The RMR crew likes itself a good piece of dissonance from time to time. And this April 2024, there are two of them on the menu. Kvadrat – in a subdued kind of way – and the German band Maere with their debut …And The Universe Keeps Silent.
Disconcerting and unsettling nuances lead down this thorny road usually reserved for trve metalheads who like to wallow in darkness and misery. In other words, the adepts of the light will simply faint once you hit play. There’s no happy note where this particular left-hand path’s acolytes are heading.
So, with this universal wisdom out of the way, what abject putrescence have Maere in store for us today? Man your spaceship. Oh, and protect your sleeping quarters as well. The maere beckons you after all and these beasts have dark intentions. But we’re heading out nonetheless. Warping space to get ahead of time.
It’s funky. The thing with Death Metal is that one usually doesn’t understand much of the vocals. The lyrics are all garbled into oblivion by design. Yet, Maere here insist that we shouldn’t listen too much to the repetitive mess they created with their music. But – instead – the esteemed listener should focus on the spoken word. Right. It’s a conundrum of sorts, isn’t it? Because …And The Universe Keeps Silent doesn’t only get you those typical abundant DM growls, anguished shouts, monologues, and miscellaneous clears. It also serves its lyrics in a variety of languages such as English, German, and – wait for it – Polish. Babilonic confusion straight ahead. And there may be more that we didn’t quite detect.
Their metal is a different matter, though. The dissonance on record ain’t all that heavy and – in this light – remains a very palatable affair. But Maere don’t only doggedly focus on this sub-genre of Death Metal. …And The Universe Keeps Silent also sports a fair amount of Technical Death Metal with – unsurprisingly – a chunk of doom mixed into the fray for good measure. The tech death in this record often strongly hinted at some things a downsized Abiotic might have gone for. And despite the confusing language thing, the band managed to inject some welcome variation with them different vocal styles.
And circling back to the repetitive nature of the metal on offer, Maere‘s fare largely stays in the acceptable realm. After all, this is a common shortfall of all those melancholy-inclined and other atmospheric pieces. The production is usually pretty crisp for most of the album. If only they had beefed up that anemic drum work a bit better. Especially the endless clickety-click of the bass drums almost drove this reviewer nuts. These ain’t no blast beats, it’s actioning them damn pedals because they can. And it’s a new way of being St. Anger-ed, too.1 Only this time it ain’t the snare, it’s the friggin’ kick bass that didn’t make the mix or was ignored by the master.
To conclude, …And The Universe Keeps Silent gorges with a ton of good ideas that the band proficiently incorporated into the mix. The record is full of meaty riffs and tremolos, a few snazzy licks and solos, truly melancholic soundscapes, and a thoughtful array of vocals. Together with the subdued atmospheric look and feel, the record sports an astonishingly fresh mix that will keep the acolytes of metallic extremes excited – and online. Majestically flowing dissonance meets harsh Extreme Metal? Quite.
And yet. While …And The Universe Keeps Silent ain’t a bad record, the RMR Review Desk somehow missed the aggression, the mounting emotion that should somehow culminate – somewhere. Instead, much like the new infamous Dune II movie, you get a lukewarm storyline. One that doggedly soldiers onward with ever-returning themes, one sandy dune at a time with a few knife-laden skirmishes thrown in for good measure. Until the tale abruptly ceases. I guess, the band just found the end of the universe after a very long and tedious 37 minutes of airtime. Or something.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Transcending Obscurity Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 19 April 2024
- From Metallica’s most unfortunate record St. Anger with its darn stupid snare that wore us pretty thin. Amongst other things.-↩