Kwaidan — Make All the Hell of Dark Metal Bright
Kwaidan is a new trio belonging to the arguably modern phenomenon of drone rock bands which includes Andre Foisy of similarly arrhythmic ambient black metallers Locrian. Though they utilize typical rock instruments such as distorted guitar and drumset, they rarely play a riff, choosing instead to focus on balances of timbre to create dusky, primordial ritualized environments of the kind typically found on isolationist ambient records. "Make All the Hell of Dark Metal Bright", an LP containing 6 tracks, is their debut album.
A desolate landscape is sketched by a dusty clamour of cymbals, an undulating dirty feedback tone or rich e-bow pitch. Tangerine Dream and other krautrock bands took a stab at this kind of thing back in the 70's, but always in an improvisatory spirit. With the advent of groups like Locrian and Kwaidan it has become a focused endeavor, a quite intentional channeling of otherworldly forces. Each piece is a snapshot of a particular locale within the larger realm of the album, and the album cover proves to be a good indicator of the imagery evoked by the music: barren planes, leafless trees, rocky crags, biting cold, all greys and black.
Certainly, there is something live and visceral about hearing these sounds played by a band by comparison to the sound of so many digitally created dark ambient records these days. The powerful, hypnotic spirals of tribal drumming in tracks like "Gateless Gate" marvellously capture the primitive, and all without indulging in any cheesy posturing, which Locrian are certainly guilty of, as good as their music is. Kwaidan is dark with the neutrality of the dusk itself.
The third member of the trio is credited as playing synths, and he makes himself known particularly on the more melodic and openly doomy "The Iceberg and Its Shadow", which contains bright, crystalline organ timbres, and signifies the beginning of the album's second side. The rattling, windblasted vocoder that sneaks into the background of "Ostension" is a wonderful touch as well, like some kind of extraterrestrial throat singing.
"Space as Support", 5th track of 6, contains the album's first melodic picked riff from the guitar, and it's a wonderful contrast to the earlier sections of the album, like the sun has begun to ascend from behind of a mountain range at the end of a long night: the color of the sky begins to change, but the sun is not visible. This openly emotional moment is somehow perfectly in context, and makes the rest of the album seem more relatable, human and meaningful.
"The Sound of This Bell", the album closer, is another melodic piece, a contemplative reverie not unlike its predecessor, dreaming along in an introspective, nostalgic haze until a violent motor vibration looms suddenly above, juddering with a massive force like a hovering UFO. The air of mystery is thick, and the drone grows to massive size, saturating with color and distortion.
This is a wonderful, dynamic and memorable debut that covers a lot of ground, from the ashy territories of its first side to the melodic reveries of the second half. It has all the best elements of post rock, dark ambient and classic tribal ambient music like Steve Roach's "Origins". I highly recommend this LP and look forward to what this trio could accomplish in the future.