THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL — Sonderkommando (review)

THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL — Sonderkommando album cover

Album · 2013 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2013-12-26
UMUR

"Sonderkommando" is the 5th full-length studio album by UK progressive extreme metal act The Meads of Asphodel. The album was released through Candlelight Records in April 2013.

The Meads of Asphodel are one of those rare acts that you can´t really put a label on because of their eclectic and adventurous nature. The music on "Sonderkommando" is somewhat rooted in black metal but throughout the 70:26 minutes long album, the band take the music into all sorts of different directions and as a listener you never really know what comes next. The only act I can think of who do something similar are Sigh and their progressive way of playing black metal. The Meads of Asphodel take it a bit further though and at times the humour on the album is really silly in an almost Monty Python fashion. I believe idiosyncratic is the word I´m looking for to describe the atmosphere surrounding "Sonderkommando". Songtitles like "Send My Love to Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz" and "The Mussulmans Wander Through the Infernal Whirling Fires Amongst Silent Shadows to be Fed Into the Thirsting Jaws of a Godless Death Machine to Cough Up Their Souls to the Nazi Moloch Who Sits Within a Ring of Smoking Infant Skulls" should also give you a good indication that this isn´t your everyday "evil" black metal release.

That´s of course no surprise if you are already familiar with earlier releases by The Meads of Asphodel. I know I cracked a smile more than once while listening to "The Murder of Jesus The Jew (2010)", when I reviewed it a few years back. Compared to that album "Sonderkommando" is slightly better produced, which makes it a more satisfying sonic experience than it´s predecessor was. The odd nature of the band´s music is intact though. As an example just take the 12:21 minutes long opening title track, which starts with a sample of Hitler's speech on January 30th 1939 at Krolloper, then goes into a laid back and mellow Pink Floyd type section with clean singing and about midway through erupts in black metal rawness. And that´s just the half of it. "Sonderkommando" is a really adventurous album all the way through.

Especially their raw sections are sometimes a bit too simple and not that inspired, and the rather distinct sounding raw vocals are bound to be an aquired taste, but whenever they venture into progressive territories and apply their odd humour to the output I´m pretty much sold to their original sound. I guess "The Murder of Jesus The Jew (2010)" caught me completely off guard and therefore my rating of that album was partially affected in a postitive direction by the surprise element. Overall "Sonderkommando" might actually be a stronger album than "The Murder of Jesus The Jew (2010)", but for me the surprise element isn´t there and that´s despite the band´s many adventurous ideas, and my rating is as a consequence slightly lower for "Sonderkommando" than it was for "The Murder of Jesus The Jew (2010)". A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.