Chaos Moon – Languor Into Echoes, Beyond
I thought that the other side of Chaos Moon’s two-album simultaneous release, ‘Origin Of Apparition’, was kind of cool, but somewhat inconsistent and partially crippled by its (intentionally, apparently) ultra-coarse production job. ‘Languor Into Echoes, Beyond’, though, seems to be more my style; it’s blessed with a considerably clearer sound, a seemingly more focused songwriting style, and just a general compositional feel that, while more typically black metal than the other LP, works more for me in particular. I suppose that maybe Chaos Moon does better when working with somewhat more traditional, scaled-back compositions, but then again, it’s probably just be a matter of taste.
I guess the strange thing is that what Chaos Moon does on this album really isn’t any different from what they do on ‘Origin Of Apparition’; it’s just presented differently. The more conventional production job is an unbelievably big boost to the quality of the album overall, with the undistorted drum machine allowing a much more audible perception of the riffing and vocals. The former are better defined; less violently atonal and discordant than those on ‘Origin Of Apparition’, the presence of conventional melody in them seems to draw out Chaos Moon’s themes better than on the other release. The vocals also seem better, with, again, less distortion, and a greater variation in their presentation. The structure of this album is fairly similar to that of the other, mixing it up between blasting black metal, slower sections, and keyboard-driven ambient interludes, but this time, the former have become more cohesive, the middle more interesting, and the latter more deftly placed within the album as a whole. The interplay between all those sections is what makes ‘Languor Into Echoes, Beyond’ a really solid album; tracks like ‘Simulacrum Of Mirrors’, which take their time to unfold and employ all the different styles Chaos Moon is known for in a single track.
One might also think that this album benefits from not being broken up quite as much as the other, despite its substantially longer running time. This album’s seven tracks compared to the other’s nine are longer and seemingly more developed, so the general flow of the release seems more even-handed than that of ‘Origin Of Apparition’. To stop describing ‘Languor Into Echoes, Beyond’ in terms of its sister album, I suppose the general sound on this release can be compared to other stalwart members of the USBM scene, ranging from the more dissonant artists like Absonus Noctis to the depressive scene we all know and sometimes love, but Chaos Moon’s style is still somewhat different from those, with a more varied aesthetic and overall grasp of presentation. While many other releases in the USBM scene tend to feel like drawn-out demos, there’s no doubt that a great deal of thought has been put into both of Chaos Moon’s albums, even though I may find one superior to another.
A lot of my complaints about ‘Origin Of Echoes’ were, even moreso than normal in the course of a music review, a matter of personal taste. I get the general concept of these two albums; ‘Languor Into Echoes, Beyond’ is clearly supposed to be the more conventional and melodic of the two, while ‘Origin Of Apparition’ is designed specifically to be an abrasive assault on the senses via savage atonality and choppy presentation. But taste is taste, and the Ars Magna side of Chaos Moon does seem to be more up my alley insofar as presentation goes. I’d encourage most fans of the underground black metal scene to give both a try, as the experience of each album does greatly benefit from conjunction with the other. This one speaks to me a fair bit more than the other, but your experience with it will almost certainly vary. Either way, it’s worth your time to have such an experience in the first place, as Chaos Moon does have something new and interesting to offer the black metal listener.
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