Complex metal is complicated. Ad Nauseam "Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est"

To say Ad Nauseam remind me a little of Gorguts is both an understatement and an injustice at the same time.  The intricate riffing and scathing, jarring sounds of most of "Nihil..." has Luc Lemay written all over it and that's a fine influence to wear very proudly.  But at the same time there is so much more to the record than just complex DM.  As I sit here with the last throes of the final track stamping it's harsh doom laden final rites all over me I am almost backstage at an Electric Wizard gig.  On other occasions I am lost in the swirling, murky and horrific madness of a Portal or Impetuous Ritual record.  Also there is the dark grandeur of Deathspell Omega looming in the background across much of the record.

Whatever influences we want to talk of in regards to this record the overriding message is that the whole thing is very well put together.  Whether it is the looping time changes or the reckless fury of the riffing as it oddballs it's way through proggy interludes into spazzing DM structures (check out album opener "My Buried Dream"), there is a real sense of thought in each track.  It isn't just a few tracks placed on a disc or track list for your listening pleasure, instead you get whacked in the face with a giant chain mail gauntlet before it gets thrown onto the ground in front of you demanding to be picked up!

The danger when you throw all manner of styles and influences into a record is that it suffers from a lack of cohesion but never at any point during the 8 tracks on offer does that come across. Even the really oddball moments aren't entirely alien in the context of the whole.  Fuck knows what instrument starts off the furious solo on "Key To Timeless Laws" (I have it pinned down to a mouth organ (harmonica) or really badly tuned guitar at present) but the whole thing compliments the sound perfectly.

Key to the success of any album in breaking the old end of year list is delivering something not necessarily new but somehow a dramatic retake of an established format done with precision and thought.  "Nihil..." is so well thought out it is almost organic in its sound and delivery.  It is well produced and has obvious talent behind each instrument and songwriting occurence.  The horror of the menacing catch to the guitar work on "Into the Void Eye" is planned and timed to perfection, coming in on track 4 forces you to think more - just when you thought you might just be getting your head around this record eh?  The agony of the screeching violins to close this track will stay with you for a while I assure you.

Dissonant, discordant and complicated though it is, by spin number two of this record you'll be unable to put it down as you know each successive spin will unfurl more treats for your brain to try and digest.  "Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est" should scare the pants off you but you'll love it for doing so.  It is the bogeyman under your bed, the thing from the bottom of the lake that shouldn't have form yet somehow it lives and breathes and you just can't tear your eyes away from it.

5/5