A Biorhythmic Review of Oath By Lacrimacorpus Dissolvens

The goal of this review is to capture the biological rhythms that live within the song “Circle of Oblivion”, the most impressive song on the recent release “Oath” by the impeccable Mexican metal band Lacrimacorpus Dissolvens.  In order to properly accomplish this feat, I have borrowed an ontological lapsometer from my good friend Dr. Tom More. Dr. More’s machine is capable of studying the rhythms of the human soul.  The machine itself is highly dangerous and occasionally unreliable, but was my best shot at finding the essence of what this music actually means.  I strapped myself to the device for three consecutive hours while listening to this song in a darkened room repeatedly, then used the soul rhythms that I discovered as the structural base for the review of the full album.

……………..flowing…………..slowly……………………rising………………………flowing………………slowly………connected to nothing and everything all at once……………………at once… ………..flowing…………ever…………….never…………………..gone……………………..exploding flashes of red and orange and red and orange and red and orange……………………………… …………………………………..twisting……..twisting………twisting……..twisting and turning and turning and turning and turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer* and turning and turning…………………

At first, the album catches your attention only in a disconnected, distant way.  You are not part of it.  Slowly you are gathered into the darkness of its composition.  You make connections in your mind to other things.  Similarities.  Memories of early Opeth are your starting point.  Clearly, there is a connection, but only in a structural sense.  The music is very much its own entity.  It ebbs and flows in an organic way.  It is you and you are it for a fleeting moment.  It beckons a subtle hand in your direction.  You follow, not so much out of necessity, but out of preternatural curiosity.  What is behind the door?  What is behind the door?  What is behind the door?  WHAT is behind the door?  You open it only to gaze up yourself.  A parallel you.  The you in front of you contains the same parts in the same order, but you are aware that it is something else.  Only you would see.  The parts do not add up to the whole, no matter in which order you place them.

…………….distance…………is……………here…………..now………turning………turning…….

turning………..turning………breathe……………….

boiling rage incarnate………….flavor……fever…….fervor………

and nothing

the parts

the whole

and nothing

The bitter quiet spirit of spiritlessness echoes through a thousand darkened hallways

and nothing

only parts

and sum

and nothing

*All praise due W.B. Yeats “The Second Coming”