Album: Avadhuta Gita Chapter 1 (supposedly not to release another one)
Genre: Experimental Black Metal
Country: Italy
Year: 2011
Extreme ritual black metal or extreme clanking scratching metal? "Kaula" describes itself as experimental black metal exploring themes of the Kali cult and the Avadhuta Gita of Hinduism, and their first and only album so far is "less an actual album than a spiritual quest".
One thing that's immediately noticeable is that the hooks are great - truly in the area of ritual black metal, as if to trap the listener in a trance back to the ancient empires beyond earth; after these follow the usual metal vocals, which aren't bad, but at this point you realize that they really are a "black metal" band and not ritual or ambient. These parts are good especially because the instrumentals are always in the background, and when the vocal denouements come we hear the guitars or whatever else is making that infernal noise grow louder as if the chants have actually summoned something.
Riffs are average and supported by ritual ambient effects (distortion/bass). This makes them a little better than the average riff. Vocals aren't droning and their brevity is almost Burzum-esque, but nothing else is.
Rated 6/10 for Black Metal for ritual ambiance/noise, rare themes/lyrics.
"It also can be seen as the vision of one Pietro Riparbelli, an Italian artist who not only composed and recorded the whole thing throughout most of 2009 and 2010 but also designed its cryptic booklet and contributed with organs, medianic chants, field recordings and radio signals.
Defining himself as a "philosopher, composer and sound-multimedia artists based in Liverno, Italy", Riparbelli may have made for himself in the noise/experimental spheres with his main act K11 -- with whom he put out a bunch of lo-fi mind-boggling through multiple respectable imprint like Old Europa Café, 20 Buck Spin, Actual Noise or Aurora Borealis -- but Kaula is a whole different beast that eludes any firm categorization and whose desire to strip the listener down of any preconceived notions and take him somewhere he's never been before is the backbone of one-a-kind project. Musically wise, what could be seen at first glance at some kind of weird black-metal outburst -- including rasping vocals courtesy of Rosy from old-school death-metal warriors - Profanal and buzzsaw guitars -- soon makes sure all rules go out the windows by using various metal (doom, thrash) and non-metal (noise industrial) elements and create a sonic black hole.
But it's really on the spiritual level -- or, say, on the conceptual level if you will - that Kaula really treads on uncharted territories. Keen to explore the Hindu culture and the cult of Kali in particular, all the lyrics are based here on ancient text called 'Avadhuta Gita', said to have been originally written in the IXth century. As a result, all seven tracks have been named after it and are basically about attaining a spiritual state "equivalent to the existence of god".
Suffice to say that mastered by Mell Dettmer, who've worked with SunnO))) and Earth among (many) others, Kaula debut is a beast on its own."
*I must state that this probably shouldn't be listened to for enjoyment by anyone seeking to destroy Kali worship, such as myself. From a spiritual point of view, this album threatens to strengthen the idea-forms of the Kali Yuga through individual psyches.
** I couldn't find a place to download this from other than a Bandcamp page which charges you a euro.
I felt like this album needed to be dealt with. Melodramatic Italians might have been pretentious in writing these descriptions, against which I can easily dismiss as something edgy. Other than the superb leads, I don't recommend this band.
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