EP Review: "At This Great Depth" by Soothsayer

At This Great Depth

In this post, let's try to answer the eternal question:

What is art?

Glacially Musical takes the stance that the definition of art is merely an act of emotional or creative expression. Meaning, it's art because I say it is, but not quite.

An artistic work is an author/painter/songwriter/etc attempting to convey a message, be it emotional, political, etc. Art is the metaphor for life.

Now, to dig deeper, what is music?

Music is an artistic or commercial expression of something based on aural communication. Certainly there are rules to music. There are norms. Music theory is the most well known concept. Musical keys, when playing play these notes, not those notes, but what if an artist doesn't want their music to sound pretty?

Soothsayer

What if musical rules are broken?

Is a song still a song if it's dissonant instead of melodic?

What if the vocals are amelodic?

We here at Glacially Musical declare once and for all our definition of music as simply being an aural expression of sound that's not a monologue.

Soothsayer speaks to us of a future where music has stopped being simple three to four chord progressions and creates an idealized world of melodic dissonance.

In the truest terms, At This Great Depth is a classic example of a Progressive Deathly Black Out Fuzz Death Metal EP.

In less specific terms, this is a true work of art that refuses to follow the simple rules laid down by man over the course of the last several centuries?

Soothsayer looks forward at an evolution of music. Great and mournful melodies are interspersed between Star Trek sounding passages and movements. Rough and tumble noise "harmonizes" with soulful guitars.

Though not officially listed as such, this album clocks in at 9/10's of a Reign In Blood, making it unofficially an EP and not an LP. The 24 minutes are fully taken up by two tracks. One per side.

At This Great Depth features not only interesting guitars, but an advanced use of effects for maximum impact. The phasers actually are set to kill instead of stun.

Release: 12/30/16
Genre: Avant Garde Black Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
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Formats: CD/LP/Digital
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