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

Perfume Genius – Glory

Perfume Genius – Glory

Viviane Audet – Le piano et le torrent

Viviane Audet – Le piano et le torrent

Tigran Hamasyan – The Bird of A Thousand Voices

Tigran Hamasyan – The Bird of A Thousand Voices

Oklou – Choke Enough

Oklou – Choke Enough

Bryan Cheng and the OSL invite discovery

Bryan Cheng and the OSL invite discovery

Blair Thomson, Half Moon Run arranger for the OSM: Chapter 2!

Blair Thomson, Half Moon Run arranger for the OSM: Chapter 2!

FIMAV | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the museum of tremors

FIMAV | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the museum of tremors

Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike in Ruin

Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike in Ruin

A Place To Bury Strangers on Building Sonic Weapons and Playing Shows That Feel Like Car Crashes

A Place To Bury Strangers on Building Sonic Weapons and Playing Shows That Feel Like Car Crashes

Apolline Jesupret – Bleu ardent

Apolline Jesupret – Bleu ardent

Alison Luthmers – Johann Helmich Roman : Assaggi for solo violin

Alison Luthmers – Johann Helmich Roman : Assaggi for solo violin

Choses Sauvages – Choses Sauvages III

Choses Sauvages – Choses Sauvages III

A party with post-punk Brooklynites TVOD

A party with post-punk Brooklynites TVOD

FIRE! Orchestra at FIMAV: Power Trio Meets Canadian Community of Avant-Garde Players

FIRE! Orchestra at FIMAV: Power Trio Meets Canadian Community of Avant-Garde Players

Everything is Recorded – Temporary

Everything is Recorded – Temporary

Blondshell – If You Asked For a Picture

Blondshell – If You Asked For a Picture

Hitting a Fever Pitch at the Ribbon Skirt LP Launch 

Hitting a Fever Pitch at the Ribbon Skirt LP Launch 

Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman.

Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman.

Jazz at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal explained by Modibo Keita

Jazz at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal explained by Modibo Keita

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose – Sirens

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose – Sirens

Howard Shore/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Shore : Anthology

Howard Shore/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Shore : Anthology

Quatuor Diotima – Boulez : Livre pour quatuor

Quatuor Diotima – Boulez : Livre pour quatuor

LMNL – Rainbow

LMNL – Rainbow

Strat Andriotis – Exits

Strat Andriotis – Exits

Subscribe to our newsletter