AZURE EMOTE — The Gravity Of Impermanence (review)

AZURE EMOTE — The Gravity Of Impermanence album cover

Album · 2013 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2016-03-21
siLLy puPPy

Due to his involvement with his bands Monstrosity, Vile and Abraxas, Mike Hrubovcak was forced to put his AZURE EMOTE project on hold but in 2011 found the time to bring his ambitions back to life as the inner avant-garde was beckoning to be unleashed. As with “Chronicles Of An Aging Mammal,” the second release THE GRAVITY OF IMPERMANENCE contains an eclectic posse comitatus of contributions in this case by members of Death, Fear Factory, Tristania, Sins Of Thy Beloved, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Hate Eternal, Yakuza, Visions Of Atlantis as well as by Hrubovcak’s other bands. So once again we get a larger than life genre bending mashup of crazy misanthropic infused weirdness.

THE GRAVITY OF IMPERMANENCE embodies a whole new sound and a major shift away from the aggressive debut. While death metal aggression is still in plentiful supply, this album has a slicker and more refined overall sound with a less frantic feel. The most striking of the new sound comes from the addition of violins which add a gypsy flair and can bring bands like Unexpect or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum to mind. The addition of the saxophone adds a hitherto unheard jazzy touch to the mix bringing bands like Shining from Norway or Ephel Duath at times to mind. Most of all the most drastic change is in the addition of the operatic vocals with a verified diva reminding of Fleshgod Apocalypse. Add an occasional harmonica, electronic programming and sampling and we have a veritable even stranger beast than the first album!

Once again the main focus is on the melodic developments and with the addition of the violins and operatic vocals we get an overall slowed down effect that has easier to digest song structures. While the debut was in-yer-face avant-garde to the max, GRAVITY is more elegant in its refined approach of the parade of sounds that find their proper place and bring the right mood inducing timbres to fruition. Fear not metal heads, there are still plenty of killer death metal riffs, growly vocals, sizzling guitar solos and brutal metal to bang yer head to. Just check out “Conduit To Atrophy” and hear all these elements gnaw off their leash and rock the bleepin’ house.

It seems the overall consensus is that this is the more mature album of the two and that it has found a more loyal audience but i personally wouldn’t call it better or worse than the debut, simply different. I find both albums are quite brilliant in their own right and the differences are what make AZURE EMOTE proving itself to be a wellspring of creative energy that allows a new assemblage of musicians to synergize their various talents into an imaginative cauldron of productivity. As with the debut the production is also noteworthy as it must be ridiculously difficult to mix all these elements together but the hour long album passes by with nary a glitch and an impressive array of parading elements that seamlessly wends and winds through the lands of opera, gypsy folk, death metal and beyond without ever resorting to sounding like any of the influences that were the inspiration. This second album is just as much a keeper as the first. Anxiously awaiting a follow up.