Repulsive and Hideous. – 90%
PhantomMullet, January 6th, 2012
In an age of evolving music, newer artists are constantly facing bigger obstacles in terms of creating high quality and creative music. After all, generic bands are easily forgotten and never really stand out with the exception of smaller fanbases. There are so many different black metal bands out there today that many of them are suffering from a lack of creativity. If they want a lesson in it, I would suggest they take a look at Woods of Infinity’s first full length, Förintelse & Libido.
Förintelse & Libido (F&L) is the offensive, depraved, and chaotic black metal you’ve been looking for. I’ll take that back – black usually symbolizes death, evil, and darkness – F&L is all over the place, featuring many different colours of the spectrum. There’s something new for each track and even if the sound doesn’t vary all the time, the mood sure does.
What a mess this album is! The production is all over the place, such that you could get a headache after listening to this for a while. Each instrumental element tends to do whatever the hell it wants at the most random times. At first there is no sense of chemistry between anything going on. Random media samples are interjected in places you wouldn’t expect. The lyrics are mostly in Swedish, so good luck trying to guess what the songs are about if you don’t speak Swedish. Actually, even if you did, you would still have no idea what the hell Ravenlord is singing about.
So…why bother listening to this? I find that the music pays a strong tribute to how the black metal scene got started. There’s something hideous, impure, and decrepit within most of these songs. The end result gives off a dense vibe of misanthropy and anti-social/society themes, much different from so many other groups. Take the track “Tribut Till Självmördare”…it starts out with a sample from that familiar Sinatra hit “New York, New York” only to go into an ugly barrage of metal with some truly disgusting vocals. The band even tricks you in the middle by providing an excerpt from Moonlight Sonata, but you could always tell that there’s something completely horrible in the air. “Missfostret Tellus” redefines misanthropy and destruction. Whenever I hear of this song, I picture society collapsing in a humorous way as the cretin population runs around like chickens with their heads cut off . Ravenlord’s vocals sound almost angry, but also sadistic. Hateful and bitter would be another good way to put it. “Raping the Hexagram” is another good tune…the riffs and the drumming make for a really depraved sounding track. Melkor really knows how to add that emotion to otherwise simple riffs. Of course, the song is a complete mess…it sounds like they practiced only a few times and went with the best version! But I think that was the point and with the crappy production, I can easily see that being the case. The drumming as a whole really stands out – it’s simple as well but is able to have that abrasive sound that fits great with the music. I don’t know whatever happened to Bruthor, but the drumming really adds a lot of flavor here.
Some tracks are a bit more normal…examples are “Framtid” and “Dystopia.” They still do well to convey that misanthropy and rejection of the “norm”, The verses are a bit catchy and the guitar tunes don’t seem as abrasive as in other tracks. Don’t let that fool you, tough: these songs are still out there! If I had to take a guess, these might be considered gateway songs that one might listened to before getting into the more repulsive sounds of this album. Many of the samples they use are still amusing anyway!
The band had a demo before this which contained the same tracks as this album. I guess spacing issues made them omit the tracks that weren’t included here. It’s a shame because those tracks were great too. Nevertheless, Woods of Infinity have crafted something extremely repulsive and hideous. Förintelse & Libido IS the bacteria that kills everything the air, the salt on the soil, a kick in the groin to all those pretentious black metal bands, and the bull in the china shop. It is offensive, evil, and completely miserable…and that’s what makes it most enjoyable. I suspect something like this will be considered very esoteric, but it’s worth listening to no matter where your tastes lie. You’d be amazed at how something so ugly can sound so great!
rafazardly 