CLOAK OF ALTERING — Plague Beasts (review)

CLOAK OF ALTERING — Plague Beasts album cover Album · 2014 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
bartosso
Altering Forever

True artists are restless, insatiable, always looking for modes of expression that would satisfy nobody else but themselves. Not us, mind you. You're just a guest, a spectator of this eternal struggle between artist and his creation. Ahhh, and Mories. Those who came across this man know exactly how unwelcoming he can be. Plague Beasts, third full-length record under the aegis of Cloak of Altering, is another experimental record that catches Mories fusing his diverse styles into one whole. And as usual, it's very well done.

Not as well as it used to be, though. Two previous records presented Cloak of Altering as a well blended combination of black metal, industrial electronica, classical and noise. Plague Beasts consists of pretty much the same ingredients, with a stronger emphasis put on electronic and noise aspects of the music. If you're familiar with the band and its black metal roots are known to you, you can easily trace them. It may not be so obvious to newcomers, though. For the most part Mories' songwriting is as strong as ever. Unrelenting, polyphonic assault of devilish tremolos, ominous symphonic synthesizers and seemingly chaotic syncopation suck you into a whirlwind of beautiful insanity. You can actually see the genuine passion put into this music as it bleeds out of your ears. Still, as much as I hate track-by-track approach, I have to say "Ash666urA" and "Into Celestial Hell", due to their more straightforwardly noisy character, feel a little uninspired in comparison with the rest of the album.

Plague Beasts is another step in CoA's exploration of the unique blend of avant-garde black metal and electronica known from previous releases. While it's easier to mark out individual sound elements this time round, it still is a strangely consistent, yet in parts flawed, record. Recommendable to metal and electronica fans with a weakness for a full-on approach, Cloak Altering latest album is another quality release from the enfant terrible of experimental underground.
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