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Theologian - A Means By Which To Break The Surface Of The Real
Released by: Redscroll Records
Released on: August 28th, 2015.
Purchase From Death Wish
The latest recording from Theologian (a.k.a. Lee M. Bartow, a.k.a. Theologian Prime) is 2015's A Means By Which To Break The Surface Of The Real, a collection of only four tracks with a total running time well past the forty minute mark. Accompanying Bartow on this recording are David Castillo (of Primitive Weapons, White Widows Pact) and Daniel Suffering (of Whorid). Matt Slagle and engineer Kevin D. Reilly, Jr. also contribute.
God Comes As A Wall starts things off at just under seven minutes in length. It begins as a wall of noise with some indecipherable howling vocals overtop of the drone that anchors all of this. It's a mood piece, really, repeating itself for the first three minutes and then downshifting things to get slower and more ambient, but those vocals in turn provide some interesting contrast as they get louder and more pronounced in the mix. As it draws to a close the repetition and the rhythm wash over you, drowning out everything around you. It's pretty wild, actually. When this ends you sort of feel like you've been swallowed.
Surface Of The Real is a three and a half minute piece, much shorter than anything else on the recording. This one has a bit more of a beat behind it, and while it never gets dancy and it keeps that dronish tone set down by the first track front and center, it's maybe a little more accessible. The recording plays with the left and right channels in interesting ways, almost forcing you to move back and forth with it and it's a fairly hypnotic, trance inducing piece of music that builds almost noticeably until the last minute where it pulses and meanders and…. I don't even know. Put this on in the background and it ceases to be background music, it pulls you in. This is like A John Carpenter soundtrack mixed with Psychic TV.
The Sun Failed To Rise Today clocks in at just shy of eleven minutes and instantly it is heavier and more traditionally industrial than the first two tracks while still maintaining an ambient sound. There is a grinding, mechanical backing to this track over which the musicians build soundscapes that have wild range and depth to them. Listen to this undistracted with the volume up on a pair of good headphones and really pay attention - you'll notice very quickly how multi-layered and intense this is, and at first listen it isn't particularly evident. It gets louder and more intense as the track progresses, the repetition becoming the new norm, but then as it finishes they take it in a different direction all together, ending things in an almost psychedelic swirl.
The Truthseeker's Pick is the behemoth of the album, as it's almost twenty-two minutes of aural insanity. It starts off with some industrial sounds, a chant barely audible behind it. As it progresses more 'noise' is introduced into the mix, some of it instruments and some of it maybe weird machines going to work or something. It's hard to say because things blend here. Four minutes in and if you haven't given up and walked away then you've more or less been hypnotized by it. It's a really strange wall of noise, there's music here if you listen for it but if you don't you'll hear only abrasion. Around the eight minute mark it gets darker, heavier, more layered still, almost grinding in spots. Then as we hit the twelve minute mark the Neubatuen influence comes back into play as we hear what may or may not be hammers on steel, pounding out a melody of sorts but only barely discernible behind the wall of sounds that seems to grow taller and taller and with each inch gained more impenetrable.
It slows down and becomes less intense as it winds down, but at the same time it leaves you exhausted. This isn't background noise, this isn't easy listening - this is something you absolutely need to be in the right frame of mind for. Give it your undivided attention and Theologian's A Means By Which To Break The Surface Of The Real is a very rewarding, if challenging, work of art but taken sporadically and without the right commitment (and you will have to commit to it), it's tough to get into. Is that a recommendation? Absolutely, but a very cautious one.
