The best works of dissonant avant-garde metal shed the harmonic framework of power chords, blues scales and chord-scale approaches to soloing to explore something else. I often talk about the Flanderization of dissodeath whenever it falls on me to review another attempt. I rarely talk about dissodeath through a historical lens, because in most cases, it relates to current trends in a more vague way, and the issue of Flanderization is, in a way, actively detrimental to such an approach. Alas, allow me to indulge in musical nerdery for just a moment — I promise I am going somewhere with it. After the romantic period, when music became modern, newer composers desired to shed certain traditions that felt too limiting. Wagner had extended the classical harmony to frequently absurd levels, and many other composers felt it was right to explore other ventures. Later, Schönberg felt it right to implement a similarly rigid set of rules, with his dodecaphonic approach. Other composers, especially eastern European ones, used the dismantling of harmony as a chance to explore rhythm and texture in new ways. It should be no surprise that Voivod, Gorguts, and Deathspell Omega were heavily inspired by these composers, be it willingly or unwillingly.
Maere, however, do not manage the feat of deconstruction, an approach that, after the old structures have broken down, needs something additional in the new space. For instance, Gorguts landmark album Obscura is immensely groovy when you look at it and the ‘swarm of bees’ style textures employed by Deathspell Omega can feel like a hypnotic, all encompassing vortex. Getting rid of traditional songwriting structures adds something new to the work that is not explorable in classic metal. Maere play an unusually slow and plodding style of avant-garde blackened death metal that leans into doom metal more than just a bit. Chords hold for long segments, as if to showcase which dissonant extensions the performers chose to spice up each specific chord, but the lack of rhythmic interest and momentum turns the whole piece into a real slog.
I believe that Maere want to present a more emotional approach to writing death metal, as the vocals often approach a desperate howl. Though, through the lack of movement and the tense soundscape, there is little relief, and Maere don’t always feel like they know where their songs are headed. By the doctrine of the avant-garde, there cannot be any classic riffs or guitar solos. Instead, the listener drags from indistinguishable section to section. Without any heights and lows, the material is hard to separate from another, and only a few songwriting gimmicks, like polish spoken word, lead to me finding any structuring element in the music. I rarely feel tempted to call music boring when reviewing, as the term feels both low effort and not very descriptive and I won’t do it here — I am certain people exist whose emotional state aligns very closely with what …and the Universe Keeps Silent offers. Yet, to me, this album feels like a chore. I don’t know what I would recommend to add to …and the Universe Keeps Silent, what changes Maere could make to improve the album. But Maere just don’t present enough to make their exploration of modernist music worthwhile.
