Theologian
Some Things Have To Be Endured
Crucial
Blast
2013
The new
album from synthetic death overlords, Theologian hit me somewhat
unawares. I wasn't sure what to expect and was taken slightly
aback by what I heard. Electronic beats and a wall of disturbing,
throbbing noise absolutely smothers me on the album's opener, Black
Cavern Myopia. The beats are heavy and pounding lending an almost
ceremonial feel to the track while the layers of industrial textures
creates an ominous mood. My only complaint on this track is that
the female vocals are just a tad too buried in the mix. The
Conjoined Deviant Procession utilizes metallic beats and steady,
unfeeling female vocals to penetrate the cloud of white noise
circulating through the track. the track is steady and
methodical, once again creating a ritualistic mood in the listener's
subconscious. Shards of pulsating darkness greet your ears on
Writhing Corpus Landscape. An authoritarian female voice programs
your mind while angelic synth distortion lends the song an astral
quality. Gore Stained Ramparts forays into a stronger industrial
zone than previous songs as it has an almost dancier beat to it as well
as a wider array of sounds and effects. The sinister hum and
vocal delay of Like Love, Only Real creates a strong sense of paranoia
and is my favorite song on the album. The dancier beat that joins
the rising symphony of synth creates some strong nocturnal cityscapes
for me. Lingering, echoes of distant female voices on
Ectothermism floods my mind with a dreamlike darkness. It's
soothing and unsettling at the same time. Some Things Have To Be
Endured creates a certain mood and is good for a nighttime ambient
excursion, but really it does little else for me. The songs are a
bit too repetitive. They are slow and seldom expand much upon the
original ideas of the song. So I am stuck in the middle a bit, I
like the album, but I don't love it and it requires a very specific
place and time for me to listen to it. So in the end I find its
appeal somewhat limited.