Country : Canada Label : Dark Descent Genres and styles : Black Metal / Metal / Progressive Metal / Rock Year : 2023
Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis

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

Laurence Kayaleh / Bernadene Blaha – Noskowski / Zelenski : Violin Sonatas

Laurence Kayaleh / Bernadene Blaha – Noskowski / Zelenski : Violin Sonatas

Quatuor Molinari – Philip Glass : Complete String Quartets, Nos. 5-7, Volume 2

Quatuor Molinari – Philip Glass : Complete String Quartets, Nos. 5-7, Volume 2

Bach Festival | The Pleasures of the Sonata According to Diderot

Bach Festival | The Pleasures of the Sonata According to Diderot

Le Vivier and Orchestre de l’Agora | A Virtuoso Celebration of Contemporary Music

Le Vivier and Orchestre de l’Agora | A Virtuoso Celebration of Contemporary Music

Yellow Eyes – Master’s Murmur

Yellow Eyes – Master’s Murmur

Gnaw Their Tongues – The Cessation of Suffering

Gnaw Their Tongues – The Cessation of Suffering

Nicole Rampersaud – Saudade

Nicole Rampersaud – Saudade

I Gemelli in Montreal: Simply One of the Year’s Great Concerts

I Gemelli in Montreal: Simply One of the Year’s Great Concerts

Sudden Voices – I Knew You At Once

Sudden Voices – I Knew You At Once

Hot Garbage – Mystery

Hot Garbage – Mystery

Le Vivier and Ensemble SuperMusique | The Undeniable Talent and Attention to Detail of Ensemble Super

Le Vivier and Ensemble SuperMusique | The Undeniable Talent and Attention to Detail of Ensemble Super

Bach Festival | Beyond Bach, the Signum Signature

Bach Festival | Beyond Bach, the Signum Signature

Sarah Aristidou – Enigma

Sarah Aristidou – Enigma

On the Record with ROM1

On the Record with ROM1

OSM’s South American Voyage| Breaking Down Barriers

OSM’s South American Voyage| Breaking Down Barriers

Le Vivier and Quasar | Selective Fluidity

Le Vivier and Quasar | Selective Fluidity

Michel Faubert – La Chapelle Ardente

Michel Faubert – La Chapelle Ardente

Orianne Lacaille – iViV

Orianne Lacaille – iViV

Slow Pulp Live is Sad Music for Happy People, or vice versa

Slow Pulp Live is Sad Music for Happy People, or vice versa

Autogramm – Music That Humans Can Play

Autogramm – Music That Humans Can Play

Blue-ji – Blue-ji

Blue-ji – Blue-ji

Rachel Drew – Blaze For You

Rachel Drew – Blaze For You

Mark Steiner & His Problems – Hang On (Twin Flames)

Mark Steiner & His Problems – Hang On (Twin Flames)

M For Montreal Day 4 | Alix Fernz, and Pelada

M For Montreal Day 4 | Alix Fernz, and Pelada

Subscribe to our newsletter