Embrace of Thorns - Atonement Ritual
June 29 2009 at 07:50:01 PM
Hasten slowly… Attica’s Embrace of Thorns is not whoring some bogus Weltanschauung to every glossy mag, “Metal” site, and blog it can find. Embrace of Thorns is not touring tirelessly with mediocre ensembles more interested in image than musical substance. And Embrace of Thorns is not a messageboard darling who easily tallies up a 100-post thread regarding packaging and alternate art and different colored vinyl offerings. Why? Embrace of Thorns is actually a fucking great band making killer Black Metal wholly obsessed with desecration and blasphemy of the Christian ideals. There’s no talk of fighting modernity, assuming agrarian lifestyles, or
Adbusters style take-down-the-man-indignation, just a focused assault on the Judeo-Christian system. Sometimes it thankfully can be that simple…
“Archfiend DevilPig” and “Herald of Demonic Pestilence” and “Nuctemeron Bestial Ravisher of the Divine Harmony” take chiseled down-tuned leads and wrangle both natural progression and dick-thumping permutation from them. But that makes them sound slow, and they aren’t. There’s a fair share of off-to-the-races shtick, yet the guitar never loses its brass pair in the kickup of dust.
The imagery here is primal Christ blood, sloppy goatfuck, succubae replete with slicken cunts, and with songs entitled “Ceremonial Rites of Fornication,” “Tombs of Desecrated Zealots,” and “Impure Orgasm” (Alas, only an “intro”) any dumbfuck with a semi-disposable income can determine whether or not it’s this stuff he wants to be rocking while he surfs the “clothed female/nude male” sites.
Some of these tunes stand out like a hustler’s rocket in his pocket. “Venom in Veins” is begging to be appropriated to WWE’s end. The riff is one of those brain burners that makes me just want to pick up my house and throw it into the next zipcode. “Death Yells in Triumph” harnesses the vibe responsible for coaxing 14-year-olds on top of school buses with their sticks to messily execute “acid drops.” See you at the ER. But, oh please – take my motherfucking word for it: Not everyone needs this. You, buying Leviathan splits and Crudo))) limted eds: You do not need this. You, buying anything from HydraHead (slipmat, hipflask, douche, tire pressure gauge, nose hair trimmer): You do not need this. You, who went to see Wolves in the Throne Room and reported back the second you got home, telling the Internet they were, “the Best Band Ever”: You do not need this. You, who bought the Von reissue, and have never even heard the fucking band before: You do not need this. You, who left a disparaging comment on my Mastodon review: You most certainly do not need this. Yes. Festina lente, kids.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
Embrace of Thorns
Atonement Ritual
Nuclear War Now!
2009
RSS FEEDS
TWITTER
print
email
list
big
small
"Embrace of Thorns is a fucking great band making killer Black Metal wholly obsessed with desecration and blasphemy of the Christian ideals.
They execute a focused assault on the Judeo-Christian system. Sometimes it thankfully can be that simple&
Archfiend DevilPig and Herald of Demonic Pestilence and Nuctemeron Bestial Ravisher of the Divine Harmony take chiseled down-tuned leads and wrangle both natural progression and dick-thumping permutation from them. But that makes them sound slow, and they arent. Theres a fair share of off-to-the-races shtick, yet the guitar never loses its brass pair in the kickup of dust.
The imagery here is primal Christ blood, sloppy goatfuck, succubae replete with slicken cunts, and with songs entitled Ceremonial Rites of Fornication, Tombs of Desecrated Zealots, and Impure Orgasm (Alas, only an intro ) any dumbfuck with a semi-disposable income can determine whether or not its this stuff he wants to be rocking while he surfs the clothed female/nude male sites.
Some of these tunes stand out like a hustlers rocket in his pocket. Venom in Veins is begging to be appropriated to WWEs end. The riff is one of those brain burners that makes me just want to pick up my house and throw it into the next zipcode. Death Yells in Triumph harnesses the vibe responsible for coaxing 14-year-olds on top of school buses with their sticks to messily execute acid drops. See you at the ER. But, oh please take my motherfucking word for it: Not everyone needs this."
Yes, that's a tight "house style" there.
One of your problems is you assume there is "one way" to write. That's fine; have at it.
This "substantive edit" assumes the writer doesn't know what he/she means to say, and the editor takes it upon his or her self to shape the piece, and spin their take on the author's intent.
Since you are not an editor of mine, we have neither shared a conversation about Embrace of Thorns' music nor the way I intended to frame the review. Considering this, your reception is tainted, reactionary, and thoughtless.
I can understand your need for acceptance, and more so to belittle what you perceive to be "bullshit." But if you're going to read a writer you apparently have major stylistic problems with, don't lay your cock on my shoulder and tell me it's a helping hand. There are lots of outlets out there employing your "house style." Go to them. Now. Run.
Then again, that might be redundant...
I remember first laying eyes on the LP cover art for ...For I See Death in Their Eyes... and thinking that some Tampa Bay Satanic Death Scrub circa 1987 must have fallen into a 20-year time-space warp and sustained traumatic brain injury for his troubles. After he landed (on his head), he scrawled the only thing he could remember onto the back of a spiral notebook. Then I listened, and honestly, cant recall anything special about what I heard (other than the drumming being awful). When faced with Atonement Ritual, I had to conclude that the artwork was much closer to something that might pass for ADHD, and since TBI doesnt just go away, I was afraid the time-traveler had returned to the ancient Morbid Angel set from whence he came. Then, lo and behold, 20th June brought Prevalence: A Decade of Atomic Genocide, and I was reassured by the likelihood that he might be stuck here after all.
The Teitanblood of 7C is so many things (thankfully) it's impossible to say it's indicative of influence x or y or z. Early Carcass, early Napalm, etc. Surely. But wholly Teitanblood. Same for EoT. That's art!
Because I criticize a part of a review you write that means I think their is only one way to write? Preposterous. That's an enormous leap in logic.
"assumes the writer doesn't know what he/she means to say"
I never assumed you didn't write what you meant to say. In fact, I think you wrote exactly what you meant to say. You are a good to great writer. I have no beef with that. My problem is that I disagree with your assessment of the state of successful underground music. It feels like you have nothing but contempt for underground bands which garner any amount of success. That said, I understand the need to champion the cause of the little guy. I applaud your tireless efforts to do just that. I just don't see the need to tear down more successful acts in order to bolster the underdog. And that is exactly what you did with this review. What the fuck does Embrace of Thorns have to do with the other bands you mentioned or thinly alluded to? My edit was merely a way to illustrate my disdain for your proclivity to attack the mildly successful, but also to show that you obviously have great talent in highlighting the positive attributes of good acts. I just want to see more of the later and less of the former. I know I can't always get what I want, but I figured the comments section was their to allow me to express my opinion. Maybe my opinion will have some effect on you the way yours has an effect on mine. In other words, it sometimes serves to bring mine more in line with yours and sometimes it makes me buck.
I'd never heard of Embrace of Thrones before reading your review. I have noting to say about that band. I read your review in hopes of gaining insight into the album to determine wether I should purchase their album or not. What I found in your review was a mixture of extremely helpful descriptions and completely disparate filler. Tainted? Whatever. I guess I need to have actually listened to the album before commenting on the helpfulness of your review. Reactionary? Yes. I reacted to your review. You got me there. Thoughtless? Heh.
Acceptance? C'mon.This ain't about acceptance. Where did you pull that one from?
A few weeks ago, after the comments section on one of your reviews turned into a repository for jokes, you called everyone pussies for failing to criticize your review. Now, I drop a criticism on this review and you react by asking me to leave? Boo-hoo! Who's the pussy now?
None of your comments are about assertions I made about Embrace of Thorns; they are comments about the framing of the review.
If you consider the framing unecessary, it's equally as unecessary to comment about it. That is what's "preposterous," holmes.
If it's unnecessary to comment on an opinions expressed, then there's no need for discussion... about anything... ever. Will you please think about how ridiculous that last sentence of yours is? Please?
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.
No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!
That said, I think this Livewire came bearing kisses, not fists. That's how me and DePalma started dating. I "redid" one of his "shitty" reviews and made it "great." The rest was history.
As for the boredom, I understand it as a state of intense disinterest. I'm not disinterested in writing; if you're disinterested in reading my writing but read it anyway, I can't help you there. You don't pay for it. It doesn't force itself on you. It's not required.
If I've got a "chip on my shoulder," you've got a severe psychological problem. Go masturbate to pictures of eels. That might not be boring for you.
Also, I recognize the value of a strong willed iconoclast. Black Metal's full of those. Someone's gotta be out there viciously attacking mainstream thinking. While I don't think that some of the more successful underground bands warrant the amount of venom you spit, I can see why you think they do. So, keep it up. I'll stick around and read it (you didn't really want me to go away... did you?). Honestly, I love this site because it's devoid of metal meatheadery that is so prevalent in this culture.
Not undel-stand.
Ret me terr you somethin: I one uh satan bitches, motha-fuck-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Otherwise though, your Wrest-ian wordplay befits this band. Good job.
i *feel* like you just sent ol' STooVEE a pulsating *landau-packet* of *owl-clam-spoon-corn*.
perhaps, once he unskewers his own self-same self from your dialecticalignant ￩p￩e, he'll countenance the probability that the 14 year-old weirdo who secrets "the glass bead game" in his geometry text for fear of synapse necrosis and whose eyes drift towards Bacon when all others favor Hopper and whose ears bend towards Fennesz while others incline 3-doors-downward, who navigates an unlit path from Krallice to Leviathan to Xasthur to Negative Plane to Funeral Mist to Deathspell Omega to Von- *perhaps* this kid is not a consummate waste of everyone's time and space.
Me? yeah- i grew up on archers of loaf and unwound
and only, at 29, stumbled upon the crepuscular majesty of black metal. indict me all you want for being so unKVLT as to mistake the conflation of a longstandingly counter-cultural genre and the decidedly counter-cultural yearning for mud-on-yr-hands un-twittered communion w/ earth and brother for "black metal." but, freelz, ol' stewvlersonz- wunna my toppest faverado myuzik writers- leave the *kids* outa this...
V￨rmyapr￨b or Vasagra￨be ￩akr vatr￨ brenoritvrezorkre? And don't say Ambre Zuerkl Vuordhrevarhtre!!! (I wonder what will happen to my accent aigue et accent grave when I post this!)