THE AXIS OF PERDITION — Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) (review)

THE AXIS OF PERDITION — Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) album cover

Album · 2011 · Black Metal

1/5 · 2011-04-19
adg211288

Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) is the fourth full-length album from Industrial Black Metal act The Axis of Perdition, released in 2011. The sound of the album is primarily black metal but the band adds an industrial edge in several places, with an additional ambient influence thrown in for good measure.

Compositionally there isn’t really anything to complain about with an album of this style, although it could hardly be considered groundbreaking, but as a whole package the band’s writing is let down a lot by some very poor production values which kill the impact of the record for me. Having tried to give the album time with several plays I’ve toyed with the idea that the minimalist production approach may be intentional – this is black metal after all, and raw production is often a staple of the sound. Unfortunately in the case of Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) the raw sound doesn’t do the band any favours and weakens the sound of the songs, rather than making any sort of an atmosphere, because the end result is often just a load of noise with little musical integrity. There’s interesting ideas to be had in the album, but the production doesn’t do them the justice that they deserve which leaves them worth virtually nothing in the grander sense of things.

I can’t say that the vocals are exactly the strongest of elements of the band’s sound on Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) either. I suppose that if you’re into this sort of style then you’re more likely to find an appreciation for them, but I was personally getting annoyed with the poor quality of them by the time of the third track, Unbound. They have their moments when they suit the best well, and take on a stronger tone than in other times, but overall the vocal work on the album is very poor quality which further lets it down as a whole package.

The album’s fourth track, Sigils and Portents, offers some aspects of redemption with a generally stronger vocal delivery which includes some cleans and some more prominent melodic guitar work, as well as sticking to some of the general weirdness heard in the previous tracks, and personally I believe it’s the closest you’ll be able to get to an album highlight, since the next track, The Flesh Spiral, returns to the sort of quality heard in the previous tracks.

There isn’t really much else that can really be said about the album, because it ranges from poor at worst and mediocre at best. The strongest aspect here is that there any generally some really good ideas present in the album’s instrumentation and had they not been spoilt by what could possibly be the worst production job for an album of this kind ever then the band would have a much better effort on their hands here.

If raw sounding black metal of any description is your thing then Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) is likely an album that you’ll be able to take some enjoyment out of, however I’m heard much stronger efforts from bands with a raw style (or even rawer than that heard on this album) that manage to create something that works really well for them, whereas with Tenements all the required potential is there, just delivered completely wrong. It’s a nice effort for which despite its faults the band deserves a score around the middle of the scale, but better luck next time guys.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

You are right to be vary. "Urfe" is also quite a different experience. It´s mostly a spoken word horror album.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I may check that at some point, though this album doesn't exactly inspire me to check out their older stuff.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´d recommend listening to "Deleted Scenes From the Transition Hospital" instead. A suffocating dark and unpleasant sounding industrial black metal album.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah the production really isn´t very good. It´s fully intentional though. A strange choice IMO.