AD NAUSEAM

"Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" features a brutal, raw, and organic sounding dissonant death metal sound. It´s chaotic, complex, and technically very well performed, and Ad Nauseam are arguably a skilled unit. The material are generally far removed from traditional death metal (except the deep growling vocals), and most riffs on the album are dissonant and almost avant gardish in their twisted nature. In other words Ad Nauseam are children of the Gorguts school. Ad Nauseam take the dissonant death metal style into more murky and organic territories though and often add an almost dark psychadelic and abstract twist to it. It´s definitely not an easy or accessible listen, and even within the often challenging world of dissonant death metal this album is in the difficult end of the spectrum in terms of accessibility. In comparison I´d say artists like Gorguts and Ulcerate produce more accessible material (well...comparatively).

A murky, complex, dissonant, and technical beast of an album, it´s safe to say that "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" is not for the faint at heart. The chaotic dissonant nature of the music will test even the most ardent technical death metal fan, which is also why the most atmospheric abstract sections are a nice breather/variation on the album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

I absolutely adore the black metal equivalent of this style, and I suppose it just shows my natural genre bias that a death metal album with the same aesthetics and modus operandi of a band like Deathspell Omega doesn't quite do as much for me. There are moments on this where they completely nail the game of utterly chaotic metal - there's one riff in particular that sounds like a record is skipping, deliberately a quarter of a beat out, and it's genuinely unsettling. It gets deep within your innate emotions and plays with what you expect from music and is oddly captivating in that regard. But timbrally, I just can't get behind it. Death metal vocals, riffs and drums just aren't my cup of tea, no matter how black metal influenced they are. I can definitely see why this could be considered a pinnacle of its genre though.

5.9 (2nd listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

Is it happening? Am I starting to enjoy death metal?

I come to this one via my love for the kinds of black metal that sound like you're falling into the depths of hell. Reverb, dissonance, chaos, and drummers that defy limbs - turn the lights out and let the darkness wash over you. I even compiled as stupidly titled spotify playlist to cover it, and decided to include death metal artists with the same atmosphere too. That has brought me to Ad Nauseam, who are truly a death metal band, even if the atmosphere is more adjacent to Deathspell Omega and Svartidauði than anyone else. And despite the standard issues I have with death metal vocals and riffs, I actually find myself enjoying this. It's terrifying and menacing and captivating in the way a good horror is - somehow all without falling into the comical or silly like so much death metal does.

6.5 (2nd listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

Stylistically the music on "Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est" is technical death metal, which aren´t far from the abstract and dissonant technical death metal of artists like Ulcerate and Gorguts. The lyrical themes follow suit and are about the abstract, hallucinations, and chaos. There is great rhythmic variation throughout the album and the drumming is generally on a high technical level (the same can be said about the rest of the instrumental performances). The riffs are mostly open chord dissonance but there are more regular brutal death metal riffing on the album too. The vocals are low in the mix brutal growling. It´s generally structurally adventurous, quite intriguing, and unconventional music.

The album features an organic sounding production (the band emphasize that they used vintage recording methods and gear, and it´s audible), which is overall well sounding, but lacks a bit of bottom end. A bit more heaviness could have made the sound more effectful. In many ways "Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est" is a very interesting release, but seen in a broader perspective there are other artists who have released albums in a similar style with more substance and originality. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though and "Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est" is recommendable to fans of dissonant technical death metal.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

If any band can be accused of nerding out to the max, surely it's this quartet of unorthodox musicians hailing from Scio, Italy which is just a hop, skip and a jump from the city of Venice. Having gotten the unrelenting angst out of their system after a debut album that excelled in a relentless attack so frighteningly intense that it was advised to avoid for those who were faint of heart, after six long years AD NAUSEUM returns with its second coming in the form of IMPERATIVE IMPERCEPTIBLE IMPULSE and as well as leaving the Latin locutions behind, so too does AD NAUSEUM jettison the full speed throttle that dominated the debut.

While the 20th century integral serialism and avant-garde classical underpinnings of the debut rarely peeked out of the bantering din, IMPERATIVE IMPERCEPTIBLE IMPULSE showcases a more relaxed AD NAUSEUM that has allowed less abrasive moments of contemplation to intermingle within the incessant metal brawl that continues the bantering din of the Gorguts playbook. Album #2 features six tracks, all of which exceed the eight minute mark with "Coincidentia oppositorum" racing past the twelve. With a running time of 57 minutes, IMPERATIVE IMPERCEPTIBLE IMPULSE offers a more balanced approach laid down on the debut with an extraordinary attention to details that displays this band's outstanding commitment to crafting some of the most forward thinking avant-garde metal of the decade.

While still steeped in tech death clothing with growly vocals, aggressive technical guitar wizardry and abrasive atonalities, AD NAUSEUM has like many of its contemporaries in reality drifted off into a totally new world of extreme metal that doesn't really fit into the established orthodoxies of death, black, sludge, progressive etc metal. While currently only the term avant-garde can really fit the bill, AD NAUSEUM continues the death metal immediacy with the Deathspell Omega abstractness and Meshuggah-like disscontempt of established paradigms. On this sophomore release, AD NAUSEUM pretty much takes all the features of the debut and amplifies them severalfold.

This is the kind of metal monstrosity that has alienated a lot of traditional metalheads for sure as this type of experimental abstractness has totally left the gravitational pull of classic metal approaches and ventured into unknown territory where it seems there is no end in sight as these types of bands venture ever further into the unexplored terrains. AD NAUSEUM seems to have perfected a balancing act here as it delivers unrelenting brutality in the form of atonal dissonance riff barrages wrapped up in progressive tech death clothing however the moments of non-metal shine through much more brightly and feature interesting orchestrations that evoke a keen sense of 20th century classical composers ranging from Arnold Schoeberg and John Cage to free dissonance and experimentalism of Charles Ives and Edgard Verèse. Metal bands like this are truly the new avant-garde classical. There are more moments on this one that remind me of Kayo Dot or Maudlin of the Well than album #1.

This is truly abstractionist's paradise as AD NAUSEUM really understands the dynamics of metal-in-opposition and develops their post-Obscura-ism even further. Graced with a keen attention to production values as well as over-the-top metal dynamism, this band has truly mastered the true intent of avant-garde extreme metal and showcases a more mature album although many will be instantly alienated by the jagged uninviting soundscapes presented. Advanced metal who study calculus for fun. This is not the instantly warm and fuzzy metal of decades prior but rather the ultimate expression in nerd metal run amok. Personally i love this [&*!#] and AD NAUSEUM has unleashed a brilliant followup to its already ambitious debut.

4.5 stars exuberantly rounded up

One of the newer kids on this block is the Italian band AD NAUSEUM which emanates from the Venetian region's city of Schio. Having formed in the year 2011, this ear abusing team of four which includes Andrea P. (guitar, vocals), Matteo G. (guitar, backing vocals), Andrea S. (drums) and Matteo B. (bass) graduated from Obscura University and received honorary PHDs for all things deranged and drenched with dissonant dementia. This band spent four long years crafting their ugly aberration of musical mischief which resulted in the delirium that became this debut release NIHIL QUAM VACUITAS ORDINATUM EST which translates into some sort of arcaneness like "Nothing Was Ordered To Empty," a title that perfectly sums up the head scratching vagueness that this procession of jangled guitar attacks and technical time signature rich jitteriness employs to bestow a temporary lapse of reason and entices the listener into a bizarre new quantum realm where the normal rules of physics do not apply.

While technical death metal has evolved in myriad directions, this is by far the most extreme journey one can embark upon within one of the already most extreme branches of the metal universe. AD NAUSEUM insinuates a nauseous roller coaster ride of sound which it more than delivers as this frantic crushing rampage of sonic swells relentlessly barrages the senses from every possible vector like a sailing vessel lost at sea during the most intense category 5 hurricane extinguishes all hope of survival. This is a wild ride with the intensity of Frodo and Sam marching through Mordor with the intent to rid the world of the ring of power but only to find its will is superior with a cold reptilian intent to dislodge any familiar sanity and cast it into a pool of Promethean fire so intense that mere mortals will melt into the primary elemental components that form the known universe. Yeah! Something like that! Hehe. Touted as Gorguts' lauded masterwork "Obscura" revived, NIHIL QUAM VACUITAS ORDINATUM EST truly does evoke that glorious milestone of metal music like few others have succeeded in doing.

Graced with eight outlandish tracks that consume over 55 minutes of your precious life-force, AD NAUSEUM relentlessly delivers an incessant attack on all "normalcy" of what metal music is or was i should say, about. With jagged razor sharp bantering guitar riffs pummeling arrows of atonality and a compositional fortitude based in 20th century classical composers which is only brought to life during the rare moments of the metal bombast taking a breather, the John Cage piano experiments and chamber music string sections expose the underbelly of a sophisticated giant lurking beneath the orotund decibelage so utterly intense that it truly sounds as if it was designed to wake the dead and some sort of zombiefication ritual that if nothing else will leave your soul in utter decay. This is truly some seriously chaotic technical music here unlike any other and well worthy of the title of being the next "Obscura" however the beauty thereof lies in the fact that this sect of soul sucking tumult is exquisitely designed and provides a suborder of hypnotic underpinnings that allows one to connect to this much in the way one could connect to the occulted inner workings of "Obscura." Yes, AD NAUSEUM has done their homework well and crafted a beautiful ugliness fit for those who have always secretly desired a triumvirate unholy unification of Gorguts, Ved Buens Ende and Deathspell Omega.