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Plecto Aliquem Capite-Atrocities
I have been waiting for something like this to come across my desk.
Sri Lankan black metal.
As much as an anomaly as that may appear to be it isn’t quite the aberration it may seem having artists from countries like this committing themselves to the more extreme genres of metal.
Sri Lanka itself boasts a tight knit community of black and death practitioners with names like Spleen Saint, Forsaken, Old Castles Massacre and Forlorn Hope serving as part of this unholy congregation and whilst the region is scarcely about to bother the world leaders in black metal for global domination it is vigilantly going about business making some truly terrifying music.
This bizarre and compelling little offering here is the five piece EP 'Atrocities' by a three man outfit known as Plecto Aliquem Capite whose moniker translates to Suffer Capital Punishment and for the untrained and uninitiated, listening to the hellacious clamour of their anguished compositions will prove to be a savage punishment to be suffered indeed.
Plecto Aliquem Capite are mostly formed by members of some of the other notable and previously referred to bands in the Sri Lankan scene with vocalist Buddhika hailing from Forlorn Hope and drums/programming man Kasun also doing time in Spleen Saint.
The trio are rounded out by Nightmare on guitars and violin, and while the band themselves may define their sound as 'depressive black metal' their cataclysmic distorted shrouds of 'music' encompass components of doom, drone, experimental and noise genres as well.
Running for a fistful of seconds beyond the quarter of an hour length 'Atrocities' starts off on a stormy unhinged note and only dips deeper into a madhouse of lunacy as it advances.
The one minute plus opening sequence that is 'Emaciate' is a murky soundscape in which thunderstorms reside, roiling within a suffocating dark atmosphere.
This grows more and more oppressive with the addition of gusts and howls of blustery wind and then horrendous interjections of piercing screams and bubbling monstrous vocal work.
Brief and ominous it has nothing on the sheer wall of tormented terror that looms up to take its place in the depressive and anguished shape of consequential track 'I'.
Six and a half minutes of completely deranged arrangements (or lack thereof as the case may be) constitute this creaking croaking feedback filled monstrosity with its painfully sluggish wallowing and unhinged vocal caterwauling.
'I' is a deeply disturbed paranoid schizophrenics nightmare embodied in music, principally composed of a frightening array of voicings, rasping, screaming, screeching and howling over a faint background shadow of plodding drums and funeral doom guitars and the noise based elements will weed out the weak in no time.
Only the very dedicated to this type of bleak black ordeal will be able to see out this cataclysmic inferno through its grim dirges to its gargled Nattefrost like finish.
The twisted torture continues unabated with the harsh suffocating dissonance and droning atmospherics of 'Moses'.
As equally scary as its predecessor it drapes a cloying cloak of noisescapes over its listeners, thudding drums and barbs of guitar persistently dragging behind the omnipresent vocal hell.
There is nothing of speed residing in the dark confines of 'Moses', just choking gasps, hideous cackles and screeches spreading like an insidious black cancer over all and sundry.
Just over three minutes into this distorted maelstrom of ugliness and a few moments of clearer guitar battle their way to the fore before howls of anguish beat the instruments back down into submission, though some more defined riffs with a bit of bite to them arc out of the black soup as it heads towards its conclusion.
Finalising the quarter hour of claustrophobic dismay (following on from the ambient white noise interlude of 'Atrophy') is the EPs standout track 'Broken Glass Fuck'.
Mostly eschewing the elements of drone that saturated all the former songs 'Broken Glass Fuck' is a fast moving beast sparked by a weird little melody that leads into a pulverising riff.
Death metal meets black in the instrumentation here along with some nods to thrash in the serrations of guitar and an almost industrial vibe at times.
The vocals are a freakish conglomeration of Nattefrosts sneering rasp and the croak of Abbath and mesh extremely well with the tempestuous drum programming and guitar work.
There’s a little bit of everything blended into this composition, even an unearthly lead break scrambling atop the buzz of dissonant rhythm.
I understand that this particular track was merely an avenue of experimentation for Plecto Aliquem Capite and any further recordings by the band will still be sitting primarily in the depressive drone/noise field but hopefully they will further explore this faster brutaller side as well for that’s what really appeals to me most and possibly will to others also.
'Atrocities' is a dark, raw, often frightening visceral experience that fans of droning murky harshness should certainly look into, and if you have an interest in the global extreme metal scenes Plecto Aliquem Capite are a unusual representative flying the flag for Sri Lanka.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Track Listing
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1. Emaciate
2. I
3. Moses
4. Atrophy
5. Broken Glass Fuck
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Band Members
Buddhika-vocals
Nightmare-guitar, violin
Kasun-drums, programming
Written By Jamie Goforth
©2008 Black MetalJim
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