Mussorgski "In Harmony With The Universe" CD

New layout by Church Of Chaos Multimedia.

Recorded & mixed at Tuba Studio (Wrocław-Poland) March 1995

The last few years have seen an explosion of space-themed black metal, from the likes of Mesarthim, Mare Cognitum, Alrakis and many others. As the surprising renaissance of digital-age black metal continues in myriad directions, it makes a certain amount of sense that a sizable chunk of the black metal fanbase—one not unacquainted with science-nerdery, if it has to be pointed out—would respond well to new themes that eschew the sometimes-dated ‘goats and Satan’ imagery of ‘orthodox’ black metal, no matter that the latter strain has undergone its own surprising innovations as of late. And it’s not as if the cosmic theme is any stranger to black metal—Thorns, Emperor, and (on their ambient albums) Beherit all entertained the idea of ultimate Evils and ultimate voids in outer space on influential Second Wave albums.
So, is this a lost missing link? Not really—in fact, it’s something far more unique, and specific to its’ time. The key component shared by the modern bands like Mesarthim, Alrakis, etc, besides their lyrical theme is membership in the new wave of ambient, progressive black metal, a cohesive movement that extends to plenty of bands without any cosmic imagery. These bands share a sound informed by post-rock and techno music, far away from the angular squalling of the first few Emperor albums. In Harmony With The Universe has ambient passages, otherworldly gongs, and distorted speech (I can’t tell if the spoken bits are original or well-placed B-movie samples), and it does have occasional washes of majestic clean guitar riffs reminiscent of Emperor (most notably on the track New York – Miami), but it differs in some key ways from anything the current crop of space-BM bands share as an influence. Notably, Mussorgski are obviously influenced by harsher 90s industrial music a la Wumpscut or Front 242, which they blend with galloping Darkthrone riffs, a fairly typical 90s drum machine which alternates between adequate blastbeat simulation and more industrial-sounding textures, and delightfully weird synth lines which expertly weave around the rasped, insistent vocals and rise above the average horror movie soundtrack level to add an element of genuine eeriness to the music.
In Harmony With The Universe is a great example of just how weird 90s black metal could get, and how many disparate influences crept into the edges of the scene. The attitude one takes away is ‘This is how creepy outer space can be’ and the personal and uncompromising approach taken on this album (and even more so on Mussorgski’s early demos) is crucial to conveying the full creepiness of that vision. With its’ unique songs, some dirge-like and sample-filled, others blasting repetitions of urgent and cryptic mantras (the aforementioned New York – Miami consists mostly of those two words repeated over and over, and it’s one of the creepier and more compelling songs on the album), this album is cinematic in the best sense of the word: it readily spurs one’s mind into imagining a claustrophobic and ill-fated vision of cosmic horror and future conflict. Those buzzing pulses in the background—are they the futile rotations of a fouled airlock motor? The details are up to you. Mussorgski do not take it as a given that in space, nobody can hear you scream.

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