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Corrupted: El mundo frio

25/01/10 || Khlysty

NOTE: this here review was co-written by Khlysty and forumer and gentleman of great taste Maverick. This is the product of much deliberation and you should feel free to enjoy it to its full length. Next time, we’ll also include references to Hegel, the Frankfurt school and Mishima…

Corrupted, have you heard of them? Unless you’re a huge addict to the doom scene, you probably have never heard of their existence. This Japanese band is one of the very best doom metal bands on earth, hell, they’re the BEST that you will ever encounter. This is doom to the extreme and since the first time one listens to their tunes, one will never hear anything as deep and filled with negation as this. Their songs are very long, yet they won’t not bore you if you’re patient enough (I’m only saying this because I’ve read a few complains about the song-lengths).

Anyway, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. Corrupted, from their inception in the early ‘90s, have been slowly leading their ambitious and, at the same time, unapproachable music towards an apex that anyone who follows the band’s career trajectory knew it was going to be, at the very least, apocalyptic. Their early explorations of doom metal’s lunatic fringe produced extended pieces of soot-covered, feedback-spiky riffing that, although repetitive to the extreme, were never redundant or boring, but were mostly a soul-wrenching experience.

Within the context of their idiosyncratic existence (Corrupted is a Japanese band that sings mostly in Spanish and never gives interviews or have professional photo-sessions) and their experimental approach towards doom metal, these guys have played with song lengths (from one-song-albums to more restricted efforts), texture (from brutish downtuned guitar riffing to delicate acoustic passages) and form (from almost-amorphous and cacophonous attacks to almost-academically-composed pieces of music). So, it seems that with “El Mundo Frio” (which means “The Cold World” in Spanish) the concatenation of their experimenting has led them to a conglomeration of all the different aspects of their music into a titanically-proportioned piece-de-resistance.

(As a sidenote, it MUST be mentioned that Corrupted have the evil tendency to drag the listener to reality’s harshest visions, mainly through sound, and to convey the true suffering around the world and reflect it on the listener’s life. You listen to Corrupted and ever so slowly you start to wallow in true, tangible despair, even when you’re safe and cozy and –possibly- happy and successful. So, it must be pointed out that this music is about atmosphere, and this band tops even the non-doom similar genres or styles)

Put simply, the almost 72-minutes-long composition (it would be unjust to call it a mere “song” and not only because of its length) is a suite-like masterpiece of music-making, orchestration, dynamics and pacing. From its subtle, almost subsonic intro, to the gradual addition of acoustic instruments, to its volcanic eruption of brutal-yet-controlled doom riffery and hoarse, death-growl vocals, to its lengthy, almost serene outro, “El Mundo Frio” sounds like nothing else in this world. The acoustic passages and their instrumental layering can be compared with post-rock visionaries (Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions In The Sky readily come to mind), but Corrupted seem to have an iron control over the evolution of the piece and the application of dynamics, that the bands referred above definitely lack.

As for the “doom” parts of the composition, the band goes to them slowly, deliberately, almost reverentially, almost praying for the deluge of guitars to come. The thunderhead gathers slowly and when the skies open, even if the squall of sound is incalculably dense and malevolent, the band never loses control over the elemental powers unleashed by their instruments and by the amplification. Instead, they seem to harness this power, to steer the torrent of sound towards a certain point, a peak, if you like, so as to be able to slowly, fractionally release the unbearable tension and oppressiveness, to let some light enter the blighted landscape they had created only moments ago. Instruments carefully fade away, remorphing from their electric selves to their acoustic counterparts, until only a guitar and a harp are left for the final, long droning moments of the composition.

A point must be made, concerning the vocals on this behemoth. As said before, Corrupted lyrics are in English, Japanese or Spanish and growled into oblivion. This time around, Hevi –the band’s growler changes this m.o. slightly, as he inserts clearly-intoned lyrics in Japanese, before going into white-out-growling in Spanish. The growling parts are top notch, as always; really low, bringing down the ambiance almost as if he’s screaming out of utter pain. As for the spoken-word parts, they are very clear and they are incisive and to the point, telling about killing every emotion in man and describing a reality as negative as the barren land on the record cover. Of course, all this is hard to follow if one’s not Japanese, or one’s not really good with Japanese (as the language used on the lyrics is as hardcore as it gets).

To cap things off, “El Mundo Frio” is certainly a song of mourning. It is also one of the most ambitious endeavors EVER in the annals of metal. The fact that it’s almost flawless gives the band more gravitas. The fact that, while the music is still quite difficult and the sheer bulk of the composition is daunting, these 72 minutes never sound boring or superfluous is almost unbelievable. As you can see, no swear words have been used in this review. This is not funny music, neither is it entertaining. This is as somber as a funeral, dark as the darkest moments in one’s life. It’s also beautiful, in an almost celestial, liturgical way, although it’s obvious that Corrupted’s god –if they have one- is a wrathful, unforgiving, uncaring one.

It’s also a masterpiece (yes, yes, redundancy, live with it…) and proof positive of the almost-limitless talent, commitment and, well, genius this band has. Of course, this is a record one has to face fully: mentally, spiritually and physically. If one’s looking for easy-to-chew brootality, or other metal clichés, one should immediately leave the premise. It’s probably harsh to say it, but, well, this is music for grownups. It’s also a classic and then some…

Information
Released: 2005
Label: HG Fact
Website: www.dxmxtx.com/corrupted
Band
Hevi: vocals
Anri: harp
Talbot: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Yokota: bass guitar, electric guitar
Chew Hasegawa: drums

Tracklist
01. El mundo frio

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