Ingurgitating_Oblivion "Vision Wallows In Symphonies Of Light"

Occasionally your Bandcamp Feed explodes with activity all centred on one release in particular. Sure there's still snippets of kvlt BM demo's and rarefied DM floating about as per usual but there are those moments when roughly 60% of your "followed" fans have all bought the same thing.

Ingurgitating_Oblivion are the artist of the moment for this scenario.  Over the past weeks their second full length appears to have been shifting like hot cakes.  Not a day has gone by this past week whereby I haven't seen somebody else buy this record with the deceptively painted shiny female figure that looks at first glance to be a photograph but is in fact a really well done piece of art.

The surprises don't stop with the cover art.  "Vision Wallows In Symphonies Of Light" has a very grandiose title and a quick read of the track listing reveals more of the same with amazing titles such as "A Devourer Of Fitting Shades Who Dwells In Rays Of Lights" to pique the interest.  And we still aren't done there with the wackiness, because any one of the four tracks on this release is a journey in itself of vast expanse and otherworldly antics.

Now, before anyone switches off believing this to be nothing more than just another attempt at avant-garde wizardry, let's be very clear that "Visions..." is very well put together in the main.  There's a varied selection ranging from technical, Gorguts masturbating death metal through to the atmospheric musings of jazz, incorporating a variety of instruments including guitars, pianos and blasting drums (courtesy of Lille Gruber of Defeated Sanity fame).

Throughout the whole experience there's plenty to keep you on your toes and given today's penchant for ever more challenging, complex and genre-bending death metal it will no doubt come as very welcome addition to any fan of Ulcerate, Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, Demilich or Demigod (if for nothing more than the bonkers track names at least in the case of Demilich).

I can portend problems for some listeners though.  Even for the most hardened and veteran listeners of technical DM the whole opus is a mouthful.  At times the dissonance between the blend of instruments, tempos or rhythms can border on distracting to the point of detracting from the enjoyment of the music.  As the album progresses it does become obvious that atmospherics are playing a big part in what is going on and for some (although not me) this maybe too much, especially given the track timings run from a mere seven and a half minutes up to nearly twenty three minutes in some cases.

There's no hidden agenda here though.  It is freely described as an "auditory labyrinth" by the marketing script on the Bandcamp page and it makes no apology for this - not that any should be necessary.  If you like a challenge then put your Obscura records down for five minutes and listen to some dissonant madness infused with some mixed styles to boot, you won't be disappointed.  I won't pretend it to be perfect though and that's why it gets a three out of five score as I do think the application is off at times and the attention to detail wanes on a few occasions.  These facts make release number three one to really look forwards to though.

Available here.

3/5