KAYO DOT — Hubardo (review)

KAYO DOT — Hubardo album cover Album · 2013 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
bartosso
A lonely Poet and the Eye of Leviathan

Are you proud of yourself, Toby Driver? Are you satisfied with having me as your eternal and devoted follower, speechless in the face of Hubardo's grandeur? If these questions were ever to reach Toby, I imagine the answer to them as follows: "Yes, we did it, we have transmuted the gleaming stone that fell from the moonless sky. Essence and forms blossomed beautifully from the eye of Leviathan and merged into this ever morphing sculpture of sounds. You can almost see it once you close your eyes, open your heart and let the ear follow the chisel."

In a way, Hubardo encompasses everything that Toby Driver has ever done with maudlin of the Well, Kayo Dot and Tartar Lamb, but in fact it is so much more. It's an individual, conceptual work and while it obviously sounds like something made by Kayo Dot, it is more adventurous, dense and technical than anything they've done before. To be completely honest, it's barely possible to describe an album with a total playing time of almost 100 minutes, one that flows like a poem and stirs the soul with a whole range of emotions. A record that stupefies with passionate outbursts of experimental extremity, seamlessly evolving into haunting chamber rock passages or krautrock psychedelia. I can't even fathom out how avant-garde jazz-fusion, chamber post-rock, experimental black metal and psychedelic rock can be so beautifully blended together and approached with so much individuality. More than that, Hubardo reaches and goes beyond any horizons; it crushes boundaries and escapes any classification except for one: Art that comes to existence out of pure need of creation itself; need to channel the ephemeral creative fire into an immortal work. And, as if that weren't enough, the album boasts some of the most intriguing ambiance and concept I've ever encountered. Ah, so much could be said about this surreal, otherworldly atmosphere and the creative freedom of its makers. A freedom so spontaneous, despite the staggering complexity of the music it gave birth to.

I know I'm freaking out and I feel no shame. Hubardo, the seventh album by the avant-chamber-rock/experimental metal band Kayo Dot, is the ultimate proof that music knows no boundaries. It's so singular and passion driven, that any attempt to analyze and deconstruct it backfires on the reviewer. Even though you may stay indifferent to the beauty of Hubardo, you can't deny the sheer compositional prowess of Kayo Dot. As far as I am concerned, my love for this album is so profound, that I feel ashamed by the very fact of publishing this review. A review that will never do Hubardo enough justice.
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