Listen to this while reading!
WHAT THE FUCKING UNHOLY FUCK???
Remember when before there was the universe, there was, like, absolute chaos?
Yeah, me neither.
But if I had to compare this to anything, it’d be that.
Hailing from France, Zvoyn is, from what I could understand, a one-man project, from some crazy bassist. The trilogy comprises three books of the “Onomatopeous Love Letters” series, and it is what it is: Onomatopeous. There doesn’t seem to be any true lyrics written to those ladies, to whom these love letters are destined, however. And I don’t know what these damsels did, but it seemed to anger our friend Zvoyn here. Hey! Such brutal aural assaults don’t come from nowhere!
Fucking brilliant songwriting capabilities coupled with an otherwordly talent for playing the bass and a surely deranged mind is what nourishes the sound waves. Chaos, noise, emptiness.
But on the other hand, these songs are so full. Full of classical influences, passages and instruments, full of noise, grind, and core, probably full of intent, too, although I didn’t have the time yet to fully become aware of each of the writer’s intents. I can see that he is truly one of ours. Defending true beauty, whatever the cost, and reviving the prime purpose of music.
Influences vary from classical to oriental music and aborigenal beats, but always (or almost) retaining the basis of progressive metal/grindcore/postnoise/technical thingy, with some alien drum and instruments.
The only flaw to it is the use of MIDI sounds for almost every instrument except bass, which makes me feel like it is incomplete, and which will repel listeners the most. On a personal note, it doesn’t do a thing to me, because I always work my songs with Guitar Pro, and I am used to hear MIDI all day long, but it leaves me with a feeling of incompleteness that I am uneasy with. Of course, finding the musicians to play this is close to an impossible task, but man… just imagine how bad-ass it would sound!!!
The Zealous Decadence trilogy includes Onomatopeous Love Letters, Book I : Elisa; Book II : Malika; and Book III : Ioana. Book II is not yet available as of now, but I just couldn’t wait to write something on this absolutely magnificent work of art.
Despite the flaws I have underlined, Zealous Decadence receives the highest rating, a hundred fucking percent! You hear me? This is the future!
And it is the very first album we review to which we can answer the question our blog name asks : Can this even be called Music?
FUCK YES! That is true music, beauty, and essence, through the fullness of the noise. That is what we should call music, not all copycat pop music that always finds a way to crawl into our ears like parasites, and that eat our brains as its melodies and choruses remain stuck behind our ears. FUCK YOU POP.
All hail Zvoyn!
-D
Word.