Ocrilim
Anoint
2.9
Good lord, is this my initiation hazing?
Now, I’m all for experimentation. If metal was made up of nothing but 220 BPM blastbeats and phlegm-garbled throat rupturing 24/7, the metalhead population would probably be even more limited than it already is. After doing some casual research, I discovered Ocrilim to be a percussionless one-man experimental instrumental project consisting of mastermind guitarist Mick Barr. If there’s one thing to be sure of, Anoint is one of the most unconventional and unique albums I’ve heard this year. Unfortunately, it’s also absolutely nerve-wracking, as if to say “…check it out! A new way to annoy roommates!!”. Threatened with death, I'd still be hard-pressed to find redeeming qualities about this CD.
I thought the new Celestiial was hard to listen to. On Anoint you won’t find anything really resembling a riff, or any sort of solid or recognizable song structure. I’ll put this as plainly and bluntly as possible: this album is just bad. Stupendously bad, ill-conceived, and possibly one of the worst of the year so far overall. Three listens to this was torture, and wouldn’t even suffice as background music due to the annoyance of the *ahem* “songwriting”. What’s so bad about it, you ask?
Envision if you will, the noodling segues that pollute the current metalcore scene en masse. You know the kind, those whittling fingertaps, tinny high-string plucking, and hyperactive off-timed arpeggios just before the huge breakdown kicks in? These can also sometimes be found between tracks as filler instrumentals, think of any Today Is The Day album before Kiss The Pig and you’d be on the right track. Well, this disc is filled with nothing else but those very same segues, except it’s an entire album full of them. There are no rhythmic chord progressions. There is no groove. There are notes, on top of notes, on top of notes connected by feedback, thin tremolo, and brain numbingly pointless repetition. Riffs are extinct, the direction is happenstance, and in the end, this sounds like a 16 year old overachiever trying to impress his friends with how much he’s learned by subjecting them to his techniques after too many bonghits.
Seriously, that’s all this album is. It sounds like finger exercises, recorded, and ever-so-slightly “produced” for the enjoyment of the player, and not much else. The worst thing about this album is that for all this self-indulgent scale wankery, Mick Barr does nothing to establish himself as a competent or even talented musician. It would be one thing if this was a display of virtuosity, but instead the note frenzy to be heard here sounds positively sophomoric, and totally devoid of any worthwhile visionary ideas. Not only will I probably never listen to this again, I wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone who faces any sort of time-constraints which might limit their quality listening time, and this is coming from someone who loves Xasthur. I cannot in good conscience give Ocrilim, and Anoint any more publicity than I already have, and thus, this review is over.
