Artist......: Jacc
Album.......: Cathartic Sorrow
Year........: 2022
Genre.......: Black Metal
Label.......: Independent
Cat.No......:
Source......: WEB (24bit)
Encoder.....: libFLAC
Quality.....: 4376kbps avg. / 176.4kHz / 2 channels
Playtime....: 00:38:32 (1295.4MB)
R.date......: 2023-01-16
S.date......: 2022-11-17
Website.....: http://open.qobuz.com/album/jh1dknyec199a
Disc 1 / 1
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01. Sempiter Malasthur 4:33
02. Encapsula Neurotte 11:26
03. Irresp Unundt Aereth 6:10
04. Acertinate Eradicaat 6:40
05. Obitus Personificatem 6:43
06. Kotorous Ruinus Anhedonis 3:00
Looking downcast and depressed rather than jolly on the front cover of
"Cathartic Sorrow", the third album from raw metal act Jacc, the swaggie in
his bush isolation sure isn't inviting you to listen to the music here at
all. "Cathartic Sorrow" initially seems angrier and more furious than
sorrowful but repeated spins will reveal the anguish and fear in the
singing. Opening track "Sempiter Masthur" explodes in a burst of raw vocal
rage, rapid-fire drumming and frizzly noise guitar cloud that quickly
settle down into a steady groove of repeating riffs and beats, while
retaining a bristling edge and that hoarse howling voice. The atmosphere
has a corrosive feel that any minute might become painful and even bleed,
and the mood is definitely very depressive. Things perk up a bit with the
second track "encapsula neurotte" which has a more defined if angular and
ominous riff structure and a higher energy level. While the snarling and
roaring still go on, "encapsula à" stamps a much darker atmosphere with
dissonant fuzzy guitar melodies, a swanky rhythm and a sense of everything
coming close to falling off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. In the second
part of the track a dejected riff bleeds out of the constant roiling noise
chaos and for a moment we glimpse the ongoing agony behind the vocals and
the distant shouting beneath the noise and background frazzle.
Though the music starts out as blackened noise, it has some melodic death /
doom metal elements in the vocals, atmospheres and song structures, and
there are melodic post-metal elements in the clean lead guitar solos that
appear in tracks like "irresp unundt aereth" and "acertinate eradicaat".
The Jacc project isn't above inserting samples of found sound and dark
ambience into songs to inject something much bleaker and more hopeless into
the music. As we go further into the album, we go much, much deeper into
realms where directions become meaningless, and we become trapped and
threatened with madness by our own inaction û because we do not know where
to go. All around us in the dark the voices of the mad circle amid pounding
percussion and relentless noisy riffs and their lead guitar embellishments.
Generally, all the instruments and the vocals proceed together very closely
with few deviations from the main riffs; with dissonant guitar chords and
key changes, this type of song-writing produces a sinister and intense
sound experience with "obitus personificatem" being its outstanding
example. Songs can yield unexpected surprise changes in riffing, rhythm and
ambience very late, often within the last 60 seconds before they end,
making for an even more complex and demanding listening experience. The
album goes out in a near-formless storm of guitar cloud noise in "kotorous
ruinus anhedonis".
It might start off in a confused way that is sure to put off most people
but if you persist with this album, you will find good if very ominous,
confrontational and intense music and atmospheres across the six songs.
"Encapsula neurotte" features the most defined melodies, all leading down a
blacker detour to the bottomless pit while "irresp unundt aereth" reveals
short windows into utter demonic insanity and surrounds them with layers of
both melodic and more noise-oriented cacophony. "Obitus personificatem" may
hold the most (and the most out-there) surprises in music that defies
categorisation other than that it has features from across black metal,
dark ambience, post-metal and black'n'roll, yet like the other tracks it
holds everything well in a confounding dark soundscape.
If you hear this album often enough, it really does grow on you. It might
not make many people's lists of top albums for 2022 but it has potential to
be a cult sleeper with songs that keep and reveal their deep secrets almost
right up until they end.