Stilltrapped

There is a thing with modern genre descriptions that I really, really don’t understand. Think about it. A bunch of black metal musicians decide to start playing something that could be described as (for example) a “thoughtful” take on alternative rock, with (some) metal elements, (vaguely) satanic lyrics and (possibly) harsh vocals. They end up being labelled avant-garde and/or progressive black metal. Makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s not that I’m actually complaining – after all, you need to call the music something – but it is a little strange, that’s all. Apparently black metal knows no musical boundaries whatsoever.

With that little detail out of the way, let us focus on the album at hand. I think it’s safe to say that the music on ‘Stilltrapped’ has little to do with conventional metal of any kind. With different sound choices, someone like Morrissey or even Tom Waits (I’m assuming everyone knows who these people are) could easily put out songs very much like these – they would in all likelihood either raise the tempos or tidy up the arrangements a bit, but you get the idea. As for metal, I suppose a band like Peste Noire (the little I’ve heard of their material) has a somewhat similar attitude towards making music, but this could be misleading, given that they don’t really sound identical to this. I’m not quite sure what other comparisons to make, actually, since output like this is rather rare within metal music. Having said that, however, it must also be pointed out that Apocryphal Voice are certainly not doing anything wrong. I for one am very pleased to see new bands coming along and brushing up modern metal like this; different approaches and new directions are always good things.

But is ‘Stilltrapped’ any good? Put it this way: it could be. On the plus side, the way the music is structured – the instrumentation - is innovative to say the least. We have a semi-distorted guitar that focuses on chord movements and slight dissonance, arpeggios and percussive patterns, while an extremely audible bass handles much of the “melodies” unpredictably and with style, creating an illusion of multiple chord progressions within the same guitar part as the root tone (lowest note) keeps changing constantly. The bass often seems to dominate musically, leading the compositions on and being backed up by the guitar and not the other way around. The drummer is also an expert in his field, keeping his beats interesting and only playing “a lot” to fill some space when appropriate. In particular the fills are close to perfect, being abrupt yet fitting, and the drums follow the other instruments very nicely rather than actually setting the pace. It’s unusual and something I’d normally consider a flaw, but the approach works surprisingly well. The tempo is kept relaxed pretty much at all times, which helps in giving the album an aura of peace and thoughtfulness. On top of all this, there are the rather unique vocals. Not your usual black metal shriek but a theatrical semi-rasp of sorts, they give to me a mental image of Quorthon handling vocal duties for Arcturus. The singing sounds emotional without trying too hard at all, and gives the overall atmosphere a twist of insanity and sadness.

The downside to all this should be easy enough to guess with the above descriptions; while there is a good deal of musical variation, there is almost none of it in terms of the style (or atmosphere, if you will). Many individual tracks as well as the entire album can get a bit tedious to listen to. The notable high points are quickly listed: ‘SideShow’ breaks the overbearing similarity of the first half of the album with its circus-like “disfigured waltz” nature, and the eerie piano at the end of album-closing ‘Burden’ is one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard in a while – but that’s it. The rest of the tracks are very difficult even to distinguish from one another – with the exception of ambient instrumentals ‘Dance of the Phantoms’ and ‘March Towards Hell’, both of which sound exactly like their titles would have you expect. The tracks are just hard to grasp, in that they don’t give the listener much to remember. The funny thing is that many of them would work better on their own. ‘Dry Sound of Rusty Nothingness’, for example, is a fine showcase of atmospheric, doomish metal, light musically but heavy emotionally (seems to be the “magnum opus” here, by the way), but placed as track number 10, it is really asking a lot to try and listen to it attentively. There’s a decent chorus in ‘Incognito’, and ‘Lazy’ has a nice, morbidly laid-back feel to it, but details like these are lost in the big picture. The album is nearly impossible to be enjoyed as a whole.

I must say, it’s a shame I “have to” review ‘Stilltrapped’ much like any other album – that is, through the experience given by listening to the entirety of it. The music is good – interesting, innovative and “different” – with lots of great ideas and showing at times phenomenal compositional skill. But... the songs are decent at best and the whole album is, well, not good. I do suppose a different order of tracks could help, but it’s too late for a thought like that now, isn’t it. This is an album that, regrettably, is not likely to end up in my CD player too often, no matter how much I actually want to hear the music on it. The whole of it is quite simply too much.

In an era where black metal is being taken over by a very formulated sound, that being the characteristics of the well documented depressive sub-genre, there are a number of experimental, or avant-gardé black metal acts which are slowly establishing themselves as a force. However much the fans want to complain about black metal becoming one dimensional, the fact of the matter is, and as it has always been, if you dig deep enough within the genre you’ll eventually come across something special. Something that fights against the modern reputation of an entire genre like a savage beast, unwilling to be contained within the set standards that fans and musicians seem to be becoming used to. To me, that is where the avant-gardé sub-genre of black metal comes in use. It hasn’t always appealed to me, has experimental black metal, but of late it has. As I’ve become more and more addicted to finding extraordinary and fresh acts, my journey has brought me to a halt. We’ve crash landed at the weird, but wonderful, Apocryphal Voice, Finland’s answer to black metal’s mounting problems. The answer to the question, “Is it worth my money?” is yes, it most certainly is. Of course, one has to listen to this piece with an open mind, not a heavy heart because it isn’t what you’d expect from black metal. In actual fact, it doesn’t sound like black metal at all on a fair few occasions. The avant-gardé tag is at home here.

I’ve never come across this band before, so their appeal was heightened because they are an unknown entity. Not only to me, but to most of black metal’s fan base. I’ve done some research, albeit not much and Apocryphal Voice don’t have a huge following at all. Their 2007 debut release, ‘Stilltrapped’ is a surprise package for various reasons which I will attempt to delve in to. Though the lyrics are not supplied, we’re given the impression that they deal mostly with depression and disgust, which is apt considering the vocalists hateful voice. Although the style of vocals does vary throughout the record, the main choice of vocals isn’t what one would consider typical of black metal. Rasping vocals, which are the standard for this genre, are nowhere to be seen. We appear to have a watered down version of rasping vocals, which actually may suit more people than you might expect. The vocals are usually the first addition of any black metal act to be slaughtered, so Apocryphal Voice have made a shrewd decision to cut them out and, to me, it has paid off. The vocals remind me of Garm’s vocals for Arcturus, although the similarities aren’t too striking. Vocally, as we cannot focus on lyrics, ‘Stilltrapped’ is strong. I do prefer the more hateful side to the vocals, as opposed to the variations on the record, but all that are present, are strong. Much like the vocals, the percussion is hell bent on showcasing the aggressive side to this Finnish act which, at the beginning of the record, can sound like some sort of circus sideshow. If you’ve ever listened to Norway’s Arcturus, then you’ll understand how taking on an avant-gardé approach can remind the audience of circus inspired music.


Experimental music is perhaps the most difficult to pull off. Essentially, band’s like Apocryphal Voice are going against the standards set by the genre. However, the cries are for something different, exciting and fresh these days so I’m sure this Finnish act can fill the void. Amongst the surprise elements of the record is the willing nature of the bass. It’s more than capable of controlling the direction of the music and although this should be considered an avant-gardé piece, it does follow a pattern. The bass is, as I said, more than capable of leading the way. It’s stronger than the guitar in this instance, particularly on tracks like ‘Trapped Under The Iron Sky’ and ‘Forgotten’. Whilst the bass controls the vast amount of experimentation that record allows, the guitars are a bit more repetitive. This element of the guitars will please age-old fans of black metal whom are used to patterns and set formula’s. Songs, like the aforementioned two, place a high importance of creativity. Whilst solos do occur, the repetitive nature of the guitars doesn’t hinder the experimental progress of the soundscapes. It is hard to define the soundscapes present on this record because they vary from song to song. I’ve never listened to a record which ends so differently to which it begins. Take songs like ‘Dry Sound Of Rusty Nothingness’ for example. This song has more characteristics of a blackened doom metal anthem than it does anything else. The vocals are darker, deeper and more focused on the development of the sinister undertow which spirals in and out of the lead guitars like a leaf twirling to the ground in autumn as the trees shed their skin. They also begin to express different types of emotions as the record progresses. The guitars are more much affective on songs like this too. They ebb and flow more like a doom song would do. Monotonous and slow, without compromise. The bass isn’t as formulated as the other aspects, despite the fact that those aspects aren’t that formulated themselves. On the whole, one has to congratulate the musicians for performing at such a high level on a debut. The bands members, of which there are two, do seem to have experience with other projects, though I do not know much about those either to make a judgment.

One cannot fault the originality of the record. It’s up there with the most original records I’ve heard, especially in terms of the awesome bass. My only problem with ‘Stilltrapped’ is it’s use of filler tracks. There are far too many for my liking. Some of those need to be taken out and recycled into proper songs because they can be deemed useless in the progression of the record. Considering I have no experience with the band’s previous material, it is hard to make comparisons from this effort to the one’s that came before it. However, what I can say is that I do hope this act continue with this fine form and sort out the filler tracks because they only hinder proceedings.