Scholomance

Starting with a slow, ominous piano introduction which quickly escalates into their trademark multi-layered technical attack – the instruments ride under, over, and through each other in order to impale themselves deep into your consciousness – Scholomance’s eagerly anticipated second opus The Immortality Murder starts where their last critically acclaimed work A Treatise On Love left off, with a completely original, intensely progressive approach to modern metal that seeks to enhance, increase, or push the evolution of every element of their idiosyncratic sound. To put it simply, there is no other band quite like Scholomance, and they are probably the only musicians in the world who could have even contemplated executing the material on display here with their new release. While A Treatise On Love featured nine songs and 51 minutes of pure intensity, easily eclipsing even the most absurdly innovative bands in the genre, The Immortality Murder sees this band pushing themselves even further in their search for unique song structures, melodies, or new avenues of expression. This highly complex, passionate work combines the best of Scholomance’s two-pronged assault on your senses: their technical prowess and the vehement exploration of the cruel corners of existence which they pursue with a zeal that accepts no compromises. The music of Scholomance is purposely designed to make the intolerant or traditional fans of metal flee for the dark corners of their own closed minds. Guitar and keyboard solos dance and tangle amidst bombastic arrays of soul-crushing piano and perfectly syncopated percussion. Traditional song structures are exploited, turned inside out, and then mocked openly as the band eagerly fly towards a zenith of freedom in their compositions. Constantly challenging themselves and their listeners, Scholomance find only true innovation – whether in the music, the lyrics, or the themes investigated – to be acceptable. The Immortality Murder sees this vastly underrated group both tightening and expanding their sound, offering songs that can only be seen as symbols of strength and conviction. Lyrically, The Immortality Murder is a mystery entwined with horror, surreal nightmare visions, philosophy, and never seen views into one individual’s deranged mind. It is the personification and birth of Madness. There is much to ponder and the words create as many different textures and colors as the music itself. The accompanying artwork for the release is a mingling of the spiritual, and the physical. It’s origins date back nearly fifty years from very personal history. A massive double CD (featuring the album proper and then a second disc that collects instrumental versions of these same tracks and seven grand piano improvs together, trying, in a visionary manner, to highlight the music alone), The Immortality Murder must surely be one of the most groundbreaking releases ever in a progressive movement that seeks, above all, to widen the traditionally conservative heavy metal genre’s musical powers, or even, at the end, to completely transform them forever...