Locrian — The Crystal World

Steadily, smoothly, slowly flows out the breath of god, from Steve Roach and from Locrian, a Chicago based post metal and noise ambient group.  Who would have thought the guitar held such hallucinogenic powers?  "The Crystal World" is a double album of deep, rich drones and sacred horncalls that become realms.  Locrian's sonic materials are vast, kaleidoscopic and cloudlike; they lighten the mind and allow traversal through the tenebrific, dimly lit gulfs - from anguished, bloody beginnings ("Triumph of Elimination") on to the crystal world and the ash black wood beyond.  These are dissonant clusters birthed in the ruined factories and wells of dark water.  There are occasional eruptions of funereal black metal fury ("At Night's End") that show the band's skill at creating haunting, huge progressions.  Locrian has created a cavernous, cosmic sound that reflects both a radiant derangement and a spiritual enlightenment.

The compositions found on the first disk, mostly ranging from 5 to 10 minutes in length, are more songlike and pallatable than the single track found on disk two.  They often contain melodies, simple riffs and trackable structures.  Tracks begins with amp hums that slowly creep out of nothingness and build into crushing post metal climaxes.  Moments of sweetness and warmth are peppered through the darkness, usually provided by the guitar.  These clean parts are one part Godspeed You Black Emperor, one part neo-classicist black metal slowed to a crawl.  Lovely arpeggiations along these lines dominate the instrumental title track, "The Crystal World", a song that uses increasing density and skillful layering to weave a babbling stream of moving guitar sound, down which the listener may float through colorful imaginary realms.  Another (lengthier) instrumental, "Pathogens", comes next...  A similar delirious, dream-like sojourn, but this time the
 destination is a mysterious, uncharted place that periodically begins to feel uncomfortable.  With "Obsidian Facades", the tortured vocals re-enter and, with the aid of reverb and eerie looping patterns, gradually consume all space in the mix, replacing it with thick, muted distortion that brings to mind images of wastelands.  It's as if we rise out of the wreckage when melodic fragments enter and the track ends with a pad and the anticipatory strumming of a single chord on an acoustic guitar, a sound that continues into "Elevations and Depths", where it is cocooned with soft female voices until a sludgy chord and the crashing of drums heralds the beginning of a slab of dirge metal.  For the end of the first disk, they surprise us with an almost completely acoustic, mournful folk dirge, featuring intertwining melodies from several guitars, and tensely emotional synth chords.  Beautiful!

On the second disk, we find the deepest and most immersive of pagan symphonies, "Extinction" (53:40), a gathering of energy as natural as a storm brewing.  No drums or riffs here...  There are more than 25 minutes of pure feedback and drone before a single audible note is played.  At this point, arcs of distorted melody begin to cascade out of the noise, and a synth periodically blares an oddly placed major chord.  A chorus of delirious and pained wails enters slowly, but before long skyrockets into devilish and harsh infinities; eventually gives way to the even, mysterious sighing of ancient beasts...  The purity of alchemical tone...  Before sad, sickly dawn returns.  Nostalgic for...?

The guitar tone is never quite the thick, overwhelming tone of doom metal (even when they're playing very doomy parts), and bears more in common with the trebly atmosphere wash of the original black metal records (Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse".  Instead of dominating the music and giving it structure, as the guitar often does in doom, it diffuses into the other soupy layers.  This sets "The Crystal World" apart - it is actually a very orchestrated album that really sounds nothing like a group of people jamming with guitars and drums in a garage.  Most of the time, I'm not really sure where the sounds I'm hearing are coming from, and I feel sure the band labored over these recordings in the studio for some time, creating something that would be nearly impossible to accomplish live - though I'd love to see them try.

In conclusion, I was immensely impressed by "The Crystal World".  Locrian blurs the boundaries between noise, doom metal and dark ambience with a smooth, perfectly timed ease.  Their intuitive ability to create diverse, majestic spaces with the mutated sounds of instruments is matched by few.  It's easy for a band like this to get lost in slowness and forget where they are going...  Locrian never comes close.  Instead, it is we who are lost in their sound.  One of my favorite releases I've heard this year