Vverevvolf Grehv
Zombie Aesthetics

Metal… DeathMetal. Glitch. Techno. Cybergrind. Industrial. Noise. Breakcore. 8bit-Chiptunes. Electro. Avant-garde. Speed Metal. Speedcore. IDM. Breakcore. Experimental. Ambient. Breakbeat. Dubstep. Acid… what do you think PhilAnselmo93?

“Ahaha, you listen to metal and techno together, ahahah what a poser!! Stay Power!”

No! This is not a list of my favorite genres, let alone those to add to DeB, classifications are known to be fleeting, but it is also necessary to list them for a release of such magnitude: we are only talking about some of the countless genres and sounds that find space on this incredible and overwhelming platter, a work of eclecticism and madness at times seriously embarrassing.

“In what sense? The only embarrassing music I know of is without guitars, no drums, no bass. We are made of metal WE ARE.”

Don't expect this dear PhilAnselmo93, here we're talking about something else. His offering is as twisted and complicated as pronouncing his name, and Vverevvolf Grevh, aka Michael Dappen “Dapose”, knows this well, as far as creativity and unreadability go, the talented American guitarist-keyboardist-multi-instrumentalist is second to none, and provides ample demonstration of this in this full-length, where he seems almost to be playing tricks on the listener, or rather, on the average metalhead, bewildered by such excesses.

“Ok! But what does this vverevvolfff actually do? Metal? Give me the metal, Stay Metal!”

Soon said: Dapose decides to write a metal album that resembles nothing existing in today's music scene (his exact words). And he definitely succeeds, damn if he does!

“I don't understand… the metal?”

Probably, some metal&death&grind&black addicted reader, like this kid bombarding me with questions (enough Phil!) excitedly landed on the page after reading the word “Metal”, or for the girl on the cover, expecting me to talk about some blonde long-haired guy, dragons, warriors, graves, pale damsels, will have been profoundly disappointed, and maybe won't even know who and what I am talking about, too busy repeating Burzum and Metallica for the 666th time on repeat, but there's no problem, dear metalhead reader, Yosif is here to help!
So imagine a recording studio, where the Meshuggah are on guitar with counter-rhythms and various technical skills, Aphex Twin gone mad on Pro Tools, Venetian Snares programming crazy snare-rushes, Ebola handling the craziest glitches, a powerful voice at the mic, Amon Tobin on multitrack and effects, Atrium Carceri handling the ambient parts, the Daft Punk on the Roland TB 303 and 808, and why not, your 5-year-old cousin messing around on the toy Casio, with the acne-prone nerdy big brother next to him fiddling with keygens for some RPG with paradox tunes playing. And why stop there? Let's even put in the shadow of certain creative juices and genius of the divine Miles Davis more open fusion, the feedback wall of sound of the My Bloody Valentine, the blast beats of the most corroded brutal groups, and throw into the pot even some Stockhausen and Matthew Herbert's experiments. Okay, I’m not disturbing legends for no reason, I'm not exaggerating and I'm not crazy (or at least I think, I should ask myself some questions after such a listening), and as the busty chef from the cook show would say, take note, blend everything together, cook it and let it simmer. Can you imagine what would come out of it?!

“Mmm, honestly I don't know… Black Album? Paranoid?? Number Of The Beast???”

No Ansè. Certainly not the usual stereotyped stuff that isreallywaytotrue, elves, Vikings, etc., and on the other hand even valid (but let's face it), fundamentally closed IDM proposals.

“understood… but now give me the metal???”

Calm down, I give you “Zombie Aesthetics” [Relapse - 2008]

If naively from the title one might think of yet another nostalgic psychobilly band, quite another is the scenario that awaits us: a disjointed and claustrophobic sound massacre of anguish, genius, madness, cruelty, composition at the peak of mental deviation, where even a spit can transform into a sample to be decimated and dissected.

“Yes but the metal? The solos? Ozzy? Satan? Give me the track by track! Give me the graves to desecrate!”

Uè Phil, shut up a bit. It would be pointless to zoom in on the 11 tracks specifically, the album should be listened to in one breath, but it is fair to give an idea of what you are up against.

I could, for instance, tell you about the exaggerated effects, the uzi-like drum machines, and the sick interludes of "Emancipation Of Dissonance", (a title that's a program), where even virtuosic riffs find space that wouldn't look out of place in a "None” by Kidman & co! I could cite the trance-like arpeggios over the aggressive "Eureka Ghost", along with many low frequency sub 808s, obsessive riffs, Nintendo sounds, filtered harsh and mad beats that alternate in an absurdly successful continuity solution. And why not mention the splendid drumming-riffing combo of "Year Zero”, or the delay-distortion-dissonances and Schuldiner-like vocal lines, totally beyond any threshold of brain damage on "Audio Processor"? The disarming complexity and continuous change of scenarios of episodes like "Voodoo Phantom, and "Psychotronic, where even unlikely Tarantino Pulp (!) Gabber (!!) Downtempo (!!!) references are touched. And it matters little if often at extremely high tempos a growl, a reverb-ed saw à la Infected Mushroom, a breakbeat or whatever run together; if the result at mere reading might seem unfeasible and chaotic, Dapose promptly proves us wrong with “Thinking And Feeling,” where certain gloomy and decadent atmospheres meet Planet Mu's dub stuff, 8bit sounds à la Orion and Death-style vocals. All so damn successful, no point in repeating.

“‘Damn, Death is awesome, they rock.”

Wait dear, the sonic lobotomization is reserved for us by the title track “Zombie Aesthetics”, listen and see how you forget Death, it's a spectacular 100% glitch tapestry, with something like 1000 samples and noises, best reflecting the platter's sick intentions, 7 minutes that would make anyone who encounters them insinuate that the right place for Dappen, is more a mental rehab clinic, rather than a recording room fiddling with guitars, synths and drum machines. (and to think that seeing him busy among these, he seems such a well-behaved person)!

“Synth, experimentation, glitch… I don't understand, I want guitar solos and ultratechnical riffs! I want… METAL!”

Very well received by critics, back to being serious, I feel it’s not recommended for terminal metalheads like friend PhilAnselmo93. It is recommended instead for open minds, and fortunately, I would say, they exist, for anyone who wants to try an experience that escapes any type of pre-established canon, and that transcends any avant-garde, and that transcends any kind of experimentation, and that escapes any kind of categorization, and that… no b.s. too forward-thinking. If you've made it this far, (and believe me, there would still be more lines to fill), and you can handle certain extreme stuff, what are you waiting for?! Make it yours! How do you say? Drumcorps? The Berzerker? Cybergrind? Nothing to do with it: if on one side they can indeed seem similar in genre and concept, on the other they end up being completely nullified, given the concrete, rich and unique proposal of Dappen, and the sterile, mono-thematic and inconclusive (with due exceptions) of the latter. Not forgetting that on Zombie Aesthetics there is NO genre to identify it, perhaps only an adjective, that yes: insane.

We were saying? Davis? Bitches Brew? Impossible and disrespectful towards the legendary trumpeter to compare them, but the intention is the same that Mr. Miles & co had on that August 19, '69, times change, sounds change, the color of skin changes, some drugs, some neurons. The result is the same. Genius.

“And who is 'this Miles Davis? What band does he play in? Does he do Metal?? Does he rock???”

Never mind, and go back to listening to Burzum.

Stay VVerevvolf!