FIRST UTTERANCE

I dont know how to start to even write a word on this monstruosity! This disc is like nothing ive heard in my life, is a unique record anyway you want to put it. "First Utterance" is a devilish, ultra-pagan, really funny and creepy opus magnus. In it the Milton´s poem is twisted upside down so the animal demonic lust ( Comus) wins by the hand to the virtue, and you can imagine is not for anyreason..... But that is not saying almost nothing of this recorded grandeur. I read Comus members were friends of Bowie, and that makes a lot of sense by a lot of reasons, first because one of the roots of Bowie (being the other the Warhol Reed New york urban escene) is a tricky pagan stand, second because you can hear Bowie using Roger Wooton singing antics and technics in "Black Country Rock" for example. Also i think some lines in "The Man Who Sold the World" disc are refering to Comus members ( dont know wich song exactly) were "they pushing his friends to the dark side of town" That is normal because theres no way Comus have been a should out, they thing is so aunthentic, so disturbing, so evil.... that Black Shabbat seems nursery music in comparision. But i tink is funny to think Bowie and Comus taking some of theyr (utterly demonic) musical skills from an Aquelarre, or a very dark witch english ( I should say Celtic?) coven. In fact the first thing that amazes the listener is the vocal tricks and goblin like voices theyr so disturbing that you wonder if its just really technical modulations. Then you are raptted ( not a metaphor) by the most pagan and dark music you ever heard, just "Venus in Furs" can be compared to that. But one of the things that really hook me is...they are simply funny, like Reed have never been ( althought he have pretended to ). Theyr music blends cruelty with exilaration in a incredibly way, because the dark side enances the funny side and the oposite is also true. But this is in no way urban.....is some ritual "deep in the woods" music. You have the feeling sometimes this is the music from the Hiperborean age that made human and monsters have theyr "finnal fisical comunion" in the Leng plain ( Lovecraft of course). They really know how to be hipnotyc, ghostly, carnal, demonic, witchy....!wicked!

"Diana" starts with a wonderfull bass line ( yes the first thing that comes to your mind is trolls in the forest) and the vocal halucinations that your gonna hear all along the discs. In the middle part you can hear some dark violins from a Celtic hell. !So great!

"The herald" the acustic song with strange and blisfull melodies. Theres some really great acoustic guitars and several fadings and comings of the music. It makes me feel like im hearing the Sirens that almost killed Ulises, a strange dreamy atmosphere blowing trought the song.

"Drip, Drip" Whoa! This is genius especialy for the 70. It starts with a creepy musical phrase and then it goes to a celtic wonderfull section wich then turns into the chorus so nicely ( chorus that is the grandfather of every dark metal music ever). Then the music fades and a pagan bubling freak out begins, the violins crescendo leaving you without breath ( who says that you cant dance to Prog music?). Then you are lead into the ubber hilarious and terrorific section of the"fisical comunion..ill be gentle"...it always makes me laugh! is so impossible and weird!! and then some freaking melodic nightmare and incredible acoustic guitar dark riffs. In theyr defense ( if possible) i would say that the topic of the song seems to be an ambiguity between a ritual murder and the Miltons Comus. In the poem Comus gives a brew to the girls that makes them as dionisian as the Bacantes. Thats why this something dripping from the saging lip could be as well blood as the Comus poison.

"Song to Comus" Fantastic! A dark masterpiece with an inminent atmosphere substained on one chord. Roger Wooton making the most incredible voices and effects: He beats his cheast in a hiccuping stravaganza i never heard before, and of course he sings like a black goat. The celtic ending of phrases is stimulating at least.

"The Bitte" start with what it seems to be the "Cat Scracth Fever" riff but faster darker and..acoustic. The music is wonderfull with different changes a pagan blown-out, with dramatic crescendos. The song´s lyrics are the narration of they last and creepy day of a christian hollowed by his creed...to death, of course.

"Bitten" is a demonic violin mood, made of disonances ( some triton or just hundreds?).

"The Prisioner" is one of the most funny songs ive heard. It starts with a joyfull melody, even too melodic and pastoral for my taste, but the lyrics.....are at least making a counterpoint...they sing about a guy wich thinks is crazy, and is about to recive shock tratment...he seems to be happy to be normal...but hes just an introvert freak and is destroyed in a mental assylum. The message seems to be "Dont be worried of being mad unleash you are caged in a mental hospital". The dramatic hard sections are very enancing and freaky.

Four stars and a quarter for these demons.