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Akitsa > Aube de la misanthropie > Reviews
Akitsa - Aube de la misanthropie

Delirious, insane and highly recommended - 95%

NausikaDalazBlindaz, January 2nd, 2007

Excellent introduction to this duo's work that spans four years (1999 - 2003) and which also demonstrates Akitsa's evolution from an experimental and noisy primitive garage rock style reminiscent of some of the more demented projects of the French Black Legions bands to more straightforward but still very raw and primitive black metal. This double set really should be heard in its entirety as there are very few tracks that can be called "filler" though I think most people who hear this will end up having favourite tracks. I have to admit there can be moments when the music can be really annoying (and I often delude myself into thinking I'm pretty open-minded) with a lot of the screeching and carry-on going into childish and overdone histrionics.

The first CD contains tracks from the 1999 demo "Totale Servitude" and feature Akitsa at their most experimental, raw and deranged (I guess some will read: crude and amateurish) with many songs featuring tuneless melodies and guitar riffs, hectic bashing on drums and distorted vokillz that range from whining to deliberately out-of-synch and out-of-tune warbling to moaning and outright screaming. Music careens all over the place and the vokillist gives himself up to all the rage, hatred and daemons jostling in his head and vents his emotions in crazed howls and shrieks. Just imagine what Akitsa must have been like on stage in 1999 if they had performed publicly then: the whole show would have been completely chaotic, the drummer thrashing the skins almost any old how, the vokillist screaming his lungs inside-out and maybe trying to kill his guitar or himself on guitar or on speaker stacks or anything else handy and people at the gig calling for guys in white coats to strap the musicians in straitjackets and take them away! Yes, it's really intense and raw music going on here! Woooh! Take it easy guys!

Also featured on the first CD is a 20-minute piece ironically titled "Redemption", a high-pitched ear-piercing drone that strings together (and by doing so possibly seeks to obliterate) a series of recordings of prayers to the Christian God and the Virgin Mary: this is the most noise-oriented piece (I mean "noise" as in a genre of non-music music exemplified by acts like Merzbow, Whitehouse, John Wiese and Wolf Eyes) and can be the hardest for most people to tolerate and understand as the track is unrelenting and monotonous. The voices are flat and robotic, there are no highs or lows in the praying (no shouts of "Hallelujah!" or anything like that, it all seems very formal) and the grainy quality of the recordings gives the whole track a very drained atmosphere. If this is redemption, give me the more crazy Akitsa any day! I find the end of the track quite ambiguous at it seems to acknowledge the insidious power of repetitive and unthinking religious ritual. (I only mention this because I don't think most people would bother to listen all the way to the end!)

The second CD is more likely to appeal to listeners as the music becomes more structured and melodic and is more recognisable as black metal in a garage - punk way. The first few tracks still feature madman screaming, tunes going nowhere, basic drumming and the occasional lucid rhythm passage. Track 3 "Pouvoir desertique" probably sounds the most Black Legions with a raw production, half-spoken vokillz almost like early Mutiilation and a raw buzzing guitar rhythm; later the song becomes more ambient with a menagerie of wild animals (that's very Black Legions!) baying as if at a full moon. As the CD progresses the Black Legions influences / similarities are still quite strong especially in the morose, almost self-pitying style of singing adopted, but track 6 "Cachots de l'obscurite" is very different: the English translation of the title, "Dungeons of Darkness", tells you straight away that this is a cover of the Burzum track and as such it features a creepy cavernous atmosphere, clanking and fumbling noises, an oppressive hum and long drawn-out, ear-splitting screams. It seems significant to me that of all the Burzum pieces Akitsa could cover, they would cover this particular track as their other work gives very little indication that they are able to handle purely ambient soundscape pieces.

Tracks 8 - 11 come from the 2001 demo "L'Aube de la misanthropie" and are the most black metal pieces on the whole set: they sound more like definite songs but remain primitive in their rhythms and are bleedingly raw to boot. The music is comparable to Ildjarn in intensity, structure and powerful emotional effect on the listener. "Nature Supreme" in particular is overwhelming in its bleakness, the guitar playing is stark and slightly bluesy and for once the vocals are hummed or crooned as if to convey the unspeakable essence of the music. Last chance for screaming comes on "Champ de bataille" and there is plenty of it amongst the catchy rhythms. The set closes with "Outro", a hateful, bleak and desolate fuzzed-up guitar noise drone piece with deep slashing riffs joined together by a high-pitched lead guitar squeal.

I find this double set wonderfully delirious and insane and recommend it to those whose taste in black metal runs to the barking mad and eccentric as well as the most misanthropic and hate-filled. If you love the Black Legions bands and their projects, you certainly need this French Canadian set. Fans of Ildjarn, if they don't mind the screaming and the theatrics, may be attracted to the raw, primitive nature of the music and the bleak vision often expressed.