Album Review: THANTIFAXATH – SACRED WHITE NOISE

Since the release of Thantifaxath‘s 2011 self-titled EP, a sick 15 minute hell-ride, many fans of the increasingly noisy, ever expanding ambient/melodic black metal arena were ready to embrace the band’s follow-up. Thankfully the wait is now over and Sacred White Noise, the debut LP  from the Toronto based unidentifiable trio of creeps, deliverers six death-defying tracks – each one brutally attempting to soar higher and faster than the last in a confusing, yet cohesive direction. The record is full of highly technical noise and nervous-system rattling melodic black metal, juxtaposing around with the frenetic virtuosity of a Charlie Parker induced auditory hallucination. It bares it metal teeth with classic driving guitar melodies, then smashes them together with trippy changes and beyond the valley of death screams.

When they do perform live (which isn’t very often), the band manages to amp up their freak factor by performing cloaked in robes. They don’t talk to the press or do interviews. Even their own names (if they even have names like the rest of us mortals), are omitted from album liner notes. It’s unclear when they got together, or how long they have been brewing up their own brand of black metal. Which leads me to ponder the question, “what the fuck is in the water in Toronto?”. More specifically, what propels a band like Thantifaxath, who are seemingly carving out their own special corner in the listening library in hell, to create a nearly indescribable record like Sacred White Noise.

As the band is as secretive as they are atmospherically proficient, it’s hard to figure out what makes them tick. But bands like Thantifaxath do seem to quietly revel in out-fringing each other. Much like the strangely compelling and mysterious sounds of black metal bands like Xasthur and France’s Deathspell Omega, or the more recent efforts of technically charged noise from Nashville’s Inferi, and the lone-wolf drone of GOG (Michael Bjella) and his last release Ironworks, Thantifaxath‘s dark and Argento-inspired-out-of-tune guitars carve a path of stealthy progressions that build and then suddenly run head-on into an orchestra of grim vocals. With wild percussion matching every riff and scream with intimidating skill and unsettling ferocity.

The final track, Lost in Static Between Worlds, a crushing 11+ minute swan song, seems to have no true end, even in its final seconds – and plays out as you might expect actual inner-worldy static might sound. Strangely enough, the songs title might actually be a perfect way to attempt to define the bands sound. A task I feel utterly unqualified to do. Not only due to Thantifaxath‘s complex spider web like soundscape, but their refusal to be defined by anything but their ambitiously aggressive grooves. For which they deserve the highest praise. Though they claim to hail from Toronto, I still have to wonder what celestial plain Thantifaxath hopped off of first. Who the fuck are they, and where are they headed? If you know, then please tell me because I want to come along for the ride – and I’m calling shotgun. There’s room in the back seat if you want to come along, but you have to dig the Sacred White Noise first. Which I think you will.

You can catch Thantifaxath live at this years Maryland Death Fest on May 23rd. Sacred White Noise is out now via Dark Descent.