PRYAPISME — Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium (review)

PRYAPISME — Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium album cover

Album · 2017 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2017-08-04
siLLy puPPy

Just exactly is one to make of a band that names itself after a persistent, usually painful erection of the penis, especially as a consequence of disease and not related to sexual arousal? It would be fair to assume that you are in for a very demented musical experience of the highest magnitude and if oddball music is what your craving then look no further than the eccentric musical Frankenstein world of the freaky French band PRYAPISME (spelled “priapism” in English.) This band emerged in Avergne, France all the way back in the year 2000 where it has been known in the weirdo cult metal circuits who demand the outlandish, demented and utterly warped yet still require the frenetic energy level and headbangin’ crunchiness that metal and breakcore offer. PRYAPISME has been a rather underground band in the greater progressive rock and metal universe despite having pumped out some very sophisticated compositions over the last decade incorporating not only the jazz-fusion world of Frank Zappa but an even more eclectic sonic palette and as usual falls into the utterly uncategorizable grey area of music where it is literally impossible to wrap your head around.

While PRYAPISME got pegged into the world of Mr Bungle with their 2010 debut release “Rococo Holocaust,” the band has consistently pumped out full-length albums and several EPs that prove they are much more than a Bungle wannabe band that skirts along with a few ideas set on retread. On their much anticipated third release DIABOLICUS FELINAE PANDEMONIUM finds them dishing out their most complex and progressive bouts with madness of their entire canon and as evidenced from the title, their continued fascination with the world of cats that have a recurring role on their album covers. Meow. Like all their albums, DIABOLICUS continuous their legacy of harum-scarum instrumentals run amok with unabashed orgies of sound swirling about like a sonic slut insatiably fornicating with not only every sailor who hits ground from a wild mission on the seven seas but also the kind who takes these inhibitions and does unthinkable things with every animal at the zoo. Now you’re interested, aren’t ya? Oh yeah. The band spent three years making this album fine tuning and layering element after element often with the company of cats and creative lunatics lurking about.

Generally speaking, DIABOLICUS begins the album with the somewhat easier to follow sonic s.h.i.t storms that sound more in tune to Secret Chiefs 3 or Estradasphere than the Mr Bungle comparisons as the band members creatively circumnavigate their cauterized callathump down eclectic avenue. “Un Max De Croco” unapologetically begins with Middle Eastern rhythms and percussive drive that soon gets tramped upon by a plethora of counterpoints including avant-prog guitar riffs, blitzkrieg electronica and bantering bass lines. Yeah, this is just the beginning of the album and it only becomes more reckless and improvident as the tracks tick off to the final thirteen minute plus closer “Totipotence D’un Erg.” Too complex for its own good, this one will lose many upon first listen. As a musical maniac myself, i was thrown for a loop on first spin and got absolutely zero resonance with this one. The sheer assault of manic electronic biastbeats, musical scales run amok seemingly in competition, the random aimlessness that zigzags in any old direction and the brutal prog assault of dissonance, Rock In Opposition dexterity and time signatures of rabid maddened quarks springing from the primordial energetic soup at the quantum levels of reality. This is simply too much to take in at once. In fact it only began to sink in after the fourth listen. Yikes. Only the truly dedicated will want to tread on these unsecured grounds. However, it flows rather nicely.

It’s almost impossible to convey in words through language what the listener will experience with DIABOLICUS FELINAE PANDEMONIUM which takes all the elements of anyone familiar with the eclectic canon of PRYAPISME and then steers their sonic ship pedal to the metal to a fully fledged 10 on the progometer. This frenetic maelstrom of sound is chock full of myriad musical building blocks and then some. Yes, there is the usual avant-garde metal elements of heavy guitar riffs and beefy bass chugs that accompany the frenetic electro-percussive overwroughtness, however this one has a lot of dedication to complex jazz-fusion workouts including sizzling John Zorn inspired sax solos, syncopated chops even incorporating ska, funk and reggae only to suddenly shift into lounge lizard exotica or Western classical baroque scenarios that rely on Nintendo chiptune technology get the point accross. The Secret Chiefs 3 connections comes through most strong on “% Babines, Pur Molossoïde ! “ where i hear many of the elements on their “Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws: Hurqalya” album coming into the forefront, however PRYPISME has for the most part shed any true comparable influences and despite existing in the genre blending pool shared with other bands such as Sigh, Igorrr, Mr Bungle and Unexpect, they have truly reached the promised land where they stand on their own two feet.

As i’ve stated. This is one you have to work for. It is a demanding listen in every way and despite being one of the most adventurous and eclectic music lovers myself, i still had to attentively listen to this one for a number of spins to decipher exactly what was going on and i’m still not sure i can find any reasonable words to relay. This is plain organized chaos. The only thing i can truly convey is there are digestible chunks of hyperactive space-disco, chiptune or other electronica parts that provide some sort of melodic development that get superseded by other types of musical beasts that play team tag and take over the stage but they don’t always feel like continuing the theme and go all out to left-field but not always! Sometimes they like the game that has been chosen and they see it to fruition. All i can say is this is wwweeeiii iiiirrrrdddd!!!! But a very wild and woolly kind of weird that has enough to latch onto while still delving into everything from cyber metal to spaghetti western music. Yeah, the Mr Bungle comparisons will still come to mind but PRYAPISME has mastered a more effective flow of genre mutilation and is much more comparison to what the Secret Chiefs have achieved and for the most part eschew any noticeable similarities with the exception of a couple tracks. Weirdo hyper electronic metal-in-opposition flying its freak flag at full staff. Won’t you stand for this national anthem? This is one that could see my rating go up if this continues to grow on me as it has :p