JOHN FRUM
A Stirring In The Noos
Relapse Records
4.5/5
Nearly six years in the making, this musical collaboration that consists of former and current members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless, Cleric, John Zorn and others is quite a sight. John Zorn doesn’t even make metal music as he’s known for trippy soundscapes and that’s one of the primary reasons that attracted me to this act to begin with. Suffice it to say, the record is not quite as atmospheric as you might expect, feels rather weighty and does seem to inject more progressive and technical death metal into the mix than what you might perceive. Instead of sounding like any of the acts involved, John Frum (named after a tribe of natives in the South Pacific islands known as the Cargo Cult, whose encounter with the outside world led to an awakening of new beliefs and lifestyles) are completely their own entity and primarily death metal. This is the kind of death metal that comes very much unexpected for the kinds of musicians gathered, especially as the vocal approach is that of a very raucous growl. I’m actually thinking heavily of acts like early Opeth and mid-era Edge Of Sanity among others like Sculptured and even Bloodbath. If we mixed those Swedish death slabs of the nineties with some of the more technical stuff that was going on around that time and a bit later with the djent movement, we’d have a perfect representation of the band as a whole.
Once again, this IS a death metal record. Don’t expect any core musings and clean vocals that you might find in Dillinger or similar. It’s not math metal or even remotely close. A Stirring In The Noos actually feels like something far older and much more classy. I did have a problem with certain sections on the record, like the half-baked solo that comes in during the doom influenced brooder “Memory Palace” (the two opening notes sound incredibly rough and off-key) but I’m going to set those aside, as they’re all similar nitpicks. Progressive death metal fans are going to get what I feel the true definition of the genre really is. There has been a great deal of funeral doom entering into this style of metal as late, which honestly got old rather fast. It’s good to hear a band that is more interested in bringing the genre back to it’s roots, even if it sounds more like a classic progressive death metal disc than anything remotely new or different. Even so, it’s something you’re going to be proud to have in your collection and I’m quite glad that I bought it myself and supported these guys. To be completely honest, I simply bought the disc on a whim (it was not offered as a promo) after reading about it’s conception and the fact that it was described as “progressive death metal.” I’ll admit that it was a huge gamble, but I’m glad that it turned out even as half as well as it did. This was worth the six years of waiting time, and hopefully we won’t have to wait another six years for another recording. Even if we never get another release from these guys, I’d be happy as a lark with just this one as occurred with the Lykathea Aflame situation of years ago. (Yes, you should check out that masterpiece as well.)
Sometimes the band will offer up doses of soundscapes (that’s where Zorn comes in) as well as full-blown instrumental musings which actually don’t feel as if they were just left there without vocals. Rather, we’re getting a complete performance from beginning to end that shouldn’t usher any sort of complaints from listeners – just as long as they know what they’re getting. Again, this is NOT Dillinger, Faceless, Cleric, John Zorn or any of their related projects – it IS death metal, it is very much tuned to the old school sound and style of the genre and it does manage to come off as quite a bit more ambiguous than a large majority of death discs I’ve heard as of late. Some might even call it a throwback to those eras of classic progressive death metal, which was made up of numerous obscurities that I need not mention here. For most people, this disc is already a given. I’ve already seen several people promoting it in various places on my social media feeds, showing that metalheads are seriously digging this one. A Stirring In The Noos is the kind of album that you might wind up wearing out due to overplay and it is also the kind of recording that you’ll be able to come back to even ten years later and still find to be a good album. I almost want to say that it is a masterpiece, even if it is a style that we have heard before in decades past. Yet it’s a style nearly lost, while myriads of bands continue to repave already repaved roads for around the thousandth time. I would have no choice but to recommend A Stirring In The Noos to everyone. It is without a doubt, one of the best albums that we will hear this year in the heavy metal genre and should (as I said) be cherished further within the years to come. Even if we never get another outing from these fine musicians, I will be more than happy with this. (The Grim Lord)