Vosforis – Cosmic Cenotaph

Released by: Inner Hell Records

Release Date: 06.12.24

Running Time: 41:24

Score: 7/10

I am replete with tea after returning from a post office run, in which I have despatched many eldritch horrors of Mrs Dark Juan’s creation to various points across the UK, and also Canada and the USA, which will teach them (the Americans) to ruin perfectly good tea, as it was recently Thanksgiving in the States. I am normally, at this point of the year, to be found sending greetings to my American friends along the lines of “Treasonable Bleatings, ungrateful colonials” and suchlike, as I do on Independence Day as well, and it should be pointed out that this is done in jest and not because I am prejudiced against Americans, but rather exercising very British humour and thankfully everyone gets it because the USA is not without wit or humour. Anyway, some unsuspecting Americans have bought items for their Christmas trees that are neither festive nor jolly. This amuses me greatly, because a) I am not Christian and celebrate Yule, and b) because I am a bit strange.

Sleeping Smellhounds surround me, and Mrs Dark Juan is seated across the lounge from me creating something else to scare the living shit out of someone, and I find it hard to not feel content, apart from the Schwerer Gothikpanzer’s electronic handbrake repair costing me the equivalent of possibly selling a kidney, but I am warm and fed and comfortable and have enough ease to be able to spend time jabbering inanely on the internet and having other people actually read it. However, my thoughts turn to the less fortunate among us all around the world who do not have ease, or food, or shelter and I would ask you all to bear these poor souls in mind and if you are able to afford to, donate to a homeless charity or suchlike, to give a bit of solace to those less fortunate than ourselves. It’s a cruel time of year for those not in the bosom of loving families.

Today’s victim… I mean offering given to the Platter of Splatter ™ is “Cosmic Cenotaph” by Vosforis, being the Black Industrialised Metal project of Simon White, with added contributions from most of the ex-members of Cradle of Filth in the past decade in Adrian Erlandsson (drums) and contributions from Richard Shaw (guitar) and Anabelle Iratni (keys, arrangements). Simon himself describes the album thusly:

“Conceptually, when I first started thinking about this album, in a cliched sort of way I thought of it like a triptych similar to Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. Each panel being a collection of ideas to draw inspiration from for the lyrics.

I abstracted this idea into a circular hierarchy starting at a single point on earth with an individual, then increasing the radius of the circle to include the planet, nearby planets, and alien life. Then lastly to increase the radius of the circle to include the universe and the outer edges of spacetime that decay/breakdown into chaos.”

Indeed, and let me tell you, gentle reader that he has done something very uncompromising with that concept, what with this album’s fusing of arctic cold Black Metal and the thunderous chugging and clanking of Industrial music, having slammed them together hard enough for them to cold weld themselves into something a little bit different. I know other bands have done this (notably Dusk, the bunch of Puerto Rican madmen), but where it is a little different from other bands is that Simon has chosen to take the later forms of Symphonic Black Metal as his base form, rather than the primal early stuff. So instead of lo-fi and buzzing, you get a clearly produced piece of work that takes the like of later-era Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon as inspiration and throws a bit of the Drab Four (Type O Negative) and the Industrial battery of Nine Inch Nails as an admixture to cold vocal savagery. What comes out of this mixture is unique, idiosyncratic and misanthropic indeed.

But it’s missing something. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a fucking good album musically and I totally dig the concept and execution of it, but it feels like there’s no heart to it. It feels like it is just nameless snarling at everyone and everything and it is a feeling I can’t shake even after several listens to it. I think it is because, if anything, the sound is too clean, too polished, too slippery. It is hard to quantify, because this album has everything I ever wanted out of music on it, but it just isn’t hitting the spot for me – a bit more used engine oil, smoke and soot and a thicker, less accomplished sound might do it.

It's a minor quibble though, because the music is epic in scale and executed with a heartless savagery, not letting up as it gets ever closer to your vulnerable face with knives out and howling incoherently at you when you turn to run. “Cosmic Cenotaph” is scary and unpredictable and is out to get you.

I just wish it felt as dangerous as it could be. Perhaps taking “Death Cult Armageddon” and ‘K.I.N.G’ as Vosforis’ starting point wasn’t the correct choice as they moved away from the martial, feral quality of classic BM and went in a more symphonic direction. What do I know? I’m only a critic, after all, and those that can, do, and the ones that can’t write about it, yes?

I want to love this album that much it hurts, but I just can’t do it.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is wondering what is wrong with itself as the combination of Industrial and Black Metal normally has Dark Juan running in tiny circles screaming for vengeance and Mrs Dark Juan running for the hills and this album just… doesn’t. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it but I am just not feeling it, in which case it gets 7/10 because it is a good record, and I must be missing something. Maybe you guys out there can judge for me.

TRACKLISTING:

The Basilisk

Grey Skin

Psychonaut

Decoherence

Childhood’s End

Intermezzo III

Alien Nexion

Universal Rot

Chains of Existence

Omega

LINE-UP:

Simon White - Music and Vocals

Adrian Erlandsson - Drums

Guest Musicians:

Richard Shaw - Guitar Solos on "Psychonaut" & "Omega"

Anabelle Iratni - Additional Arrangements on "Psychonaut" & "Omega"

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