Akitsa / Prurient

Here we have a rewarding split between Quebec underground Black Metal cult, Akitsa, and noise luminary Dominick Fernow as Prurient. This is a union of diverging musical paths and the result is far from incongruous.

Akitsa's 'Terre Eternelle' starts off compositionally similar to Burzum's material on Daudi Baldrs but thematically much different, with fair amounts of unstructured industrial noise elements. These sounds are blended with tact, creating a compelling if abrasive interlude. The rest of the track is also similar to Burzum, this time bearing a resemblance to Det Som Engang Var, but simpler and murkier. The vocals are shrill and penetrating in much the same vein as Bilskirnir, contributing immensely to the uncomfortable, confused feeling the entire split provides and alerting the listener that neither side is intended to lull us to sleep. Wisely, these vocals are not featured prominently in the mix of this track or 'Goetie', a continuation of the previous sound toward a heavier, Doom-styled approach.

The Prurient side is a 30-minute ambient opus that compliments Akitsa brilliantly, and is the gold nugget on this split. Violent harsh noise combines with excerpts of classical violin to produce a distinct evolution throughout the piece. 'Fossil' steadily changes in texture, conjuring a dark collage and adroitly adding its own soundtrack. Ultimately, we are left in a different place than where we began. A highly visceral listen.

This is a mature and well-balanced split, recommended to anyone interested in hearing two genres of music meld seamlessly.

An Akitsa / Prurient split album: the idea of primitive garage-punk black metal with off-beat noise tendencies meets noise / power electronics act on the same disc sounds great but the actual result turns out to be so-so. Of the work Akitsa have put out so far, we could've had our pick of some really noisy and incredibly out-there wacky sonic BM violence and indeed early on we do get an explosion in a sheet metal factory but for all that, we end up with about twenty minutes of two mostly repetitive and uninspiring songs. As for Prurient, we get one long 30-minute track which for some people may be 30 minutes too long; I don't know how representative of Prurient's work this track is but for what it does it's very drawn-out and for a disc that's probably intended to bridge the gap between black metal and noise / power electronics as music genres, I doubt that this split album will go far in convincing people on either side to cross the divide.

"Terre eternelle", the first and longer of the two Akitsa songs, starts off well with a solemn church organ tone ambience, quite pleasant and peaceful, which is then followed by the aforementioned full metal racket. After another passage of organ ambience, the rest of the track pivots around a lugubrious repeating riff that goes through various changes in key while the vocalist screams banshee-like over the foot-dragging rhythms. Towards the end, lead guitar takes up a new repeating riff that also goes through changes in key in parallel with the rhythm digging in its own groove. Truly exciting stuff! The second and shorter song "Goetie" is another exercise in slow circular riffing with about two chord changes and more damsel-in-distress vocalisations. A slight change comes after the third minute with a new, more martial but still repetitive rhythm. There's a heroic guitar solo and more high-pitched screaming. Altogether, Akitsa's part of the split is disappointing and not likely to bring any Prurient fans over to the Canadian act's particular brand of BM unless they happen to enjoy music that sounds like a never-ending sonic Moebius strip.

For such a long track, Prurient's "Fossil" does not offer a huge variety of sounds, rhythms or textures: it's mostly a long series of noise fizzle and sizzle laid over violins playing some smooth schmaltzy melodic music. Over the top of the noise froth we have hammering, bass-droning, scraping, grit-churning, various fumblings and possibly field recordings of planes flying low overhead, helicopters and puttering motors. The emphasis seems to be on creating a rolling series of gritty or throbbing soundscapes that play with changes in volume and texture, and in using the contrast between the noisy parts and the violins to generate tension, unease and menace. The gradual build-up of the drones begins to dominate the violins after the 20th minute and distorted vocals make their appearance. The "shouting", if we can call it that, it being so heavily processed, continues all the way to the end. "Fossil" is not a chaotic or playful track, it's held on a fairly tight leash (though some drones can get pretty ferocious) and the tension that builds up over the first 20 minutes is released in the last 10 minutes with those peculiar vocals.

Some people will find the Prurient track too long and tedious and maybe Prurient man Dominic Fernow could have edited parts of it and brought out more of the contrast and tension between the harsh noises and the soft background music by making the violins more upfront. Akitsa's section definitely comes off the worse of the two acts with songs that don't represent the range of what that band is capable of and which play up the less desirable aspects of the band's music.