Kai pilnaties akis užmerks mirtis

The problem with ultra-progressive and avant-garde bands is that they tend to reach a tipping point, crossing the line from genius to wayward self-indulgence. These bands often have a brief peak before continuing with their experimentations and losing the thread. Examples might include Fleurety’s second album (“Department of Apocalyptic Affairs”) or the third Traumatic Voyage album (“Trauma…”). These records pushed their own boundaries to an ugly and inevitable conclusion, losing the simplicity and/or naturalness of previous recordings.

I feel similarly about Anubi’s "Kai pilnaties akis užmerks mirtis". The Lithuanian band’s (official) debut album is far more avant-garde than their excellent "Mirties Metafora" demo. Unfortunately, it spends much of the time in a weird place that I do not find enjoyable to listen to. These guys still sound like the same band as before, but their progressive black metal template has been laced with all kinds of indulgent meanderings that lessen the overall impact.

Some of this stuff is awful, such as the borderline muzak section of "Į naują galybę", which combines plodding pace, gothic elements and saxophone. Some songs are spoilt by details, such as the lame subsidiary keyboard melodies near the end of "Ozirio adventas". Some tracks get tantalisingly close to greatness; the first half of “Gyvenimo kritimą dovanosim krankliui” sounds like a crazy combination of Talking Heads and Arcturus, the first half of "Mirtis" has some incredible polyrhythms (both songs lose momentum towards the end). The best and most consistent tracks are often the simplest ones, such as the minimalist “Kai pilnaties akis užmerks mirtis II” and the traditional a-cappella folk homage of “Folklorinė daina apie mirtį” (both are superb).

The production is different from “Mirties Metafora”. There is none of the warm, lo-fi, fuzzy black metal sound here. This is clear and definite, providing space for the increased number of instruments being used. The production is more of a negative than a positive. The sharper sound lacks the mystique of the demo (losing most of the black metal aesthetic in the process). Compare this re-recorded version of "Iš tuštumos į akmens tylą" to the demo version. The oddball guitar effects sound much less interesting and integrated on this newer version.

Anubi were one of the most interesting black metal bands of their era, no doubt. They were ahead of their time when it came to avant-garde experimentation. This album might appeal to fans of bands like Sigh, Arcturus and Ved Buens Ende. However, I cannot think of any reason why you would want to listen to this over the (superiod) demo that preceded it.

Anubi and their history is built on all things strange. Not only is their sound unusual, but the fact that they split-up due to Lord Ominous’, a prominent figure in the Lithuanian scene at the time, death during a sailing excursion on Lake Michigan in 2002 is also bizarre. However, if you’re going to attempt to tackle this album entitled ‘Kai Pilnaties Akis Uzmerks Mirtis’ head-on, you had best become accustomed to all things odd as this piece of music will challenge your beliefs on black metal and how it melds with the avant-gardé movement. Bands this experimental can be considered dangerous. It’s easy to see how people could call this obnoxious, or pretentious because it doesn’t like to stick to traditions and despite the fact that it was conjured up during the mid-to-late 1990’s doesn’t stop it from tackling sounds and influences that normally don’t come into contact with black metal. You could say that this record is ahead of its time and though that may sound clichéd, there is some truth to this statement.

Not content to follow the formulaic sound of the 1990’s, Lithuania’s Anubi challenge the listeners perception of the scene during that era by melding unusual influences into their metal scope. As I understand, having read a brief summary of the history of Anubi, they were a much more metallic force during their early days. Nowadays, the black metal aspirations have been transformed and transcend that particular sub-genre of metal. Through the use of brass instruments, unusual keyboards samples, a variety of string instruments and typically Eastern sounding type of clean vocals, Anubi establish themselves as a band who’re looking to change the direction of black metal even though that particular influence on their sound has been stripped down and rearranged to sound less and less like the genre that gave them life. To me, the harsh vocals can be considered to offer the brunt of the black metal sound in Anubi’s album.

However, having said that, the harsh vocals don’t take a typical route and prefer, like the rest of the elements on this unusual affair, to deviate heavily from the normal standards of the genre by becoming more of a deep throaty scream, rather than a rasp or a shriek. Occasionally, Anubi will even dabble in genres that don’t seem to have a place on the album, giving the listener an idea of the extent that they will go to in order to achieve something dramatic and unexpected. ‘Ir Saulë Neteko Savo Pusës Veido’, for example, deals with dark ambient and perhaps even folksy ties. The song consists of meandering ambiance and a slowly plucked clean guitar which reminds me of bands like Russia’s Kauan, once again drawing my mind back to the Eastern vibes, particularly of Finnish, Russian and Ukrainian origin -- shown very well in the echoing vocals of ‘Folklorinë Daina Apie Mirtá’. The vocals aren’t the main highlight however. Though they display a sense of variety well, they don’t offer the same sort of positivity to the album that areas like the bass, or the enigmatic programming does.

The band seemingly revolve around ideas of Egyptian mythology, so maybe that has something to do with the organic, folksy feel of songs like ‘Ir Saulë Neteko Savo Pusës Veido’ which also, as aforementioned, deals with a dark ambient atmosphere (once again explored on the epic final song in its menacing form). Considering Anubi supposedly come from a gothic styled background, this suits them well and gives their album a sense of brooding emotions. For the most part however, unlike the aforementioned song, the atmosphere is spacious. Unlike a lot of black metal material, Anubi don’t conjure up a claustrophobic atmosphere in their songs. Instead, as the excellent ‘Ozirio Adventas’ highlights, the band use a very open style of play. The bass is consistently in the foreground fighting off perceptions that it must be buried beneath the guitars. Instead of playing as a back-up to the guitars, the bass has its own mind, its own ideas on how to run a tight ship and constantly stages its own show as the guitars offer the distortion.

The guitars aren’t always typically repetitive as songs like the previously mentioned one showcase. Anubi use a variety of clean guitar effects which make the atmospheric qualities soar and, alongside the unusual, eerie keyboards, the songs finally begin to feel as if they’re addressing the dark undertones of a standard black metal album without ever strictly sticking to the rules. While the structures of the songs are fairly easy to read after a while, Anubi like to generate a feel of freshness by supplying the album with unusual, unexpected additions like an accordion, odd tingling programming (as shown on ‘Ið tuðtumos Á Akmens Tylà’) and a bass section which doesn’t like to play second fiddle to anyone. As a fan of the bass instrument, I find it refreshing that Anubi wish to use the bass in such a fore-fronted manner. The bass is consistently audible due to the boundless production which offers a mystical sound on occasions. Although this record takes a long time to grow on its listener, it does offer metal something which it hasn’t heard before and that is a rarity.

Weird, freaky, bizarre. The few reviews I've read of Anubi's Kai Pilnaties all say the same. And when I was thinking about how I would review this album I was forced to come to the same thing: saying how truly bizarre and weird this album is.

Another red line in reviews are failed attempts to classify this album, and what often struck me was reviewers were calling it 'black metal with too many weird influences' or saying Anubi tried to mix all genres and failed at it. What a weird thing to do, especially with Anubi. The one thing that signifies Anubi to me is the fact it falls outside all known genres (in my opinion).

One of Anubi's previous releases, the Mirtis Metafora tape, *did* have black metal elements in it. But that was 40%; the other 40% was dark ambient and 20% pure Anubi. What remains of the black metal elements on Kai Pilnaties are the weird black metal vocals. They sound spacious, not terribly harsh (not a raunchy scream) and are used in between the clean vocals (like Rakoth, but very different). The vocals have a 'native' feel to it, in that it reminds of some other Russian/East European bands using clean vocals, but only remotely so.

One thing about Anubi is that they seem to go against all conventions. Some may feel this to be pretentious, and for a lot of people, this album does little for that reason. Straight from the intro track with bizarre organ sounds, Anubi uses disharmony and dissonance as intruments on their own to create subtle meta-harmonies. I wish I had the knowledge of music-composition and technical terms necessary to explain what exactly Anubi is doing, but I believe that even with that knowledge I would have a hard time understanding Anubi entirely as they seem defy most of the rules on purpose. For example, on the second track, early on, you can hear chaotic piano-sounds over which a bass-line is put. The piano sounds spontaneous, unrehearsed...chaotic. As if it were replacing a carefully planned piano piece at the last minute. Yet, it wouldn't sound as good any other way.

It's like that all over the cd. Where there isn't a minimalistic riff droning onward to create a vast song-superstructure, there are purposely mistimed and misplayed notes it seems used as struts for this very same structure, or perhaps some other. I really don't know, and I don't care, as this album sounds just perfect to me in all it's bizarrity and oddness.
I have to note that the album isn't tightly-packed with musical rule-breaking or somesuch. Often enough, there are just unconventionalisms used, or even *gasp* a perfectly understandable songstructure! But you know what? It still sounds original. There is no cookie-cutterness here. Be it on the dark ambient parts (track 7, with it's droning lulling minimalist guitarriff; or the last track with the most bizarre use of saxophones I've ever heard, namely interspersing occasionally with a sort of 'weep') or the deceptively straightforward starting track 6.

I realize though, that many a review conveyed the notion that it was too bizarre for it's own good. But after listening to it many times, coming to love it, surrendering to it as it releases a wide array of emotions in me, I'd be defying my conscience if I gave this album a score less than 95. Just don't listen to this album with any preconceptions!