Search - Sculptured :: Embodiment

There Is Nothing More Useless Than an Organ

Joseph J. Dartez | Baton Rouge, LA | 09/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First, though I usually don't like it when reviews do this, I'm going to have to qualify the last reviewer's statements. He has allowed his personal taste (about which there can be no argument) to affect his objectivity.



First, the notion that you can or cannot connect with music an a "direct emotional level" is almost always subjective, and nearly impossible to quantify, especially when one considers that music is the most abstract art of all. This album is beautiful, compelling, and captures something true. If that's not enough emotion, then I don't really understand the complaint. Second, Sculptured does not and never has sounded like Mr. Bungle. They are avant-garde for sure, but in a very different way from Mr. Bungle.



Now, on to the review proper.



Previous Sculptured albums (which are also fantastic) have generally relied on unlayered riffs integrated in a complex fashion. This gave the impression of simplicity despite the complexity. For example, in Apollo Ends, the last track is a clever summary of the album, which forces the listener to observe the story embedded in it. This album is very different. It has very complex layers in every single song, and what often happens is that a single thread of the layers of a riff will provide the basis for a new riff, making the music very coherent and organized. The organs are definitely present throughout the album, but they do not seem cheesy to me in the way that they did to the previous reviewer. In fact, most of the time they are a melodic hum in the background. There is only one track in which the organ becomes prominent, "Bodies without Organs". In this track, the chorus "There is nothing more useless than an organ" is sandwiched between two rather flamboyant organ solos. I think it's a pretty clever joke.



There is another thing that this album does that previous Sculptured albums did not: at no point in the course of this album is the listener allowed to convince himself that there is a straightforward jingle-like melody at work. While probably a bit more harmonic than previous efforts, Embodiment is also a bit less accessible. The reason for this is that polyrhythms and dissonance are used in much more obvious ways. But, as mentioned before, these tech-metal elements are not used in pretentious ways like many tech-metal bands use them (e.g. Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan). What Sculptured does that tech-metal bands have not yet seemed to figure out is provide relief. The undeniable fact about intricate, technical and dissonant music is that it is not very easy to hum along to, so to speak. Cryptopsy, for example, provides oodles of technicality without any relief at all. Sculptured, on the other hand, seems to understand the necessity of interweaving dissonance with melody. As soon as you begin to think that the music might start getting a bit too unwieldy, you are rewarded with a smooth soundscape often accompanied by clean vocals.



This is a five-star album from beginning to finish and there is nothing in here that is throw-away material. I find it hard to believe that Sculptured will be able to top this album in the future. The only complaint I can think of is their strange philosophy. It seems as if Sculptured (and Agalloch, too) has a strong disdain for the body and the fact of our humanness, which is regrettable but not indefensible."

Excellent Musicianship, Math-Rock but still human

avgvstvs | Omaha NE | 04/03/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...In a way. You can't connect with these songs on a direct emotional level. They do a good job of creating an atmosphere that sorta feels like a horror movie, but not in a Rob Zombie sense. In some kind of weird nightmarish, silent-movie sense. The few sound samples interspersed drive that home.



Musically these guys remind me alot of Mr. Bungle, which is not a good thing in my opinion. (Just don't like them.) It's the organ they use throughout the album... reminds me of circus-cheese and its a sound I wish would just die out.



However, the guy playing that organ is damn good and I can't fault him for his skills.



Really these guys are more Jazz than metal, when the dust settles. (And not in the 'Dillenger' way. These guys don't sound so pretentious.)



Those comparisons aside it is a very enjoyable recording that can't be done in pieces. Listen to it all the way through. It fills the void of... well, the need for something different to listen to. Overall I much prefer Don Anderson's other band Agalloch, but that's in personal taste and not in something substantive."