Album Reviews : Dodecahedron – Dodecahedron

A quick web search of Netherlands-based Dodecahedron (formerly known as Order of the Source Below) would have you thinking they’re essentially a Deathspell Omega cover band. That seems to be the hot topic at the moment. And hey, if it’s done well enough, that’s hardly a bad thing, but that’s also selling this band very, very short. While Deathspell’s Paracletus (probably the only album those making the comments have actually heard) was certainly impressive and in a somewhat similar vein, it didn’t drag you down several levels of hell only to leave you lying in the pitch-black depths, utterly mindfucked.

Dodecahedron’s self-titled debut does exactly that. It’s close to as dark as music comes, conjuring up the same sense of pure horror that you experience when witnessing Portal live. Take that reasonably technical style of black metal that Deathspell apparently own at the moment, throw in the utter intensity of New Zealand’s Ulcerate, with the eerie noise of latter Gnaw Their Tongues and I guess you’re getting somewhere close.

Opener “Allfather” begins as a full-force aural assault before dropping back into some seriously twisted clean guitars and haunting, otherworldly screams, while “I, Chronocrator” is a much more atmospheric (and equally warped) track which will put a knot in your stomach. “Descending Jacob’s Ladder”, a track comprised entirely of dark atmospherics and the type of ghostly speaking that will stop you from sleeping, acts as a bit of a divider, stripping the album away from black metal before launching to the “View from Hverfell” trilogy, which is more of a journey than anything else.

Black metal is a dark genre in general, naturally, but very few bands conjure up the type of chaotic, demented mental imagery that Dodecahedron do. 9.5/10

Band: Dodecahedron
Album: Dodecahedron
Year: 2012
Genre: Black metal/avant-garde
Origin: Netherlands
Label: Season of Mist/Riot! Entertainment
ddchdrn.com

Track listing:
1. Allfather
2. I, Chronocrator
3. Vanitas
4. Descending Jacob’s Ladder
5. View from Hverfall I: Head above the Heavens
6. View from Hverfall II: Inside Omnipotent Chaos
7. View from Hverfall III: A Traveller of the Seed of the Earth