CLOAK OF ALTERING — Plague Beasts (review)

CLOAK OF ALTERING — Plague Beasts album cover

Album · 2014 · Black Metal

4/5 · 2014-08-30
UMUR

"Plague Beasts" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Dutch avant garde/experimental extreme metal act Cloak of Altering. The album was released through Crucial Blast Records in April 2014. Cloak of Altering is a one-man project featuring Mories of Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, Aderlating..etc. Mories is one of the more prolific artists in the more experimental/avant garde part of the extreme metal scene. He normally works alone and is usually responsible for playing all instruments, singing, and producing, which is also the case on "Plague Beasts".

Stylistically the music on "Plague Beasts" is a noisy, experimental, and at times quite avant garde take on extreme metal. Somewhere in the background and usually buried beneath layers of noise effects, tortured screaming vocals, and other absurdities, there is a black metal foundation. On this album Mories completely distorts that foundation by clipping the tracks and sampling them. Speeding them up, slowing them down, adding electronic effects, and just twisting them into something they weren´t from the get go. An approach not terribly different from the approach to making music that Whourkr are known for. Wold is another artist that comes to mind.

As always Mories succeeds in creating a repugnant, eerie, dark, and claustrophobic atmosphere, that reeks of putrefaction and creates images of dreadful torture chambers or people being buried alive. No light will ever shine. His affection for early Swans and especially Abruptum is still apparent, like it is in most of his work/projects, but he always manages to twist his influences into something that´s distinctly his own.

"Plague Beasts" is anything but an easy listen. It´s often very unpleasant on the ears, it´s noisy, distorted, and the way the sound production is constructed the recognisable metal elements are often buried and obscured in the mix. On purpose of course and as a consequence they are that more effectful when allowed to be dominant in the mix. Mories is as brilliant a producer as he is musican, and therefore can make such a layered and noisy sound production work. So while "Plague Beasts" can be a bit of a trial to get through (and it´s only 37:13 minutes long) because of the incredibly busy and noisy soundscape and the furious intensity level, it´s a brilliant release if you adjust your expectations to what you´ll be exposed to when listening to the album. Expect to leave the listening session with your ears ringing, your blood frozen in your veins, and a tortured confused look in your eyes and you´re halfway there. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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bartosso wrote:

more than 2 years ago

as far as I know, there's only one fairly "easy listen" from Mories, and it's this album: gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/and-the-light-swallowed-everything

everything else is just chaos incarnate.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This is one is a bit more experimental and less "Black metal" overall than the previous two, so that might have something to do with it. It´s also a pretty difficult listen.

bartosso wrote:

more than 2 years ago

woah, awesome review, you've mentioned some artists I have never heard of before (Whourkr and Wold) , I feel kinda lame now, lol ;d as for the album, I like it, but I think it's Cloak of Altering's worst album to date. Previous releases sounded more interesting and were more consistent without being repetitive.