Indian

Guiltless

Written by: PP on 19/04/2011 21:39:19

There is a moment on "Guiltless" where the vocalist releases several prolonged screeching screams that sound like the desperate cries of a man slowly drowning who knows there is no rescue in sight. The soundscape grates and drones simultaneously, forming a helpless, doom-laden atmosphere during this moment, and does so convincingly enough to make the hair raise on the back of even the most fearless of warriors. It's a moment of naked despair, where Chicago-based Indian are at their very best, conveying a notoriously difficult emotion almost perfectly. That moment occurs during "The Fate Before The Fate", only the second track to the record, characterizing the sort of tortured, all-hope-is-gone expression that surrounds the songs throughout the album.

The way Indian release these sequences is through immensely ugly and unforgiving instrumentation that takes a merciless approach to your eardrums. An overload of heavily distorted shrieking fills the droning soundscapes, drawing heavily from the sheer ugliness of black metal but also from the sense of hopelessness and eternity of doom metal to forge one hell of an ugly beast, one that's best described as a sonic assault on all things melody. It's definitely not for the squeamish types as they say in Danish, because no matter how deep you dissect into the record, moments of beauty and simplicity simply don't exist in their heavily layered and preposterously loud black/drone/doom metal music.

But yet a nagging sound at the back of my mind suggests that there's sense to all of this. That this is just Indian's way to subtly convey a textured and coarse emotion, leaving it bare open for the listener to notice in the middle of the noisy, discordant mess of a musical expression, if they are able. It's this rawness, this unadulterated and utterly unpolished expression of desperation that draws me to "Guiltless". That, and the similarity to how label mates Rwake and Unearthly Trance conduct their business.

7

Download: The Fate Before The Fate, The End Of Truth
For the fans of: Rwake, Unearthly Trance
Listen: Myspace

Release date 12.04.2011
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