Grieving Age - Merely The Fleshless We And The Awed Obsequy (2xCD)

Review
MSATC Zine
7/10

No me digáis que después de haber visto el documental de Sam Dunn “Global Metal”, aún hay alguien a quien le sorprenda que se escuche metal en el reino del petróleo y la sharia. Lo que si resulta sorprendente del segundo LP de Grieving Age, banda de Arabia Saudí, es su duración: 105 minutos (!!!) de monolítico y depresivo doom/death. “Merely The Fleshless…” es un disco doble que contiene temas tan largos como sus títulos, una solemne estupidez digna de los mismísimos Wormphlegm. Leo por encima para darme cuenta de lo patológicos que resultan los textos… casi prefiero pasar de ellos e intentar disfrutar del sonido.

“Merely The Fleshless…” es un disco de doom/death con los elementos genéricos: voces guturales, riffs ultra-lentos, las progresiones de power chords típicas del death metal de la vieja escuela (Morbid Angel, Obituary…) y alguna buena dosis de blast beats. El disco representa una mejora de sonido respecto al anterior. Producido por Greg Chandler (Esoteric) y Victor Santura, las cuerdas suenan todo lo densas y robustas que deberían. Además el conjunto logra crear una atmósfera malsana, que encaja perfectamente con su planteamiento. Es la baza de contar con alguien que domina los recursos del género absolutamente.

Metal para ser destruidos por algún dios de la antigüedad, en cinco extensas piezas que pasan por diferentes dinámicas, estrujándolas hasta la agonía más insoportable como en “O, Elegiac Purulent Purtenance…” donde ralentizan el final a más no poder. Después de un desenlace así sólo queda prender fuego a los instrumentos y largarse.

La voz, muy versátil, intercala un registro áspero con growlings más opacos, y algunos trozos que son totalmente incomprensibles. En partes de “Merely the Ululating Scurrilous Warblers…” así como el inicio de “I’m the Dilacerated Sewed Flesh…” llegan a ser tan lentos, que nos viene a la mente bandas de funeral doom como los mismos Esoteric, Ahab, etc… el tono cavernoso de la voz acentúa esta sensación.

“Till the Forlorn Opprobrious Malady Thrives…” abre con un magnifico riff que podrían haber firmado los My Dying Bride del “Turn Loose The Swans”. También le meten un cello más adelante, al que recurren en diversas ocasiones y con el que pretenden aportar un toque melancólico típico de los primeros discos de la banda inglesa, logrando una ebria y lúgubre atmósfera.

En los cambios de estrofa, los marcajes con el bombo suenan a puro death metal. La forma de utilizar el ritmo del doble bombo recuerda a los maestros Morbid Angel, concretamente al tema “God of Emptiness”. Así, cada canción se convierte en una demostración de todas sus influencias y de todo lo que son capaces de hacer. En todo caso, más concreción y mesura sería recomendable.

Admito que me costó horrores insertar el segundo CD, no porque los temas sean malos, sino porque se hacen eternos. Transcurrida la hora que dura el primer compacto, noto como mi mente entumecida por la exposición a tanto sufrimiento banal, se evade ocupándose de pensamientos más gratificantes. Un disco recomendable sólo para los fans acérrimos del doom/death metal más agónico.

Review
Chronicles of Chaos
7.5/10
02.03.2014

Grieving Age are from Saudi Arabia, so don't take them for granted, as it needs more balls than you might think, being a metal band in these regions of the world.
In addition, this album, comprising two CDs that span an hour and forty five minutes, is an ambitious effort, not only in the mere length of both the album and each of its tracks (the shortest track being over fifteen minutes long), but also in the band's lyrical content; poetic lyrics that could have been a subject for an advanced English lesson, even though I'm not so sure how much of the prose makes actual sense or whether those lyrics serve only for showing off the band's ability to muster some high quality, quasi-archaic English.

That aside, the music is solid and heavy; the vocals have that gritty, semi-hardcore-ish vibe to them, being often shouted and almost barked, and that in itself is a unique signature of the band, deciding not to offer another typical growling technique like many of their peers do. In addition, the instruments show the ability to shine and express the music well, while maintaining minimal and basic, with almost no keyboards or processing of the melodies.

The bass guitar is surprisingly present and strong, and the songs are well written and quite complex. There are many repetitive sections within each track, but these are done well and the riffs they express are good enough so as to not cause boredom or a sense of redundancy. The compositions are epic in their own primitive way and the production is gritty enough, but also with a sense of bombast.

The main sound of the album, in addition to the unique colour of the vocals, is something that I seldom hear in self-proclaimed doom/death metal bands, especially the ones that belong to the Solitude Production roster, and that is being a hybridization of the aforementioned hardcore, as well as sludge, into the doom-oriented (old-school-ish) death metal on display; sometimes harmonic, sometimes discordant, with a groovy edge to the compositions, Grieving Age enmesh everything into their atypical metallic sound and make the whole sound logical and in accordance.

The second disc, although it offers more of the same, does not falter in quality or songwriting ability, but indeed the band could have ended the album with only one disc and no one would have missed the second part of the album. Disc two may be a tad more upbeat and venture deeper into the old-school waters of the past, but other than that, it is redundant; a surplus, but a good one nonetheless.

Overall, _Merely the Fleshless We and the Awed Obsequy_ is an ambitious, even if slightly pretentious album of massive proportions and sound; its singularity lies within its unique, if monolithic sound and production, the vocal treatment, the wise integration of styles into one indivisible metallic embodiment and the dissonant, complex compositions that never lose their cold and ruthless grip of the audience.

I wholeheartedly recommend anyone to at least try this album for a couple of times before passing any judgement, for it contains many more merits than it may initially seem.

Author: Chaim Drishner

Review
Iye Zine
7/10
24.02.2014

Se il doom proveniente dai paesi arabi non è più una novità assoluta, e ne è testimonianza la vivace scena giordana della quale abbiamo già parlato grazie agli ottimi lavori di Bilocate, Chalice Of Doom e Falling Leaves, desta comunque una certa curiosità incontrare questa band proveniente dall’Arabia Saudita, nazione nella quale, teoricamente, suonare metal dovrebbe essere ancora più difficile.
Indipendentemente da queste considerazioni socio-geografiche, il secondo full-length dei Grieving Age, attivi da quasi un decennio, racchiude diversi motivi di interesse che, nel bene e nel male, dovrebbero contribuire a non farlo passare inosservato.
Intanto questi cinque figuri provenienti da Jeddah propongono un death-doom dalle minime concessioni melodiche, manifestando un certa verbosità a livello lirico, dato che il buon Ahmed Shawli trascorre circa un’ora e tre quarti (!) a sgolarsi quasi ininterrottamente recitando testi che, a giudicare dai titoli dei brani, dalla lunghezza degna dei famigerati Bal-Sagoth, non dovrebbero essere troppo convenzionali.
Al riguardo, essendomi avvalso anche del supporto di persone che conoscono anche le pieghe più recondite della lingua inglese, pare che i nostri si siano concessi qualche licenza di troppo facendo storcere il naso a chi ritiene che le liriche abbiano il loro giusto peso nel complesso di un‘opera musicale ma, visto il genere proposto e le modalità di espressione scelte, personalmente ritengo questo un difetto sul quale si può tranquillamente sorvolare, pur tenendone debitamente conto in sede di valutazione finale.
Tornando all’aspetto prettamente musicale, i Grieving Age ci sottopongono ad un’estenuante prova di resistenza, visto che i cinque brani viaggiano su una lunghezza media superiore ai venti minuti ciascuno, lasciando ben poco spazio a momenti di ampio respiro: il sound degli arabi è claustrofobico, asfissiante, riconducibile in parte, per la pesantezza dei riff e per lo stile vocale, ai seminali Cathedral di “Forest Of Equlibrium” complemente privati però, da qualsiasi componente melodica o psichedelica.
Chiariamo subito che i vertici toccati dal quel capolavoro sono ancora molto lontani e che i nostri mettono in scena un disco decisamente intrigante ma oggettivamente ridondante nella sua eccessiva durata, se è vero che persino mostri sacri come gli Esoteric (altro punto di riferimento per i Grieving Age e non è un caso se Greg Chandler ha messo lo zampino in questo disco) rischiano di mettere a dura prova l’attenzione degli appassionati con i loro consueti lavori dalla lunghezza chilometrica .
Diciamo che tra i cinque monoliti sonori proposti dai ragazzi sauditi, i primi due si rivelano emblematici mostrandone rispettivamente il volto peggiore e quello migliore: Merely the Ululating Scurrilous Warblers Shalt Interminably Bray!! si trascina pesantemente per quasi venti minuti riproponendo all’infinito gli stessi accordi, mentre O, Elegiac Purulent Purtenance, O Sepulchral Longevous Billows si dimostra molto più strutturato, con diverse variazioni di tempo, qualche accenno melodico e dei riff davvero coinvolgenti che mostrano capacità di scrittura tutt’altro che banali, oltre che, nell’occasione, non poche affinità con una band ingiustamente sottovalutata come i Mythological Cold Towers, in particolare quelli del rozzo ma ugualmente magnifico “The Vanished Pantheon” .
Proprio questo pregevole quarto d’ora di death-doom sofferto, ma capace di avvolgere l’ascoltatore in un cappa di oscurità senza rischiare nel contempo di consegnarlo definitivamente alle braccia di Morfeo, è la strada che i Grieving Age dovrebbero provare a battere in un prossimo futuro per non rischiare di essere presi in considerazione solo per la loro provenienza esotica.
Insomma, Merely the Fleshless We and the Awed Obsequy è un buon disco, da assimilare preferibilmente in piccole dosi, che si colloca però ancora qualche gradino più in basso rispetto ai vertici del genere; se la band saudita riuscirà a razionalizzare maggiormente la propria proposta (oltre a dare un’auspicabile sforbiciata ai titoli dei brani …) focalizzandosi sulle non poche note positive emerse in quest’occasione, al prossimo giro potrebbe piacevolmente sorprenderci.

Author: Stefano Cavanna

Review
Forbidden Magazine
14.12.2013

Quarterly this Russian label sends me a shrink wrapped pile of their recent releases, and due to the depth of the content of those releases it’s not always easy to get them processed into my neurological system and reviewed in a timely fashion, but every so often the pack contains a few that are either easier to digest or, as in this case, they are just too interesting to not invest the time in unraveling them. The moment this pack landed, about two weeks back, I opened it up and reviewed the labels website to find out further information on the releases in order to decide on which one(s) would be best to start with first, so given that Grieving Age are from Saudi Arabia this double disc album got priority. I’d just gotten through that Thacthli album that had me in a state of stun, and then had been going through a bit of classic Unholy afterward so another album fairly reminiscent of classic Unholy catastrophic doom was certainly welcome and truth be told Grieving Age left my jaw dragging on the ground for awhile after my first few encounters with them.

Each Grieving Age song is pretty extensive in length and intense, just like the ridiculously long song titles, so this is not an album for the casual listener. Of the five songs the shortest length song on here is almost sixteen minutes, with two of the songs being over eighteen minutes in length, and the other two being nearly half an hour long each. Yet even with these songs lengths it never seems as though the album drags because the band keeps the rhythm pulsing and the riffs churning. This band really does have more of a unique 90’s extreme doom thing going on here which may exhaust some listeners, but only as a result of the strenuous battery unleashed over the course of the songs as this band appears to thrive on being crushing and tidal versus to droning and drowning into gloom oblivion. And with the bands general style comprised of a sort of gruff, throaty, doom death metal spoken word vocal style counter balancing the heavy but steady throb of the rhythm section, and then combined with a sludge doom touch to the guitar tone the end result is almost a nautical storm of torrential downpour and violent currents. Through this sound the songs feel as if they are written and performed aboard a wooden ship stranded on the high seas fighting a hurricane and the pull of an abysmal whirlpool ahead.

The bulk of the album is a massive brew of tension and dramatic moods that are mostly driven by rhythm with virtually no melody whatsoever but in some songs such as the opener, “Merely the Ululating Scurrilous Warblers…”( I chose to truncate the title by 30% ), there is enough atmosphere and suspenseful build up that some of the doom riff tones almost morph into a lead or melody. And with what this album lacks in superficial entertainment value it grossly compensates for in repeated fast-slow sledgehammer blow patterns to the listeners skull. Merely The Fleshless… is not a road trip album, it does not work well for commuting, it is one of those albums that is best appreciated while unwinding in a stationary state when one’s mind is focused on other things or trying to get lost in something. In that mindset the album will soak into the mind more effectively through the subconscious and initiate the bands intended sensation of urgency and chaos in the listener in order for them to venture further into the dire scenario of the apocalyptic, misanthropic world that is being depicted here. It’s sort of like an epic novel that requires the right amount of time and mood set aside to really indulge in the situations full complexity, but even when skimmed for the sake of time (like catching chunks of a great film without seeing the whole thing in one sitting) you’ll be sure to get hooked enough to where you WILL want to make time to catch it in its entirety. And in all honesty, if I hadn’t known the band were from Saudi Arabia I would have guessed Sweden, Finland, UK, and then Eastern Europe because of the label they are on.

Author: Janet Willis

Review
Scream Magazine
3/5

Det er godt å se at det vokser og gror hva tung musikk angår, og nå har vi altså kommet til Saudi-Arabia. Grieveing Age fremfører ekstrem death/doom, brutalt så det holder, men ikke altfor tregt, trommene knatrer nemlig godt til tider her. Bandet har holdt det gående siden 2003, har gitt ut et selvfinansiert album i 2009, og er nå faktisk klare med et dobbeltalbum, tro det eller ei. 106 minutter fordelt på fem komposisjoner er selvsagt drøy kost, spesielt når disse sporene er relativt like og vokalen er mer enn anstrengt. Tekstene er også en smule oppblåste, her har man tydeligvis funnet frem fremmedordboka til de grader, det ser du tydelig bare på tittelen. Så nei, mer tja enn ja egentlig.

Author: Bjørn Nørsterud