Country : Canada Label : Dark Descent Genres and styles : Black Metal / Metal / Progressive Metal / Rock Year : 2023

Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis

· by Laurent Bellemare

Apart from the guitarist, who claims no such influence, everyone seems to hear Mahavishnu Orchestra in Thantifaxath’s music. With a bit more distortion and blast beats, though! Everything here is angular, especially the guitar arpeggios and tremolos, built on chromatic progressions and wide interval leaps.

After several years of silence and personnel changes, always carried out anonymously, the Toronto trio delivers yet another utterly disorientating opus. Hive Mind Narcosis is demanding for the listener, who is allowed little respite. Even when tempos are slower or the instrumentation less dense, the harmonic content never provokes a sense of resolution. We’re left on our toes from start to finish, dragged along by lenghty progressive songs. Musical ideas modulate, develop and sometimes reach maximalist proportions, as in Surgical Utopian Love, which exploits its melodic motif to the point of exhausting its possible variations.

Careful listening reveals accentuated experimentation, particularly in the vocals which are sometimes augmented by a variety of effects, making them less monotonous than they once were. The drums have always been rather utilitarian in Thantifaxath, underlining the irregular meters without much ornamentation. The new drummer, however, deploys more finesse when a certain reduction in density allows him to do so. The album sometimes veers into relatively atmospheric territory, though the tension is always there. This is a promising direction for the future, as more ambient sections would do well to enrich the sound. For now, Thantifaxath retains the dissonant language that has become a trademark since Sacred White Noise (2014).

Latest 360 Content

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Sparks – MAD!

Sparks – MAD!

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Cazzu – Latinaje

Cazzu – Latinaje

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Subscribe to our newsletter