Serpent Column belongs to the milieu of bands fascinated by dissonance and technicality as means of evoking a chaotic and infernal realm with uncompromising accuracy, in line with acts like Deathspell Omega and Gorguts. Such a language is surely an acquired taste, unaided by the fact that some of the newer practioners seem to stick to the language itself instead of trying to express something meaningful and worthwhile with it. On the latest EP Katartisis, Serpent Column avoids these tempting pitfalls, delivering a work that will be rewarding for repeated listenings that peel away the chaotic surface to reveal its core.
Unlike in previous works which occasionally dealt with literal noise/ambiance, Serpent Column opts here for a different method for breaching into sonic extremity: the sheer, escalating intensity of the percussion and layers of dissonant guitarwork increases until the songs collapse into a vicious cacophony of an almost impenetrable texture. Different from many of the modern bands that like to indulge in dissonance, however, Serpent Column is intent on resolving the chaos it brings forth, or at least treating it with deeper consideration. The title track will be enough to evince that Serpent Column works at a deeper level than those bands that rely mostly on shock value, as the song’s development leads the listener through a satisfying and intuitive evolution of riffs resulting in a much more nuanced atmosphere than that of an amorphous grey block of dissonance and polyrhythms. The shorter songs that make up most of the EP will still inevitably feel like snippets, although it could also be said that the short burst format is adequate to what is being expressed.
Nevertheless, the rhythmic variety, alternating between maniac states of blast-beating and more meditative moments, and the confidence with which they delve into more intricate songwriting, are clearly indicative of the band’s command of the style. At times we’re treated to surprising flourishes of melodicism, such as the title track’s “warm” introduction or some of the key sections of “Edelweiss”, testifying to the band’s ability of injecting valuable emotional diversity into the maelstrom that one expects from this type of music. Throughout the EP, we can discern in Serpent Column a sensibility that seeks to articulate its darkness in a nuanced and comprehensive manner, and the longer songs like the aforementioned ones in particular prove that the band is in possession of the tools to bring forth those visions.
In between these more thorough pieces that reveal interesting ideas and composition at work and the short lashes of dissonant fury, the unfamiliar listener might find in this EP a good introduction to the band, as it’s also probably a midpoint between the (relatively) more “conventional” black metal style on display on their first album and their more experimental later works.
