Grey Rigorism

French cult Merrimack very much upped the ante with their previous album Of Entropy and Life Denial, one of the better pure black metal releases of that country. Though the band lacks the experimentation of a Blut Aus Nord or Deathspell Omega, they still impress for their raw tenacity and dark-laced, ominous composition. Grey Rigorism, their 3rd full-length, is not a huge departure in style, but a solid and intense offering which has grown on me with a few spins.

This is not a band who teases at you with bright melodies, but instead mire you within a twisted, downward spiraling labyrinth, with the only escape being madness, suicide or murder, or any combination of the three. The title is only fitting, for it represents the brightest color association possible when exploring the depressive waste this album projects. There is no 'gold' in "The Golden Door", just a morass in which the guitars are rusted beasts wandering through the ichor and decay. "Omniabsence" unleashes dank and cavernous riffing, with discordant grooves and a pulsing black edge. "Kirjath-ra" opens with the one of the better riffs on the album, then picks up into a faster pace recalling the previous album. "Cold Earth Mourning" stands out for its march-like opening percussion and thriving, desolate guitars. The title track creates some dark ritual ambience that leads into its roiling bulk. Other choice moments are the grim instrumental "Désaveu" with its monologue in French, and the steady, hellish clarion "In the Halls of White Death" which creates a killer deathlike groove near the 4 minute mark (also the most 'melodic' track of the album and another of its best).

Grey Rigorism sounds as black as you could hope, or as black as the lack of any hope. The guitars are clear, each diabolical chord resounding above the concrete drumwork and carnal rasp of Terrorizt. I didn't find it the equal Of Entropy and Life Denial, but the album shows a clear maturation from the band's early sounds, and it's well worth a listen for fans of French black metal and beyond (Satyricon, Mayhem, etc.)

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Albums like these often cause me to reflect upon cliché assessments such as “par for the course” and “by the numbers”. Albums that tend to perfectly reflect all of what makes a genre unique and strong, yet being safe and predictable enough to warrant nothing more than a measured and polite vote of approval. Everything is in its proper place, all of the classic pioneers of the second wave are paid homage to in a fairly versatile and varied manner, but that is essentially the problem. There’s not much adventurism to this music despite the variety, it gets the job done and then sort of keeps any further thoughts on the matter to itself.

Nothing in Merrimack’s arsenal of black metal weapons is lacking, from the esoterically heathenish song titles to the woeful mixture of saddened minor keys mixed with measured yet very ugly dissonances. The dominant influences are a keen mix of Immortal’s epic riffing and Gorgoroth’s vile and fuzzy guitar mixing, though Terrorizt’s guttural vocals are definitely flirting with Beherit territory. The production is relatively clear by the genre’s standards, and seems to conform more to the current practices of the surviving adherents to the early 90s Norwegian scene. It’s all performed flawlessly, but the design of the whole just comes off as mundane and formulaic.

There are naturally a couple of praiseworthy puddles of black gold to be found on here between the passable homage songs. “Omniabsence” definitely takes a couple of cues from Burzum here and there, though the groovy sounding verse section sounds like it was borrowed from Dio’s 2002 protest song “Rock And Roll”. A similar droning line of dissonant notes from the well of Varg Vikerness is superimposed on a progression borrowed from Helloween on “When The Stars Align”, eventually giving way to a healthy dose of “Battles In The North” style madness. But the only area where things finally break into all out originality is the towering 13 minute plus closer “By Thy Grace”, featuring some clips from the infamous documentary film “Jesus Camp” filtering in and out of a potpourri of maddened riffs that all but surpass the superstitions put forth in the film.

“Grey Rigorism” doesn’t immediately lend itself to the essential list of 2009 pickups for those who crave melodic ugliness, but it might be worth checking out if one isn’t put off by a lot of over clichés. Most of the contents found on here are quite listenable, but only a few really grab the ears and command repeated hearings. It’s an even safer version of Immortal’s “Pure Holocaust”, meets a really safe version of Gorgoroth’s “Antichrist”, with a helping of very safe bits of “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”. And to those who are not familiar with the background of the genre, who might be thinking of trying it out, translate that into a simple “it’s safe” and check into the early 90s for some of the real stuff.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on January 18, 2010.

What is a “MERRIMACK”, anyway? I could be incorrect but when I hear the name I think of some kind of ship you hear about in history class. And with lack of studious materials present, it appears I’m going in there blind. But it’s just as well…after all, I’m not here to review a schooner, but in fact a band’s album, apparently the musical collective of rigorism in a grayish shade. So with that said, I leap ahead, both guns blazing, ready and raring to go.

I’ll say this much…it ain’t a boat.

What this kind of MERRIMACK seems to be is a schizophrenic black metal entity, seemingly well-versed in post-“Rebel Extravaganza” SATYRICON with moments of MARDUK-ish blasterbation and the epicacity of vintage Viking-era BATHORY that changes as suddenly and abruptly as Icelandic weather. There’s all sorts of potential within the monstrousness of the riffing and general performance, but I’d enjoy it all the more if these guys could just stay on one side of the road. Nary a sensation of melodic-ness is present…neither keyboards nor overtly-harmonic guitar lines get in the way, as instead the band opts for a caustic, unfriendly approach to extreme metal, where twisted guitar riffs, chaotic leads, punchy drum work and slightly-inhuman sounding grim vocals come together into a brick wall of pure sound that changes shape every succeeding second and are stretched longer than they should. And while this may seem rather unpleasant, a few good moments are abound, from the strangely fulfilling “Omniabsence” to the skull-bashing “Cold Earth Mourning”, which is counteracted by weaker, less original moments like “Kirjoth-Ra” and “Desaveu”. Simply put, the entire album teems with quite a few good ideas interspersed with unnecessary filler material that doesn’t gel as well as it should.

So all in all I wasn’t too thrilled with MERRIMACK. While I applaud them for not being another run-of-the-mill black metal band, it would help me if they had a real identity to go with. But until then, their whirlwind of sound will just flitter by unnoticed.

After some three years of sacred silence, not-really-that-well-known French black metallers give birth to their latest malevolent creation, which responds to the name of Grey Rigorism. With one monster of an album in their backs, the french team had a lot of expectations to live up to, and even though I did not think so at first glance (or rather, at first listen), I do believe they've reached a new level of greatness in their career, even though this level is not as high as many of their compatriots.

With this said, let me describe the music as best as I can.

Vocals are better than in the previous album, Terrorizt pulls off a nice growl, not too deathish, not too screechy, right in the middle of the spectrum. Most of the time only one voice line is heard, but at times several lines integrate some sort of twisted choir of perdition which really adds to the experience. Production-wise I have 0 complains. The production is excellent but not too excellent, every instrument is audible but pretentiousness is avoided successfully. Drums are my only problem, being kind of lifeless, especially the clicking doublebass, of which I have never been fond. The songs themselves are more varied but come off as a continuation of the style developed in the previous album, that is relentless black metal interspaced with mid-paced sections not unlike bands like Marduk and Dark Funeral, not to say this album sounds like something said bands have done. At times what you'll hear is not the most original songwriting ever, though, but they pull it off well, and then some riffs have real shining moments, like the start of Omniabsence which could fit rather well in any of the latests works of Deathspell Omega, even though said song then breaks off into some sort of melodeathish riff which kind of puts me off, but as soon as the vocals join and the riff gets more dynamic things get much, much better. Other riffs shine because of their apparent detachment from black metal, and leanings to styles like doom and death, even rock at times, for example the initial riff of the title track.

I gotta say, in fact, leaving the blastbeating insanity filled moments, tremolo picking sections and growling vocals aside, this album distances itself quite a lot from black metal, getting closer to the kind of music maybe nowadays In Flames or even more rock driven metal bands are doing, which in my eyes is a good thing, and mixed with the extreme black metal parts, further explores the sounds that we got a glimpse of in Merrimack's previous effort. The album altogether is quite melodic, even when said melodies are primitive in spirit and quite aggressive, there's a nice amount of imagination and experimentation impregnating the riffs and bridges which pleases me greatly. The songs are far from minimalistic, but tend to get blurred together, not because of lack of memorable moments, but because they follow practically the same guidelines, so to speak. But an open ear will find enough material in each song to put it apart from the rest.

As a closer I might mention I find the detail of the two shorter tracks (let's say they're interludes) lovely. They both have titles in french and the second has samples of someone saying something in french. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Both tracks remind me of the opener of the previous album, which I find to be amazing. Finally, I'll make a brief mention of the final track, which is 13:31 minutes long. When I first glanced at the length I though to myself "oh this can't be good". I don't see Merrimack as a band able to pull off such lengths properly, but I was amazed at how well it turned out. The song contains some female "vocals", and I use that term as loosely as possible, because it's a spoken part, but it really adds to the overall majestic feeling of the track, which has really experimental moments, and could easily be one of the best off the album.

Final remarks: If you liked their previous album, you're probably gonna love this one. Do not listen to this if you are expecting the album of the year. Do listen to this if you like your black metal modern, to-the-point, varied and crystal clear.

Originally written for the paper version of the Terror Cult Zine
http://www.terrorcultprod.glt.pl/