Review: Light Dweller/Aoecist/Sleep Paralysis – Illusory Dissolvents
A dissonant tale in three parts
It can be a thankless effort constantly checking out new releases year-in and year-out and sifting through the overwhelming number of the supposedly latest and greatest. After reading near-unending self-descriptors like “the most brutal” and “deranged edgelords virgins are back,” attempting to feel any positivity towards new albums definitely begins to dull. You reach a point where a band simply reaching out to you can be viewed as an annoyance, but these are the negative mental aspects that come with any position. Be it a paid professional in the workforce or a lowly metal dingus writing reviews for a small internet blog, having the capacity to overcome such mental hurdles is vital to success in any environment.
However, there sometimes comes a release that dusts off the neglected recesses of my brain folds (what little of them still exist) to recapture my interest and fascination. One such release is the new split from three underground one-man projects that focuses their efforts together to form one of the most unique and engaging listening experiences of the year. A musical ménage à trois that delivers sonic horrors meant to confront musical normality and staleness, Illusory Dissolvents is the spawn of Light Dweller (Cameron Boesch), Aoecist (Alan Brucke), and Sleep Paralysis (Stephen Knapp). If you find yourself unaware of these spectacular artists, then I highly recommend you stop ignoring my disso articles, you ungrateful swine!
First up in the terror rotation is Phoenix, Arizona’s underground darling of dissonant DIY death. Deciding to open your album with a 14-minute exercise in dense, unforgiving atonal chugs and punishing blasts is certainly a brave choice and I am absolutely into it. Light Dweller has normally been a project that I greatly appreciate even if the music never really stuck with me as much as I wanted it to. However, “Caste Wrought in the Ash of Abandoned Soverigns” is a musical journey through Cameron Boesch’s growth as a musician and composer: slamming your synapses one moment with blasts and shrieks only to deftly shift to more atmospheric sections that lure you into a false reprieve. The individual sections flow into one another in seamless transitions that were lacking in previous outings. With this growth trajectory, Light Dweller is establishing itself as a formidable act and each new outing seemingly enthralls me more and more.
The gooey center of this detestable treat is Aoecist which is helmed by microtonal musician Alan Brucke, aka The Cynic. Sickly low-end grooves paired with guitar sounds that some may consider musical notes, the quick shifts between dizzying sections constantly keep you on your toes, but it never overstays it welcome with its punchy execution. If that quick descriptor isn’t enough for you dissonant fiends, then try the beautiful opening passage of “Feeble, Worthless” with its post-metal framing only for it to fall into a formless pit of despair as it transforms into a bass popping auditory beatdown with enough teeth to rip the flesh of those who traverse too closely. While the debut EP from earlier in the year was a pleasant surprise with its arrangements and unique ideas, the tracks on Illusory Dissolvents feel better thought out and more engaging. With abundant tempo shifts, I constantly felt like the songs flew by because Brucke simply isn’t satisfied with sticking with a single idea. It really is quite a feat when so much is thrown at you, but it can be processed succinctly due to the passion and skill that is presented.
Last up to the plate is San Diego’s black metal/jazz/chiptune maniac Sleep Paralysis, whom has already dropped a phenomenal LP earlier this year which you can read about here. Helmed by madman Stephen Knapp, the closing third is the most unique and at times, the most unsettling as well. Taking a different approach right out of the gate, Knapp focuses on a doomier sound than anything heard from his project yet, but don’t let that fool you as the bizarre bits are simply biding their time. Excluding the jazzy piano passages and utilizing the electronic components much less frequently this time, Sleep Paralysis instead focuses more on guitar chops and “regular” compositions, but that doesn’t mean the creativity is extinct. Rather, these aspects are more subdued and only brought out when needed to drive the nightmare forward. Strangely unique and captivating is probably the best phrase for capturing exactly what this music is, though said creativity is lesser this time around.
While each artist maintains that which makes them such breaths of fresh air in the stale and often stagnant world of extreme metal, the split overall feels like it lacks in cohesion and flow. This definitely comes off as three separate EPs rather than one constantly flowing piece. Additionally, where I enjoyed the slightly more nuanced approach from Light Dweller, and the improved compositions from Aoecist resonated stronger with me than their previous effort, the scaling down of the weirdness of Sleep Paralysis left me wanting. It is difficult to follow up a spectacularly strange album like Knapp’s without returning to the same well repeatedly, and I applaud the craft he put into his three tracks for this, but it unfortunately was just a bit of a letdown. However, things such as this are mere minor nitpicks as the music presented is wonderfully dark and discernible in this world of sameness. Illusory Dissolvents simply shows that creativity is still abound in our little bubble of metal, you just may have to dig beyond the surface muck to reach it.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Illusory Dissolvents is out now.
