ZOMMM — Reality Is An Illusion (review)

ZOMMM — Reality Is An Illusion album cover

Album · 2018 · Atmospheric Black Metal

3/5 · 2020-04-14
siLLy puPPy

While Azerbaijan is not a nation that comes to mind when thinking about metal music monstrosities, just like everywhere else in the modern world, restless youth crave the energetic freneticism that comes along with the heavy guitar distortion and unrelenting ferocity of metal music especially in its most extreme forms. Coming from the capital city of Baku situated on the coast of the Caspian Sea is one of Azerbaijan’s scant examples of extreme metal - ZOMMM which is in reality the duo of Ramil Bayramov on vocals and Farid Mayilov on pretty much everything else which includes the usual suspects of guitar, bass, drums and a whole bunch of atmospheric keyboard contributions.

ZOMMM follows in the footsteps of the world of blackgaze that was initiated by the French band Alcest and carried on by popular acts such as Deafhaven, Woods of Desolation, Oathbreaker and White Ward. While some of these acts choose heavy cacophonous noise over the more atmospheric sounds, ZOMMM rather chooses the latter with a large share of the real estate being dedicated to thick atmospheric swirls of synth sound electronica that alternates with more anxiety ridden outbursts of black metal bombast that includes the orthodox sounds of tremolo guitar picking, raspy vocal angst and audible bass parts set against a backdrop of heavily fortified atmospheric turbulence.

So far this band has released a single album / EP (sources vary as to its status) titled REALITY IS AN ILLUSION which in all honesty is an existential quandary placed upon all of humanity since we gain awareness of the world around us and here it is presented in a rage-a-thon in the Azerbaijani language which matters not because who can understand black metal lyrics anyways?!! This album / EP provides five tracks that clock in near the 31 minute mark and pretty much covers all ground of what constitutes blackgaze as is defined as a subgenre of metal. ZOMMM has certainly pigeonholed itself into this style of black metal with an amazing ability to capture the darker aspects of black metal while existing in the more atmospheric section of the black metal supermarket with excellent production to match.

Overall this album is OK but nothing that stands out either. Blackgaze is not my favorite style of black metal as it more often than not seems like watered down milk with no substance and ZOMMM does nothing to dispel that standing. Although i do not favor this over the more ravenous bite of more extreme forms of black metal, this is not a horrible listening experience in any way, shape or form. The vocals are ugly and competent, the black metal albeit set back in the mix are decent when presented and the atmospheric dominance is adequate for what the band presents as well however there’s really nothing on REALITY IS AN ILLUSION that sets ZOMMM apart from the aforementioned blackgaze pioneers that have already taken this electronica based subsect of black metal into its own microcosm. This pretty much straddles the line between well performed and utterly forgettable. There is promise over there in the black sea but the oil rig still hasn’t struck black gold.