosis that does fit that description somewhat. In terms of an actual genre it's not wrong to call it a black metal album as there is an overarching blackened feel to the tracks but we're dealing with something where the structure of each composition is just so all over the place that it's hard for not not to just think of this as an avant-garde metal release. Every so often there's an extended passage of music where there's a semblance of normality in the instrumental work for an extreme metal release, but it's just an illusion, as things quickly spiral back down to weirdness and noise with blackened growls over the top and that's the kind of sound that defines this album. It sounds like the album was composed with an 'anything goes' kind of attitude (including sex noises), with little to no regard given to song structure or seemingly anything else. There may be a method to the madness, but it doesn't change the result which sounds like the band just played whatever they felt like on the spur of the moment, so it often sounds messy to me.

I have to admit, there's something about this album that works. No matter how seemingly unstructured it gets it never makes me want to actually switch it off. But I can't honestly say that I like it either. It's certainly different and I'm glad I gave it a go, but after the event if I sit back and ask myself if I honestly enjoyed that, the answer is no every time. I'm sure that there's a (probably niche) audience out there for something like this; a select few who will understand what Plasmodium was going for and be able to enjoy it. More power to you if you're one of them I guess, but the only conclusion about this one that I can come up with is that being different doesn't mean it's worthwhile, at least as something more than a curiosity, which I think is the only reason I went back to it as many times as I did. It certainly wasn't for pleasure.

more than 2 years ago
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adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well I gave it three full listens plus one separate listen to the first track and my opinion didn't look like changing. I didn't hate it, so two stars felt fairest for me. Glad you're liking it though: it is an interesting release.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's interesting to hear modern day metal bands go the route of what is the metal equivalent to free jazz in the 60s. I actually am liking this one but i've been into free jazz for a number of years. This is the kind of stuff that grows on you if you let it. There's so much going on it needs time to be digested