"From the beginning of existence three nornes are sitting on a mountain’s crest spinning the immortal web of destiny. So it came that in 2009 the fate outstreched its fingers towards a saxonian town called Leipzig to open a passage between the worlds of light and fire and the worlds of darkness and ice to evoke the entity of CNTMPT. With the first selftitled invocation CNTMPT formed vast thoughts and emotions into acoustic percebtible squirts directly into the womb of human existence. Now, in the late time of the year 2018 CNTMPT will release its new collection of screams and shrieks into a world of distraction, disparity and arrogance to build up a wall of theurgy TOWARDS NEGLECT. Perceive and pray to your gods as long as there is time to do so!"
Do not be fooled by the band’s name, CNTMPT are hailing from Leipzig, Germany and not from Russia. Furthermore I am not quite sure whether it is an abbreviation with the vowels missing or Cyrillic script (I would vote for the first option – Frank). But what is better fitting for a Black Metal band than a mysterious moniker? The band was founded back in 2011, they published a digital single, the self-titled debut in 2014 and now "Towards Neglect". It is also not surprising that the members decided to stay anonymous, but info is given that they play(ed) in bands like ANTLERS, EVIL WARRIORS, II, BLACK SALVATION, DIVISION SPEED, BLOODY VENGEANCE and VIDARGÄNGR. Most striking on this album are the long instrumental parts, vocals are very sparely used. Only ‘Ascend Through Winds’ and ‘The Arrival’ are acoustic guitar songs. Even though the vocals are not omnipresent, when they make an appearance they really impressed me. Every kind of Black Metal vocals are used, from aggressive shrieks to reverbed chantings up to suicidal screaming. Same goes for the music, it is not one-dimensional, instead very intense and dynamic, with a strong guitar work and well played, forceful drums. Regarding the tempo, it is mostly played fast up to blast beating lunacy, in addition with the sometimes melodic, sometimes barbaric and battleful, sometimes desolate riffs forging a Black Metal experience at its best. CNTMPT crafted a vision so far away from normal day life and light, the listener is taken on a journey to the heart of darkness. Well, that is what Black Metal is supposed to be in my eyes. In 2015 Polish based MGLA caused quite rightly an uproar with "Exercises In Futility". Three years later CNTMPT are following the footsteps of this brilliant album. It always sounds pathetic, but if call yourself a Black Metal fan you have to take a listen! Or better buy this output, it’s released on vinyl and CD with an excellent cover, artwork and layout.
An entire album of straight-ahead atmospheric raw black metal, strong on melody and riffing, filled with intense, even overwrought emotion, fire and desolation, with no lyrics at all: this is German band Cntmpt's latest offering "Towards Neglect". Apart from a few short acoustic guitar or synth-wash pieces - two of which bookend the album so they're not exactly present for relief, they are really portals between two universes - "Towards Neglect" is a roller-coaster ride through a hell of extremes, of full-on aggression and hostility, and the sheer depths of despair, desperation and hopelessness. These two poles of intense emotion might seem contradictory but when so many recordings like this one feature aggression and despair, though maybe not to the emotional extremes that "Towards Neglect" takes them, you realise they're related: despair and lack of hope can and do generate anger and intense rage, and if such emotions are not managed well and result in destruction and loss, the blackness of depression again descends, another cycle of despair and destruction starts up again. Well I guess that's already obvious to most MA readers, even if you know subconsciously rather than consciously.
The short non-BM intro and outro pieces and the one breather "The Arrival" are mostly repetitive and serve as transitions from one state of awareness to another. The first proper BM track "Site of Vastness" reveals a band on fire with a jagged, scrabbling chainsaw tremolo guitar sound, super-fast flipping drumming and a driving bass. The vocals sigh and roar in the background. Alternating from straightforward melodic surge to a dreamily brooding atmospheric blues section to stuttery scrabbling pointillist guitar chaos, the track is a deliberate mess of complex emotions all struggling for full expression after long ages of repression, trying to fit into a language that can barely contain them or describe all they have to say. Generally the songs have similar structures, going from fast to mid-placed slow and back to fast and chaotic, all brimming over with anguish, inner torment and a burden of pain too much to endure. "Fire Theurgy" is a more rhythmic and structured song with a definite motif that passes from one section to the next and continues as is with lead guitar variations along the way, accompanied and embellished with distant howls that give the song a bleak and desolate atmosphere. Changes in pace and mood are organic as opposed to deliberately sharp and abrupt.
The 14-minute monster epic "Wyrd" is a solid block of intense open-wound BM rawness in both sound and desperation as guitars scrabble and scrounge away and the relatively clean vocals, swathed in echo, groan and curse in the background. The track is unrelenting and seems to have less clear direction than previous ones; also the vocals migrate from the distance and come closer to the listener. It's full-on grind, adding more layers of sonic abrasion and atmospheric pain, and the intensity increases to a shocking and abrupt climax.
For a recording of just over 41 minutes, this album is a highly immersive and deeply emotional ride into a dark inner hell. It's not really a suitable work for a solo listening session late in the evening when your mind and emotions are already drifting into a twilight zone. Best thing to do is to listen to the album a few songs at a time until you're used to the band's distinct raw BM sound, the atmosphere, the extremes of emotion expressed and the later songs which are more organic and less structured in form.
If you can last the ride through hell, you may be feeling drained at the end - but you know you survived.
All three band members of this German black metal act are prolific in a number of other bands such as Evil Warriors, Division Speed, Vidargängr, to name a few and within this project they are simply named as B, M and S and play bass, drums and guitars respectively. Where is the vocalist you are now pondering, and the answer to that is that there isn’t one as this band is an instrumental black metal act though the band has incorporated some backing chant voices into the music though I may have misinterpreted this during my listens of the album. You only have to look at the album art to gain some insight as to what to expect with its greyscale art conjuring up images of corruption and demons via two worlds from my interpretation, though you may see things differently. With seven tracks on offer the album opens with the short acoustic piece “Ascend Through Winds” that leads into “Site Of Vastness” and immediately you are thrust back through time 25 years or so where black metal minimalist production was fundamental to the genre and still is to some. The stark desolate guitar sound makes you want to isolate yourself in a darkened room, remove yourself from society as the blasted waves of percussion are kept to a minimum and held at the back within the production as this lengthy piece of music goes through a metamorphosis of moods. This transformation brings in those backing voices I mentioned, croaking residual voices on a semi acoustic foundation before the track returns to the acerbic blackened assault. “Fire Theurgy” begins in a pagan like fashion with percussive strains and a gentle guitar melody that is steeped in desolation before the song strides into blackened bleakness. The speed is relentless here, but not without melody as the band blends it all exceptionally well as the song is adorned lightly with backing chants that work extremely well and I apologise if I am misinterpreting these sections but that is how I am hearing it. “The Arrival” is a beautiful interlude that precedes the monumental epic “Wyrd”, a 14 minute expansive track that honours everything that is great about true black metal as it begins with a pristine guitar melody and haunting chant that bristles with emotion. The songs gradual and sequential escalation in tension is brilliantly executed, each passing second is layered with passion building to the shot of double bass and momentum as the speed is increased. You can close your eyes and be carried along with the power and despairing emotion of the song as those pagan like chants texturize the song to even more depth. The ever evolving complexity pinnacles with the song attaining blasting speed and is unerringly intense. The superb switch in tempo to double bass is fantastic and I belie you not to have goose bumps as each wave of the track envelops you in its embroiling tendrils of sumptuous obsidian artistry that links into the calming outro composition “Magical Herbs”. This is a synth based tune that allows the magnificence of “Wyrd” to wash away and leave you cleansed and in no doubt that Cntmpt’s sophomore album is a wonderful demonstration in the true black metal art.
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