CAPTURE OF ZIZ

QUALEACEANS is a strange metal band emerging from who knows where. There is scant info regarding their identities or even geography of origin. I've only seen one reference to South Georgia & The Sandwich Islands on RYM and since the population there is about 20 and they are most likely Antarctic researchers, either these guys got really bored with all those penguins and needed to create some avant-garde metal OR the more likely scenario of this band wanting to remain mysterious by not revealing anything about themselves. They DO, however, have quite a bit to say about their music.

They call it metal in opposition, krautmetal, space metal, free metal and polystylist metal. I guess there are aspects of all the prog rock counterpoints heard on this sprawling 78 minute single track however this is really more of a sludgy post metal for much of it. It churns on and on and on with ever repeating dissonant riffs like a tidal wave originating in the middle of the ocean and undulating ceaselessly until crashing against the shore. The minor variations contained within this rhythmic pulsating bombast are what spices it up and give it some flavor.

About 3/4 the way through they drop the metal altogether and we get a nice spacey ethnic flavored psychedelic section that meanders on for several minutes until the riffing metal fury fires back up and picks up its intensity complete with dissonant lead guitars accompanying the thundering riffs until the tidal wave of aggression finally crashes against the shore ending the lengthy journey. The result of this extravaganza of unrelenting musical activity leaves one bewildered and wondering what they just listened to!

Overall this is a very repetitive and hypnotic noisefest reminding me in a way of the early no wave of Swans but there is ultimately enough variation bubbling underneath at any given moment to keep the listener entertained, however i do have to admit that at 78 minutes the attention span does tend to wander. I found this to be great music to surf the web to while mindlessly poking around but to listen to this actively on a regular basis might drive you maaaaad! CAPTURE OF ZIZ is quite the interesting debut album and leaves me wanting to hear more from this metal band that could be compared to bands like Unexpect in its sheer audacity to delve into the experimental but the overall song structure isn't quite as interesting to my ears.

An unusual album that needs to be experienced. If you love strange and experimental metal accompanied by all kinds of non-metal instruments with aggressive hypnotic dissonant and distorted guitars chugging away for over an hour with some long drawn out transitions into space and back then you can't go wrong with this one.

In order to compose experimental pieces of music, there's no need to achieve some kind of virtuosity in instrumental bases. So, from a listener's perspective, experimental/chaotic musical creations are far more suitable for mirroring athmospheres and feelings wanted to reflect artistically. That doesn't mean that any attempt to improve "the quality" of experimentation. In krautrock (or prog) legacy, there are many musicians (Irmin Schmidt, Holgar Czukay, R. Fripp etc.) tried hard to achieve transcendence. However, this transcendence, to me, doesn't proceed in a way from inferiority to superiority nor vice versa.

I've just finished listening to this album. It is very precious attempt to combine celestial elements with psychedelic improvisation in metal sound. At the same time, it is very brave understanding to keep randomness while trying to reflect feelings. Mysterious Qualeaceans should be given credit for having enough courage to bend metal music. After krautrock movement and its successors, we rarely had chances to encounter this kind of aesthetical insight. Unfortunately post-metal has long way to gain ground. And Qualeaceans is not an exception. In the album, I could capture few moments but pure randomness. I can't say that Capture Of Ziz satisfied me as it psyched me out when I saw such self-expressions as krautmetal or metal in opposition. But I'll be waiting for next album enthusiastically.