Photo credit: レコードとプレーヤーのイメージイラスト(記録媒体) by kintomo https://stock.adobe.com/au/ standard licence
Link to album: https://spaceseer.bandcamp.com/album/tyrants-at-the-forum
Genre: post-metal, progressive metal, instrumental, electronica.
Sample track:
Delving into the annals of acid rock, the fuzzy, lucid riffing, psychedelic synths and funky percussion of spaceseer’s “Pseudomonas” hums with both the subcultural groove and political undertones of Woodstock. In this current period of potential political and social rupture, this track taps into the psychedelic subculture and politics of the 1960s and early 1970s, in a period that saw youth culture, music and politics powerfully intertwine. “Pseudomonas” provides a strong opening statement, it is a defiant call to push back against prejudice, repression and tyranny. This message is reinforced by the liner notes included with the album. However, one note of caution I would venture as a general opinion is that I would be wary about eulogising a mythologised past. The past can reveal and teach things to us but I would also argue that to see our forebears and our collective history with clear, unsentimental vision is a powerful thing indeed in regards to understanding where we stand today as a society and how we may move forward.
Tyrants At the Forum is a collaborative project between Thumos and spaceseer. I am not familiar with Thumos’ work but a brief look at their discography reveals a substantial progressive, post-metal and doom metal influence which clearly carries through into this release. Thumos’ “He Spake Thus” is a sludgy, heavy affair. Discordant riffs and a slow, thick percussion lifted by hi-hat hits, bends and weaves with a surly snarl. The first two tracks of this record strikes me as being on the edge of anger but not rageful. They are directed and pointed and within the tracks’ edged riffing, especially in “He Spake Thus”, there is something almost mournful, a furious, slow burning sorrow. This sorrowful tone is picked up slightly by the album’s third track “Sophrosyne” which shimmers with a redolent and light beauty. It harmonises mournfulness with something hopeful in a rather splendid fashion and I was quite moved by this track.
The closing composition is a return to the spacey, evocative, synth dominated soundscape I am more familiar with in regards to spaceseer’s work. The highly political nature of this release along with the driven guitars of the first two tracks made me wonder how this album was going to end, how it was going to reconcile the spleen it was venting in its first half with what is actually a hopeful message by the album’s creators as articulated in the liner notes: to get the “Tyrants out of the Forum!”. The third track provided a transition out of the discontent expressed in the first two tracks but I’m not sure the closing track provides much of a conclusion or a reconciliation of the emotions expressed by the record. I found that the energy and vitality of the album dissipated into the cool, almost cold, airy synths of the final track.
It’s easy for me to criticise how this record chooses to conclude itself but I also understand how difficult it is to provide a meaningful answer to the issues this album seeks to confront and perhaps this is reflected in how spaceseer and Thumos decided to end Tyrants At The Forum. What needs to be undertaken to set right all that is worrying, unfair and inequitable within our society almost seems like an implausible task within our current system but yet the call for revolution also seems highly risky and potentially as equally catastrophic as continuing on as we are. What is the way forward for us as a human species seeking to organise ourselves as a society while also trying to cope with the environmental impact our activities are having on our planet? It could be argued that the dissipation that happens at the end of this record is much like the ill-defined, unknown but potentially disharmonious future we are facing. It is inconclusive and vague and perhaps there are no answers because we simply do not know.
I really like this album for its tone and what it is trying to do. As someone who enjoys politics, it’s great to see it injected into music through sludgy riffing, doom metal stained discordance and referencing music’s own past. The dip into acid rock is particularly effective at bringing to mind an increasingly relevant historical period of protest, social upheaval and the societal attempt by some to imagine more than what was offered. I heartily recommend this album and invite you to ask yourself what the conclusion of this album sounded like to you. Moreover, after reading my thoughts about this record, what did this album sound and feel like to you? This is perhaps the triumph of Tyrants At The Forum, it asks you to think about not just the music it offers but about the wider issues that give impetus to the emotions and commentary heard on this release which are also further explained in the liner notes. The fact that this record was written at all is indicative that all is not well or healthy within not just America’s Republic but within many of our democracies as well and I thoroughly enjoyed the thoughtful way these difficult issues were musically explored by both these artists.
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