VONN — Victim One: Agony (review)

Album · 2006 · Doom Metal

3.5/5 · 2012-04-01
renkls

I've probably spent more time with this album then any (sane) person should. That said, I think now I understand all I need to understand about it. I have a distinct fascination with single track albums, and this being one, thought I should try it out. It is probably the darkest audial assualt I've heard, bar none. It probably surpasses Orthrelm's OV and Naked City's Leng Tch'e in the department of difficult listening, but it is probably in the aspect of artistic vision that I feel this album does not meet the previous two mentioned. It is huge, powerful, abrasive and almost completely inhuman. According to an interview that VONN had with a website (the only one on the internet I could find), they are practicing what they feel is 'true' doom metal. Being completely hopeless, remorseless, painful music. And in that respect, they get their point across indelibly. That said however, look at the length of the album - 76 minutes of singular, torturous noise. This is one of the longest single pieces of music dedicated to CD, but there is no real way to justify just how huge and monsterous this album is. In foresight however, we must realise that the central theme of the 'song' is torture. We have to, if we chose (obviously), go along with their uncompromising demands if we truly want to understand. After all, torture is not an act where the victim (listener) has a choice of how brutal or long the ordeal lasts - and while we as an audience have the ability to leave anytime, the victim does not until the bitter end. Of course, 76 minutes of drumless, pitch black misery is a long ask of anyone - and this is where some comparisons have to come into play. Torture as transposed to music has been done many times before. Naked City, in paving the way into the distinctive genre of Drone Doom Metal established the genre on this theme, with Leng Tch'e, a 31 (less then half this albums length) minute examination of the notorious chinese torture method. The screams that emerged in that piece were dark, uncompromising and harrowing. It builds, escalates upwards into a truly cacophonous noise of squeals and screams, before the victim finally perishes. It was a bleak, hopeless work - but its influence on the genre of doom metal has been felt far and wide. Vonn's Victim One: Agony, feels like it has taken influence from the direction of doom, yet has not expanded on the concepts of bleak hopelessness and suffering in any way except length. In that respect, it cannot measure up to the same scale as these influentual albums in my opinion. But they're not exactly the same journey - while Leng Tch'e established the genre, there has still, despite it being limited, progression from this idea. It is no longer a progressive, building work. There are no established patterns or tunes to cling to. It strips the genre bare as a truly bleak portrait of nihilistic cruelty. It approaches being completely unlistenable. It was a daring move to extend and push doom to its inevitable, meaningless conclusion, yet this is what I feel VONN have done. And for that alone, despite my indifference, I appriechiate the audacious viciousness of this CD. Do I plan on listening to it very much? No way.