Violet Cold – Desperate Dreams
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| Violet Cold – Desperate Dreams |
In Violet Cold we find, what often times can be found in this field of music, a singular mind composing music. With the risk of sounding assertive of a region and music scene I do not know at all, what makes this singular approach even more striking and original, is that this project stem from Azerbaijan. There may be many bands adhering to playing metal music, other influence might also be present and I know that nowadays spatial difference is almost nullified through the Internet, but what seems to be the major point of distinction is a divide between the bigger scenes of Europe or America. For how new and fresh this album sounds, a kind of seclusion from factors creating boundaries and a solitude harboring creativity is a nice thought.
Nonetheless, dwelling on genre distinctions, Desperate Dreams appears to be black metals love album. Not in the sense of actual love songs of an character professing his love or even singing about the concept or emotion of love, but much rather in the sense of the sounds and vocals recreating the sensation of love in all its different, and often times hurtful, hues. The term "euphoric" black metal is used in context of this album and it works well with the notion of love. These two ideas might seem odd in context of a person screaming over walls of sound, but bear with me. One major thing that brought me to music with shouts and screams is the experience and reimaging of screaming at its core. Surely, most representations in these kinds of genre really have the intention of expressing negative feelings, using the voice as an instrument and going further exceeding what can be put into and expressed through usual phonetic expression.
But apart from all intentions put into this vocal style and bearing in mind the existence of joyful screaming, the affective nature of it, what happens to the listener when experiencing these shouts, is one major point of interest for me. In Desperate Dreams you get what can be considered to be "tortured" shouts, the harsh and shrill shrieks that would be assessed to sensations of pain. But there is something in these screams that resonates differently with you. The sheer will power and energy put into these sounds touches upon the extremely positive rather than notions of negativity. Here we find euphoria: Not just a "simple" feeling, but an excess of sensation and feeling. The transgression of comprehensible experiences, a breaking of boundaries.
And the major boundary broken by Violet Cold is the divide of sadness and happiness in creating euphoria. You can perceive deep sadness and pain or joyful ecstasy within this music, but only after passing through the affect of euphoria. In my outcome, I sense love. Love as creating the same mingling of positive and negative, of ones own perception being enhanced and saturated, an experience that at first is not comprehensible by intellectual means. In Goethe’s play Egmont there is a song from which one of the best German expression of love stems:
"Freudvoll
Und leidvoll,
Gedankenvoll sein,
Langen
Und bangen
In schwebender Pein,
Himmelhoch jauchzend,
Zum Tode betrübt –
Glücklich allein
Ist die Seele, die liebt."
The expression of "Himmelhoch jauchzend, zu Tode betrübt", which in my opinion can´t really be translated rightfully into English – I only find "on top of the world, down in the dumps" and this doesn´t even come close – can be taken away of the essence of what makes this album great and only furthers my point of Violet Cold expanding the usual notions of black metal with his take on the genre.
All these multi-faceted experiences are represented musically. First and foremost the simple piano intro and outro not only provide and almost narrative framing of the record, but from the first to the last second create a delicate form of space for the sounds to revel in. While "Lonely Universe" in its heavy progression really exudes the feeling of loneliness, closer "Euphoria" sees Violet Cold channeling simple and airy melodies one might find in the works of Eluvium. After 15 seconds of evocative silence at the end of the intro, you´re hit with synth-lines throughout the album. These synth melodies are reminiscent of 80´s pop music. Always clean and seldomly menacing they deepen the sense of not sounding singularly depressed, almost giving songs like "Le Petite Mort" or "Endless Journey" an dancy vibe before the other sounds come crashing in. This element alone makes the whole experience quite unique and backing the walls of guitar with synths buried in the back and piercing through at times builds a unique atmosphere. For the more conservative elements of blasting guitars and frantic drumming, the instruments sound incredibly clear and even the walls of sound never appear to be muffled, which in the whole experience only furthers the notion of positivity of this record.
After all, everybody who doesn´t adhere to some strange purism and enjoys creative music will find a gem in Desperate Dreams. As Violet Cold seems to have constructed this album as an imaginative journey going from dark to light, he seems to have managed to play with the dichotomies in the most intruding way I have long since experienced in metal music. All the other works on his bandcamp page are also worth checking out and showcase a diversity that seems to have been poured and solidified in Desperate Dreams. That being said, keeping track of everything this artist does until his next full length might not only be worthwhile, but also give insight to his creative journey altogether. Buy this album and support the artist! Going back to the German expression of "himmelhoch jauchzend, zu Tode betrübt", only someone with deep love of his craft could have made this kind of album and you´re missing out on this feeling if you skip this one.
9/10
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