CoC : Fire in the Head - As the Nest Burns : Review

Fire in the Head - _As the Nest Burns_
(Autarkeia, 2005)
by: Quentin Kalis (9 out of 10)

The beauty (so to speak) of noise is that it breaks virtually every single rule of music. This does not entail ignorance of the rules of music; one needs to know the rules in order to break them. Picasso could draw accurate figures before bestowing cubism upon the world. If this is the case, then creator Michael Page must be an accomplished (conventional) musician, as not only does he break every single musical rule relating to harmony and rhythm, he does so in a manner that can only be described as spectacular.

At its heart, _As the Nest Burns_ consists of ominous drones and tier upon tier of ear assaulting feedback piled atop one another, distilled into a sonic sucker punch that will leave even the least masochistic wanting more. Page allows a slightly calmer face to emerge through the near ambient, noise-lite textures of "One Last Sunset", which serves the same purpose as an acoustic interlude in black metal, by allowing the listener to sit back and calm down before being struck by the next cascade of sonic mayhem. Powerful stuff.

Contact: http://www.autarkeia.org

(article published 1/5/2007)