Artist: Nihiling
Title: Egophagus
Genre: Post-Rock
Release date: 7th October 2011
Label: Abandon Records
Album Review
‘Egophagus’ derives from the Greek terms ego (I or the self) and -phagos (consumer, eater of) and so you could translate it with self eater, one who eats himself, what could symbolize a process of catharsis, a purification by destruction, a new creation grounding in the ashes of the old (for speaking in alchemical phrases). What has all this to do with the new album of NIHILING (besides the name)? And what about the strange letter from a certain Otto Lanz (the famous Swiss surgeon and art collector?) directed to mysterious Señor Iraola, which forms the lyrical basic concept of the album? We will see...
Some details: NIHILING are a relatively young band (formed in 2004), originating from Hamburg, whose debut album ‘M[e]iosis’ burst a wave of elated excitement through the galaxy of post-rock. Critics and consumers believed to have found worthy followers finally, for sharing the weight bands like MOGWAI had to carry on their shoulders solely, after icons like THE SMASHING PUMPKINS or PORCUPINE TREE stopped being themselves and OCEANDRIVE went astray musically. With supporting big names like I LIKE TRAINS, they quickly spread their reputation and were soon on everyone’s lips, increasing the expectations of the second album, that will see the light of the world these days under the name of the above mentioned term ‘Egophagus’.
Already with the first hearing you realize the high-levelled pretension the band claim to have. It’s about art, about the balancing of elements and stylistic devices, about the process of making music, when devolution and result influence themselves again and again, fighting for significance, changing shapes and directions. It’s like a demonisation of the banality and the appreciation of the sound to the purest form of perception. This is how it feels to me at least and it seems to work.
Already the opener ‘The Antagonist’ testifies an impressive diversity and musical profundity. Gentle keys undercoat the canvas, on what swarm like guitars build walls and towers - raw and harsh, melodious and flowing. You drift from angry rhythms through melancholic open fields, from balmy wistfulness to a restless awakening. The following ‘Pa:(R)Tik(E)L’ (what’s the albums first single too) goes on with spinning the web of atmosphere and emotion. A crystal like clearness slips into a thunderstorm of drums and distortion, for falling back again - like tides in fast motion. And if the first track was a pure instrumental one, now Gorka Morales’ voice creeps in the musical scenery and... it’s hard to describe, but it feels as if the gentle, breath-like vocals seem to dwindle away in comparison to sky scraping walls of guitars. Among all the music’s impact and its spherical abysses it seem to fail the balance, to find its place in the front row. Maybe that’s a wanted intention, but it lacks of reliability!
And from a noisy storm we glide into the sweet ‘Minnows’, coloured by the lovely voice of bass player Sina. Sparkling keys and chiming bells create a mood placed in a fairy-like sky, made of candies and cotton. Memories of LAMB are crawling my back upwards, a warm feeling of delight and peace (as strange as this may sound!). Here the music and the voice harmonize in a perfect way, because both are servants of the same purpose, pushing the atmosphere in the same direction. ‘Demise’ is a beautiful melancholic standstill, fragile like a frozen memory, finding it’s emotional depth in the dwelling vocals (now closer to it’s purpose), that make you almost feel the cutting guitars and the sharp-edged valleys they are digging.
With reaching ‘Sirens’ we reach the centre of ‘Egophagus’ and it seems, that this song is the quintessence of the whole album, dealing with all the different colours you’re able to find within NIHILING’s musical horizons. Both voices are dancing around a light caused by melodic guitars, creating a warm veil of melancholic density, before it breaks away in thunders of distortions, clearing the way for an angel-like choral, that gets blown away by a storm of noise and energy. It’s that changes of intensity and silence, of contemplation and rigorousness that makes the music so alive, so exciting. It’s really hard to foresee what will come next and every turn keeps its surprising way. So like ‘Precious Hosts’, whose rocking and shaking arrangement makes it stick out the ubiquitous melancholy, like a mountain top, on what you can take a deep breath, free from gravity and emotional burden.
‘Once In Every 12 Million Years’ charms with hypnotizing guitar lines, seems almost like a mantra, summoning demons who might fight in the trembling body of the protagonist. And its a good track for dissecting and summarizing the sources NIHILING’s music seem influenced by. You can almost smell the sharpness of TOOL, the caramelised melancholy of MOGWAI and the expressive experimentalism THE SMASHING PUMPKINS had perfected with ‘Mellon Collie...’ back in 1995. That does not mean, that NIHILING are a blueprint of those, but their flavour definitely found its way in the bands collection of recipes. Back to the trip… We are lead to the exit by ‘3Dogs’, a bitters-sweet, exhaling hymn, that makes a pointed final of the whole drive through that landscape of emotional compression.
Having left the boat I hesitate a moment. It’s strange but after listening to all those 10 songs I still feel like an alien within the bands musical scenery. There is that feeling of introversion and aloofness, of being a black-ball, what makes it hard to touch it or feeling touched by it. ‘Egopgahus’ is a really great piece of music, of art, beyond doubt, contextually and technically, symphonic and epochal, but in this very moment I miss the imprint, something that remains. It’s a cosmos, that excludes you, a self-purification you are eye-witness of, but what doesn’t care about you. The ego is eating itself, with no doubt about the remarkableness of the act, but it doesn’t considerate of you. Like reading a book in a secret language without the decoding key. Maybe it’s the homogeneity, the density, that avoids any gap for slipping into, like a wild river, that separates you from the opposed shore. You feel more like a observer than being part of it. Maybe I’ve only lost my invitation?
Let’s come back now to the forecited letter for a second (what unfortunately was handed in after listening to the album!), that shall be the lyrical stamp for the words of ‘Egophagus’. While reading the most likely fictitious lines, it roundly associates with the work of H.P. Lovecraft, topically and stylistically (using some outmoded and intricate symbols of language for instance) and it deals with the writers view of philosophy and science, religion and truth, with the attrition of doctrines and empirical sensations. In some way it mirrors the here and there gloominess of the album with broaching the issue of the worlds end, the decay of civilisation, injects an elegant nihilism and puts an intellectual frame around the whole topic, but…it’s not really more than a parameter of a certain mood, like a thermometer indicating a temperature. It seems to brush a too wide subject for putting it in just 10 songs.
But does it help to open the doors to NIHILING’s macrocosm? Let me quote Mr. Thomas Read (one of the letters protagonists): “All what [science] now can do still, is to protocol the worlds decay in an accurate way. We are the first and the only species who evokes, comments and documents it’s own extinction. And we will never be able to catch it in its entirety…” No matter... all who like music, that rejects to entertain only and in an simple way, that forces you to dive in and to make sacrifices, something that can make you numb if want, all those should listen to ‘Egophagus’ for decoding it’s musical arcane, hidden beneath great skills and songs, that can become all, but boring...
Tracklist
01. The Antagonist
02. Pa:(R)Tik(E)L
03. Minnows
04. Demise
05. Sirens
06. Letter To Señor Iraola
07. Precious Hosts
08. Once In Every 12 Million Years
09. Syzygy
10. 3dogs
Line-up
Gorka – Vocals, Guitars
Felix – Guitars
Sina – Bass
Donnie – Drums
Website
www.nihiling.de
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
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