“The way of Purity” 5th LP “Schwarz Oder Rot”- A Primal Monument of Mankind's Carnage of Earth & What Will Be Done

While some say their catalogue may be wedged into genre boxes on the grand taxonomy of metal, I am not so sure. For example metalcore is a very common label placed on them. I urge the reader to try not to be tempted to categorize. It is completely without genre by current de facto standards and conventions, especially those of current metalcore contemporaries. This music is a short term prophecy.

It's a fantastic work. It's difficult to describe the phenomenon of this music, its creation, its authenticity, and its clarion call to humanity. This is not a warning. This is what will happen.

It is completely earnest in its goal to save earth from the most careless blood thirsty plague of destruction. This plague quite simply is us, as in the homo sapiens. The music reflects this movement in its most complete sense.

For those previously unfamiliar with The Way of Purity, in order to be effective in their call they have eradicated personal selfishness by “unbecoming themselves.” Toward that end they have no names, no labels, no symbols or glyphs, they are “xWithout Namex.” They have let go of self and they have become their message. In a sense we could say that this expression is not separate from its own creation.

The radical action to save the earth from this plague is complete removal of all homo sapiens by extermination or voluntary suicide. Why? In order to usher in a return of the Kingdom of Animals and Plants. This is truly the only way to save the planet from the sapiens own annihilation and inevitable self induced extinction.

Delivering this message is the art and the art is the message. Music is one of the few arts that can so completely change one's feelings and evoke new unfelt and novel emotions.

The music itself indicates genius in many areas. It is a very innovative collection of tracks. You will hear the metal ensemble: Guitars, Percussion, and Vocalist. This is not all, far from it. You will also hear non-standard orchestrations and arrangements, orchestral bridges - utterly seamless. Completely changing songlets-also seamless. Several diverse and varied vocal styles from a dark voice which is like a growl but has tone, a clean baritone vocal with unusual attack and phrasing, a clean female singer, a haunting operatic soprano, and other cool stuff like whispering. Vocal harmonizing is in multiple combinations and pervasive on the record. There is also synth throughout the album and it is used very skillfully. Sometimes it sets the overture key phrase, acts as an under groove or contributes to the structure gluing together various movements. It also reminds one of a real world phenomenon like an air raid siren wailing but with meter and melody. Or like an ekg ringing out a pulse. This is one of the best integrations of synth in heavy music.

Additionally there is a non-descript quality to the music that I have not experienced before. From a completely mechanical perspective it evokes feelings that I cannot map to any prior experience. It's like something is coded into the time signatures or the tempo or both. It could be the golden ratio or it could be parabolic, palindromic or asymmetric. It's a very rare and unusual experience.

Many have given this music the label “militant” which is fair I guess. I prefer to describe what it is not. It is not a subtle message.

I love the drumming, its diversity and ability to transform the sound. From double bass flurries to slow dirges it displays novel style and slight twists on convention. It may start with eighths on the hat and 4ths on the snare while the kick is all over beating out clever little variations and then switch to no cymbal keeping the 8ths but an accent with three or maybe 4 ride rings segmented. An economy of fills signal changes in the feel.

The bass is there although a bit illusory until of course you remove it where you recognize the fullness and heavy bottom it holds while often notes ring open until capitulation.

Clever use of the guitar provides melody harmonizing at times. It also contributes a strumming style that sounds very cool on many of the songs. There are parts where it's doing a fast tempo 3 note and down for a lower 3-note repeating the same descent while remaining in the upper registers(check out 1:50 - 2:10 on “Undoing” and throughout the song.)

The sound of these tracks support the message. The otherness and attractiveness of the whole record doesn’t showcase any single vocal or instrument but instead all are indispensable to the effectiveness of the message. It continues to grow on the listener slowly revealing layers of music/message that may not have been noticed on earlier plays.

With the doomsday clock set at 2 minutes to midnight it's hard to argue with this message. I mean don’t we all know already we are set on fail?

Schwarz oder rot Track List:

The Plague
Rootrot
Mandament
We urge the human race to commit mass suicide
Wishing Death upon you all
Undoing
Uninformed
The Lyncher
Bemoaned AD
Evening Falls
Spectral
Leave

Check out the music:




“If we could only get rid of consciousness. What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it. To be part of the animal kingdom under the conditions of this earth is very well--but as soon as you know of your slavery, the pain, the anger, the strife--the tragedy begins. We can't return to nature, since we can't change our place in it. Our refuge is in stupidity [...] There is no morality, no knowledge, and no hope; there is only the consciousness of ourselves which drives us about a world that [...] is always but a vain and floating appearance.”
― Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)





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Tags:  THE WAY OF PURITY, Schwarz Oder Rot, Animal Liberation Front, Animal Kingdom, Mass Suicide

Kenny     October 01, 2020