MRTVI – Negative Atonal Dissonance Review

MRTVI - NEGATIVE ATONAL DISSONANCE LargeYou’d totally be forgiven for thinking that this album is ripping the utter piss, and to be honest maybe it is but that doesn’t stop this experimental black or-whatever-the-fuck-type-of-metal metal album from being an endearingly joyous ear fap. It has all the trademarks of music but what comes out is truly, madly, deeply demonic. The best way to describe it would be; image if ill-bient wasn’t strangely modulating synth sounds and instead transposed into black metal territory and composed of tv theme songs, or something, something else entirely. It definitely has some coherence and it’s very dissonant.

Negative Atonal Dissonance is exactly what it says on the tin. Although this can of worms contains something better than secrets and touchy subjects. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you stuck many prominent and influential jazz musicians in a blender because that’s possibly a very close approximation to what’s going on with MRTVI and is almost certainly part of the appeal.

There are many threads of traditional musical phrasing, intertwined and overlapping to create a cosmic dissonance of creative integrity on this album. MRTVI refrains from any kind of pretentious associations this album embodies the Latin phrasing, and motto for MGM studios, Ars Gratia Artis meaning Art from Arts’ Sake. It may at first glance seem like musical salad but deeper and further down the spiral there’s not just some interesting phrasing going on but many different threads and at the same time. In a sense epitomizing the idea of atmospheric black metal and awesome riffs more truly than any paint shop prole embracing their inner panda (or zebra.)

Be afraid, and in the words of the mastermind of MRTVI Damjan Stefanovic: “In an infinite universe, music is endless; a spectrum of emotion, of atmosphere, a vibrational connection running through and joining all frequencies; a spiritual, meditative practice, a dream and a nightmare connecting the creation with the creative force…”

Well said.

10/10

About David Oberlin 519 Articles
David Oberlin is a composer and visual artist who loves noise more than a tidy writing space. You can often find him in your dankest nightmares or on twitter @DieSkaarj while slugging the largest and blackest coffee his [REDACTED] loyalty card can provide.