Subterranean Disposition - Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure (CD)

Review
Gorger’s Metal
14.07.2016

Australian Subterranean Disposition display an alien gold vista that feels like a place where you grew up or visited, or possibly just dreamed, where something feels familiar, yet changed…
The once bustling and lively, yet also peaceful place on earth has lost its glow. The resources are depleted. All livelihoods has ceased. Emigration has deserted the area. The sound of children in the streets and adults at the grocery store and gas station has ebbed out.

Or maybe what once was an idyll has been built out, the river laid in a pipe, the lake drained and filled to set up a well of grey skyscrapers, while vegetation is paved and the big mysterious forest is reduced to a silly little park where heedless sweaty joggers hardly take notice of the few trees on their hasty route before shower, suit, tie and meeting with a group of investors.
Memories of former paradise is a thing of the past, and only a sense of emptiness prevails.

That’s the feeling that Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure gives me. The Australians plays death-doom that discouragingly states that the physical monuments of childhood’s cheerful memories have received their death sentence. The swing from the branch is removed and the climbing-tree has been sawn down. As helpless witnesses to a development consisting of war, violence, terror, growing discord and fanaticism, the Australians does the best out of the situation, creating a stunning emotional work, where beautiful but sorely progressive melancholy dominate, while the most tearful violin from the Gothic land of sadness comes to the rescue.

That a straw eventually brakes the camel’s back is inevitable. That frustration at times takes over, and that furious fists shake in anger, is scarcely avoidable.

The album is a psychedelic journey amongst the memories ruins, or rather among ruined memories. In addition to recognizable elements from the biting grim legacy of British death/doom there is a somewhat unearthly mood of maladjustment and confusion through the five songs of 10-13 minutes each. The short intro not counted. The occasionally wailing vocal fits in, as it oozes of desperation and despair. It’s not impossible that the quaint home or holiday gem from the childhood has been bombed to smithereens in a fatal footnote of the history of war, but the atmospheres that I find, and convey on to you, are nevertheless just speculations. I haven’t read any of the lyrics.

Exactly what mental images the band has formed themselves, is therefore not easy to say, but it’s probably no cheerful thoughts. Their varied death/doom is rich in good music and strong moods, that sometimes drags my thoughts to Pink Floyd, while lovely use of saxophone and a little Hammond organ and acoustic spices certainly puts no damper on the mournful and emotional atmosphere.

A very beautiful and varied, well played and well sounding second album from Australian Subterranean Disposition.
Listen for yourself: Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure.

Review
Doom-Metal.com
9/10
27.06.2016

*Mild spoiler alert: a fraction over three minutes into this album, it was already becoming clear that there would be a sizeable number waiting at the end of this review. That just happens to be the time it takes to run through the delicately-introduced and dramatic instrumental introduction, and for the sublimely-crafted instrumental layers being fed into ‘Wooden Kimono Fixative’ to have built up guitar, drums, bass and introduce the first mellifluous notes of tenor sax. One of the most elegant and moving lead-ins I’ve heard in a long time.*

But I’m getting ahead of myself somewhat, there. You may already be familiar with the band Subterranean Disposition through the self-titled 2012 debut, or with project founder Terry Vainoras through any of his two-decade-spanning career with other bands such as Cryptal Darkness, InSomnius Dei and The Eternal. Nearly four years on from ‘Subterranean Disposition’, sophomore ‘Contagiuum and the Landscapes of Failure’ arrives courtesy of a joint release by Hypnotic Dirge Records and BadMoodMan Music, and wrapped in a dramatic cover painting by Coby O’brien.

The debut album established a melodic-experimental-ambient Death/Doom (well-encapsulated by the quoted motto “the dissonance, the atmosphere, the dynamics, the heaviness, the melody”), and plenty of recognisable elements from that have been taken forward into ‘Contagiuum…’: first and foremost, perhaps, the small number of lengthy compositions comprising the release – indicating that the thoughtful, evolving, multi-passage songwriting structures pioneered there have been retained largely intact. They’re based around much the same components, too: largely centred around guitar, with a mix of clean and growled male vocals, a smattering of keyboards, spot effects and spoken-word features, some (very welcome) sax, and guest female vocals, all combining with various shades of accord or contrast as each track unfolds. A strong improvement is to be found in the fully-accredited presence of Dan Nahum (Futility, Orphans Of Dusk, and many others) behind the drum kit, demonstrating that even the best programming available can’t compete with a quality percussionist. Other changes: the female vocals, this time, are the enigmatically haunting tones of Iranian-born Gelareh Pour (featured in an eerie ambient exploration during ‘Embittered’), and the sax is Terry’s own work, learned during the interim.

And what can I say, but that the various continuities and changes have resulted in a significantly more assured (I won’t say ‘mature’: given the extensive pre-Subterranean Disposition experience involved, the debut was hardly a novice work!) musical statement. ‘Contagiuum…’ successfully steps up, taking the inclusion of bold and experimental features that marked its predecessor, and completely integrating them into what are essentially genuine Prog Rock structures. By which I don’t mean album-length tracks full of Yes-like noodling: look more to the extreme ends of the genre, where bands like Van der Graaf Generator brought together every bit as much aggression, harshness and raw pain as the modern underground strives for. That’s the sweet spot which ‘Contagiuum…’ occupies: the dissonant, the unexpected and the unusual coexisting beautifully with the more prosaic and familiar core of Death/Doom values. Some deft steering ensures that, despite the variety of elements brought front and centre, the album maintains pace and meaning, without any of the individual moments diverting from either, or overstaying their welcome.

I’m not going to deconstruct much of the music here: there wouldn’t be a lot of value in pulling out a long list of individual moments and partial comparisons. But I will mention ‘All Roads Lead To Perdition’ – perhaps the most obvious bridge between the two albums – in a little more detail, as an example. Travelling from gentle, spidery guitar harmonics through a smoothly tantalising build-up to venomous passionate crescendo, from distortedly echoing half-spoken vocals to a section of melancholic strings, from soaring guitar lines to the creepy computerised ambience of the coda: the breadth and variety of the journey is vast, yet stays true to its semi-recurrent theme. You could level a salvo of band names at it – from Rush to Inborn Suffering, Ministry to The Slow Death – and they’d all give just a part of the picture of something that is emphatically its own creature.

I praised the craft and attention to detail of the debut: it’s a pleasure to note that has been maintained here. A great deal of work has gone into polishing every facet of the production: amongst many other highlights, the lush guitar tones are a deliciously evocative match to the emotions of the passages they run through – whether tracing a contemporary path, or harking back towards a more ’70s sound. The different movements are many and varied: ranging from such features as the by-turns rocking-out or languid saxophone, the interjection of uptempo snarling and blackened climaxes, or the wielding of ambient effects like the sinister crackle of electrical discharge concluding ‘A Lifelong Slumber’.

For all the complexities, though, it’s still a very accessible album: dark and punchy as the backbone can be, it still sits at the lighter and more melodic end of the Death/Doom spectrum – and, obviously, that’s further mellowed by some of the more boundary-pushing elements. Rewarding close attention and repeated listening with a plethora of subtle details, the hour’s running time is a longish but entirely worthwhile trip through some decidedly creative spaces. Those may turn out to be a little too artistic for everyone’s taste, but – as noted at the beginning – you should have a pretty clear idea whether it’s going to be your sort of thing within a few short minutes. It most definitely is mine and, without doubt, will be a name appearing on my end-of-year shortlist.

Author: Mike Liassides

Review
Atmosfear Zine
6/10

Австралиец из Мельбурна никак не успокоится и спустя четыре года после дебюта выпускает свой второй альбом. Он там сам на всем играет, так что по сути это one-man проект. Эпизодически его стиль звучит как дэз / дум, но это встречается редко. Все остальное время он занимается, чем его душе будет угодно. И эмбиентом и легким роком для релакса и даже что-то типа кантри я однажды услышал. Одним словом нас ждет медленная спокойная музыка, часто даже красивая, иногда загадочная, которую прерывают дэз / думовые фрагменты. И так целый час. Неплохо, иногда интересно, но на любителя.

Author: Neophyte

Review
Friedhof Magazine
7/10
22.08.2016

Interesante banda formada por Terry Vainoras, cerebro, responsable, artífice y el único culpable del presente billete musical el cual nos da derecho a viajar por las ramas más atrevidas, apocalípticas y hechizantes que sujetan el presente álbum.

Bajo el cobijo de Hypnotic Dirge Records, nos aguarda una obra en donde su protagonista sabe exponer una idea y un concepto que musicalmente podría asomarse incluso entre parámetros de frescura a juzgar por la creatividad y la libertad musical que se respira.

Canciones largas y extensas fantásticamente construidas, separadas y repartidas con bastante buen gusto, ninguna baja de los 10 minutos a excepción de la arrancada inicial con “Hungry Ghost On Rotten Soil” en donde colorean con un par de minutos totalmente instrumentales e innecesarios. Así pues, no es hasta el segundo tema con la fantástica “Wooden Kimono Fixative” en donde uno se da cuenta de cómo las gastan los de Melbourne. Doom/Death Experimental, Ambient, la verdad es que no sabría señalar ninguna de las mencionadas con total acierto aunque sí es cierto que su tacto musical toca muy a su manera las coordenadas citadas cocinándolas de una forma totalmente autodidacta.

Los 12 minutos iníciales dejan un sabor encomiable, una libertad musical ganada a pulso y unas referencias tan abstractas y a la vez bohemias que la comparativa fácil es totalmente imposible, al contrario, en la canción hay partes relajadas, mucha aportación de saxofón, enlaces con su distorsión y su doblete abanico de voces. A mi modo de ver, Subterranean Disposition entrarían en la categoría de bandas abstractas y a la vez especiales a la hora de intentar dar el callo compositivo, que se yo, la mezcla de saxo con partes metal me recuerda sensaciones y retales incrustados en el lejano “Suspensed Animation Dreams” (2005) de los americanos/Israelitas/Noruegos Subterranean Masquerade, obviamente con muchísimos contrastes y diferencias aunque sirva para dar un poco de visión de por dónde podría ir el tema en cuestión.

Con la siguiente y enigmática “Embittered” la cosa se vuelve mucho más rebuscada, ya que entre acústicas, arpegios y distorsiones, se nos cuela a gran escala unas voces y una aureola totalmente oriental a raíz de un desenlace cuya letra es un poema llamado “Winter” obra de Mehdi Akhavan Sales (Tehran/Iran 1929-1990) en donde Gelareh Pour los descabella a las mil maravillas. Es a partir de los tres minutos en donde los cánticos femeninos cubren el hilo musical del tema, todo ello con una tonalidad tétrica y a la vez sensual como quién compra en un mercado de Tehran y oye sin más el hilo musical salido de las aceras contiguas.

El tema en sí acaba dando sus últimos pistoletazos con la entrada de distorsión y una sonoridad afin al Doom/Death que parece rematar la faena. En este punto, el compositor Terry Vainoras, así como sus ayudantes Dan Nahum (baterías y percusion), Daniel Lucas (parte hablada/narrada en “Wooden Kimono Fixative”) y Mark Kelson (responsable de embellecer con algunas guitarras adicionales) los músicos andan sin freno y totalmente a su bola, así que si alguien se acuerda de una banda llamada Forgotten Silence y de su EP “Bye Bamahe Neem” puede que sumándole cantidad de cosas y quitándole cantidad de otras llegarán a tener cierta imantación en sus respectivos universos sonoros.

Con “All Roads Lead To Perdition” el bucle de notas iníciales en sus primeros cuatro minutos no pasan del arpegio y de la mancha ambiental en sus desenlaces primerizos, ese es el modelo a seguir, es decir, nada especial e incluso monótono hasta que el tema da un giro brusco e inesperado que intenta subir la espuma poquito a poco quedándose a media altura exagerando un poco el asunto, sin más un tema algo insulso.

Con la estrambótica y bohemia “A Lifelong Slumber” las cálidas notas limpias contrastan con otras agónicas y mortíferas, una canción repleta de disonancias y ambientes comunicativamente nulos, seguramente el tema más expresivo en aspectos vocales aunque me ha transmitido muy poca euforia en cada uno de sus desenlaces.

En este punto del álbum, uno espera otro mosaico interpretativo a la altura de las tres primeras canciones, pero nada, en mi opinión el listón del equilibrio es demasiado perfecto en las primeras canciones y demasiado inestable en las finales, algo que inconscientemente le hace perder cierto encanto y cierta textura de cuerda musical a la hora de seguir cada uno de sus nudos compositivos.

Con la final “Aggressors Clothed As Victims” la cosa mejora, es decir, hay una línea repleta de cambios más llevaderos, vuelven a la carga con una sensacional aportación de saxofón sin olvidarnos que se quitan el polvo (la entrada de la guitarra a los 08:40 está muy lograda) con unas notas cuyas escalas le ceden una sonoridad atípica que vuelve a sumergirte en el buen hacer compositivo que en muchas ocasiones encumbra un buen porcentaje del álbum.

Con todo lo descrito, creo que la magia, la inspiración y el efecto de canciones como “Wooden Kimono Fixate” o “Embittered” (ambas sumando ya la friolera de 22 minutos) son el punto álgido del álbum, son el momento en el que Terry Vainoras alcanza el orgasmo compositivo, y firman como no, la mejor mezcla explosiva que logra cicatrizar de inmediato.

Como oyente, sigo echando de menos que la línea de las tres primeras canciones no acabara explotando a gran escala en el transcurso del disco, es decir, el uso de más partes enlazadas entre sí, más aportaciones de saxo, más efectos adictivos en su respectivo hilo musical e incluso más aportación femenina, algo que sobresaldría a su favor a juzgar por su solera libertaria.

Sin más, no me queda otra que elogiar el atrevimiento de este veterano del underground australiano, artífice de bandas como Order Of Chaos o Insomnius Dei, y el único responsable de las extrañas e incluso sibaritas inquietudes musicales que nos ocupan con SUBTERRANEAN DISPOSITION.

Author: Xavi B.