Style: adult contemporary, black metal, jazz (harsh vocals)
Review by: Dan
Country: USA
Release date: 23 April, 2021
According to last.fm, I’ve sampled 5,833 artists as of this writing, and I have never heard an album that sounds or cuts like Corpseflower. Period.
I’ve listened through this captivating, magical experience upwards of a dozen times by now, and still haven’t managed to quite put into words anything near as eloquent as what Cicada the Burrower has created here. This is a poignant and deeply introspective story about pain, about hope, and about transition. It’s cathartic and honest, emotional and beautiful, simultaneously haunting and uplifting. Placing myself into the mind of this artist while listening through Corpseflower has quite literally brought me to tears. This is art of the highest caliber, completely unfettered by genre or precedent, completely unbeholden to norms or expectations: pure, honest self-expression.
The full, entrancing experience of Corpseflower is hard to describe, to the point where I’ve missed my review submission deadline here at The Progressive Subway despite listening to this album on repeat, because I’ve struggled to nail it down. It’s a lush, gorgeous blend of jazz, black metal, and – in the artist’s own words – adult contemporary. The album artwork’s juxtaposition of muted, floral beauty with the grim macabre skeleton is quite representative of the soundscapes within: jazzy drums and uplifting melodies paired with gentle washes of distortion and harsh vocals in a wholly new and uncompromising way. Simultaneously familiar and yet utterly unique, it gets better and better with each listen. The hypnotic grooves make the album’s 30-minute runtime feel like a blink of an eye.
Album opener “The Fever Room” sets the tone well, with its soothing, hypnotic clean melodies, rounded, warm distortion, swinging drums, and memorable structure. The emotional intensity and darkness of the tracks gradually builds through the album’s outstanding and nearly continuous track-to-track flow, peaking with the harrowing chorus of “I wish I had never been born” in penultimate track “Psilocybin Death Spiral,” before the lengthy instrumental album closer title track gently returns the listener to a better headspace.
Adding to the richness of emotion within the music is the album’s backstory: Cameron is a transgender woman, and Corpseflower expresses the feelings of pain, self-discovery, and cautious hope that arose from coming out and beginning her journey towards self-acceptance. These complex emotions are real, raw, fresh, and tangible throughout the album. I’m no stranger to albums borne of this struggle – last year’s A Tessitura of Transfiguration by Victory Over the Sun is a particularly excellent and memorable example – but Corpseflower reopens those empathic wounds anew.
On the production side, at a surface level one could nitpick a bit, as the drums end up a bit buried and the vocals are a bit too prominent, but honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing. The unique production choices contribute to the album’s honest presentation, and help it hit home more effectively.
I can’t reiterate enough how unique and captivating this record is, and I can’t encourage you enough to lose yourself in its emotional soundscapes and open your mind to the pain and hope presented within.
Recommended tracks: all of them
Recommended for fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Deafheaven, Victory Over The Sun, Holy Fawn, crying
Final verdict: 9/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Blue Bedroom Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Cicada the Burrower is:
– Cameron Davis (everything)
2 Comments
GonzO · May 20, 2021 at 15:51
This _does_ have a lot going for it, but on first listen, is one of the many, many could-be rich and empowering journeys ruined by vocal style. I think people who are specifically fans of of harsh vox will enjoy it, but those of us who don’t pledge any fealty to the style (works in some places, not in others) probably won’t come away thinking that stylistic choice enhances the experience.
At best, it’s good enough to hear at least once _despite_ the vocals; an accomplishment all its own. But so far, the song I like the most is the instrumental, and I’m not an instrumental fan on the whole.
Reports from the Underground: April 2021 – The Progressive Subway · May 20, 2021 at 15:00
[…] who has lived these feelings could put to tape. This one cuts deep.You can read the original review here.Recommended tracks: all of themRecommended for fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Deafheaven, Victory Over […]