Mekigah - Litost (CD Review)

01.Total Cessation Of One
02.The Sole Dwelling
03.Arangutia
04.By Force Of Breath
05.Sa FII Al Dracului
06.Wurrmbu
07.Circuitous Revenge
08.Mokuy
09.An Overbearing Insanity
10.Bir Yun

Vis Ortis (Vocals/All Instruments)
T.K. Bollinger (Vocals)
Axiam Ziltch (Guitar)

Mekigah is a unique act from Australia formed in 2008, creating a mixture of Black/Doom/Metal and ambient soundscapes.
The record company adds; "It will not appeal to everyone - but at the same time people who appreciate many underground or metal sub-genres will be impressed by this".

So we begin with 'Total Cessation Of One', strange synth sounds and weird vocal f/x, nothing else but layer upon layer of sound.

Heavy distortion chords and more synth weirdness and i am starting to get an understanding of what Vis Ortis is creating here.'The Sole Dwelling' keeps the noise in the background and adds some doom drum patterns and more guitar then comes in an eveil sounding vocal, borderline avant-garde funeral doom, but creates something you can barley listen to.
Now that is not a bad thing here, back in 2006 there were 2 cd's by Occupier, music that was described as a soundtrack to a torture chamber and unlistenable, except that it was listened to in the same way that Merzbow is.

So this music is very difficult to review without sounding negative (which it is not menat to be) you see each of these pieces are long slow, torturous, have little than you can pick up on in the way of a hook or chorus, they are not even nice to listen to, its a nightmare of the worst kind made real through sound manipulation.
Yes there is the occasional piece that has a solid rhythm played out on a cymbal or drum beat.

Some may view this as just a series of noise layered upon more, but its not, the more you listen the more you can see the method in the madness and a solid structure forming.

Think of the werid/spoken passages in the early Axis Of perdition albums, its that kind of style but as a whole body of work.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Merzbow, Exorium/Occupier, Axis Of Perdition, Zweitstein