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IC Rex > Valonkantajan alkemia > Reviews
IC Rex - Valonkantajan alkemia

Fantastic experimental black metal, needs love! - 94%

Noktorn, February 6th, 2009

Coming up with great, unique ideas for music is extremely easy, and no one can use the excuse that it's too difficult to do to justify a lack of quality. Executing them, though, is another matter; what seems amazing in theory could be nearly impossible to craft in reality despite clarity of vision. IC Rex is one such artist who has managed to take a unique and challenging idea and execute it flawlessly on 'Valonkantajan Alkemia'. It's the perfect example of an overlooked gem in the black metal scene, and while I probably couldn't say it's a breath of fresh air since most bands won't bother to inhale, it's certainly an incredibly successful aesthetic and thematic experiment.

The theme in this case is that of Middle Eastern alchemy, presented in the form of a shambling, midpaced variety of metal. It sounds like nothing else in the world, and clearly huge amounts of time were spent on fine-tuning the aesthetic. The melodic sense is almost entirely Middle Eastern in nature, with little or no conventional black metal chord structures to be found. Guitars are a misty, perfumed wash of strummed chords or tremolo over a rickety, somewhat chaotic and drugged drum performance. Vocals are a strange, moaning howl with, like everything else in this release, little connection to traditional black metal styles. While you can describe this as being black metal by virtue of the general sound and structures of the songs, it seems otherwise completely alien.

The production is absolutely what makes this album, and I can't imagine the mixing and mastering process taking less than a week. Every note of every instrument takes up an inordinately large amount of space; as though every instrument is covered in bells which rattle with every note. The overall quality of the recording is slightly raw, but this helps with the trancelike atmosphere and swaying rhythms, and aids the droning quality of the music. The end product is almost sickeningly rich, with every bit of empty space occupied by the sweeping sounds of the instruments. It's a very unique quality, not the sort of thing that can be gotten by just piling on reverb and hoping for the best; it was clearly a huge concern of the artist.

Resulting from the strange instrumental styles (which seem almost improvised at times) and the unique mixing is a completely unusual and compelling album. The mood is suitably dark and mysterious, and the usage of Middle Eastern melodies throughout makes for a very alien listening experience; the sound of it isn't an approximation of Middle Eastern music, it's actually acquainted with how it really sounds and thus comes across much more convincingly. At no point does the album feel like a gimmick; it's enormously serious and a great deal of work has clearly been put into it. Every moment has been very precisely engineered to be as engrossing as possible, and it succeeds remarkably in this regard. The whole album stands as a triumph of unique songwriting and craftsmanship.

'Valonkantajan Alkemia' is a stirringly unique and artistic album that deserves great attention from the metal scene. It does something genuinely new and interesting and fully envelopes the listener in a massively inspired listening experience. This is nearly mandatory for fans of modern, unique black metal, and shouldn't be missed.