Swiss band Icare once started out as a studio project with no real intention to play live. Somewhere between their debut (Khaos) and their sophomore album, Charogne, this changed. The band wanted to play live. Of course you do that by playing one 43 minute long song. That sounds like solid logic right? It is a ballsy move indeed. What strikes me as funny is that this album (or this song, it is the same thing after all) is a logical continuation of Khaos.
Let me explain. Khaos is a strange album. The first song is pure, noisy grindcore. A short explosion of sound lasting a little over half a minute. Each song after that is more or less twice as long and shifts in sound from grindcore to a post-black and post-metal hybrid. The final song of the album is a monster of a song of twenty minutes and a bit. Now double that again and you get close to this album's length. Charogne is also a musical continuation of the development on Khaos. The album is a potpourri of different styles and genres, switching seamlessly from one style to the next. In this sense reminding me a bit of French powerhouse Celeste.
Before we dive deeper into the music, we need to discuss the theme of this record, as I think it plays a big role in the structure of the song. To be fair, the band points this out on their bandcamp, but once you start paying attention to it, you can really hear it. Charogne is the musical translation of “Une Charogne”, a poem by Charles Baudelaire. It is a long poem, a memento mori. As the romantics could also be kind of dark, you should not be surprised the poem also points out the beauty of decay. That is a pretty metal subject, am I right? This poem follows a certain structure and this structure echoes in the song's progression. There is a certain ebb and flow, the mood that shifts from brutal black metal mayhem to calmer yet intense post-metal passages that match the poem's transitions. This reminds a bit of how Shores Of Null switches moods to reflect each stage of grief on their one song album Beyond The Shores (On Death And Dying). It also reminds me a bit of Muladona by Rorcal, an album based on the book Muladona by Eric Stener Carlson.
"Charogne" starts with one repetitive guitar, while the other plays loose chords. By the time you’re thinking “what on earth am I listening to?”, around the two minute mark the drums enter the stage, blasting away. Three minutes in and the guitars change their pace and start playing dissonant melodies. I am reminded of disso-death à la Ulcerate in parts like this. You know there’s a break coming up, but you’ll have to wait a bit more. We are four minutes in and the song is now really on its way as the song opens up in a big way here. Describing the whole song would ruin the fun, but rest assured that moods shift frequently from Cult Of Luna and Amenra like intense post-metal to post-black metal in the vein of Hexis or Celeste. The aforementioned Rorcal also comes to mind as the intense production they are known for is mirrored by Charogne. The vocals have a post-metal, hardcore shout like quality that is as intense as the production.
In the past few weeks I have noticed this is music I can listen to only when I am in the right mood for it. If I am, time flies by and the album really captivates me. If I am not, I am bored before the first minute is over. Bear that in mind when you give this album a chance. And please give this album a fair chance. It just might end up being one of this year's best albums.
