Artist......: Jacc
Album.......: Melancholic Bliss
Year........: 2022
Genre.......: Black Metal
Label.......: Independent
Cat.No......:
Source......: WEB (24bit)
Encoder.....: libFLAC
Quality.....: 4495kbps avg. / 176.4kHz / 2 channels
Playtime....: 00:39:22 (1356.5MB)
R.date......: 2023-01-16
S.date......: 2022-12-03
Website.....: http://open.qobuz.com/album/la2xy0bz577hb
Disc 1 / 1
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01. Scythen Unslaught 8:12
02. Gutturus der Ambiend 7:30
03. Venemel Wresture Immolatum 6:36
04. Bescrapen Doomn Dirge 6:37
05. Infestula Bemouthe Caustia 7:31
06. Catharti Liberah Ex Unfathomal Cognitia Dissonat 2:56
Just two weeks after releasing third album "Cathartic Sorrow", raw BM act
Jacc brings out its fourth full-length effort "Melancholic Bliss". You
might be forgiven for thinking that "Melancholic Bliss" won't be much
different from its predecessor in being a mostly noisy raw BM affair with
various elements derived from doom, death and post-BM û and the album's
cover follows in the vein of "Cathartic Sorrow" in featuring artwork by
19th-century Australian Impressionist painter Frederick McCubbin û but on
first listen this turns out to be a different work, more relaxed and
ordered, less chaotic in its pacing and structuring, and being a more
purely experimentally oriented raw BM work without the previous album's
eclectic use of death and doom elements.
"Scythen Unslaught", opening the album, sets the course for the other six
songs to follow: noisy droning guitars spewing buzzy, spiky melodic
textures out of which hoarse phantom vocals roar in sandstorm anger, with
no-nonsense percussion giving the song pace and a solid backbone. The riffs
are distinct though the textures are rough and blurry around the edges, and
definite moods, even a sense of something threatening present, emanate from
the riffing. Song titles look a bit like weird garbled Latin mixed with
German or an archaic English. In "Scythen Unslaught" and the track that
follows, the riffs rarely repeat but will unexpectedly change into
something completely different with the mood or emotion changing entirely
as well, and the journey becomes more complicated.
As the album continues, dark ambient passages slow down the noisy droning
and darken the mood with the voices and melodies gaining a sinister bent.
Even moments of clean-toned guitar melody can seem ominous. A sense of
dread comes in "Bescrapen doomn dirge" with the hoarse screaming nearly
drowned out by rolling tremolo guitar melodies spitting venom and steady
percussion before all are overcome by unearthly dungeon synth-like ambience
and crumbly guitar noise. The last couple of tracks are even more bristly
than earlier songs, though still very melodic, and the last track
especially conveys an air that could be interpreted as resignation or a
dejected acceptance of a situation or something that is less than ideal.
Jacc's music has a tough, raw, uncompromising style as it flows, with the
vocals and percussion giving it identity, structure and power. Dissonant
guitar chords turn the raw guitar-drone soundscapes into dark and bleak
territories of menace and intense emotion. On most tracks there's enough
repetition of particular riffs to stamp them with their own musical and
emotional identities without sacrificing the flowing, more or less
unstructured droning guitar noise textures that have a will of their own
and go where they will. While the mood on individual songs can range from
suppressed fury to melancholy and a fatalistic attitude, the album overall
appears calm and controlled, even quite serene in its brooding.
I like the album but at the same time I do have a feeling that more might
have been done with the music to make it more varied in tone, mood, volume
and ambience.