Labels: Norma Evangelium Diaboli – The Ajna Offensive
Review by: Alex Deller
Listened to this over and over and over again and still don’t feel like I’ve quite got a handle on it. Aluk Todolo, for the uninitiated, are an experimental, instrumental trio that claim spiritual and psychic ties to black metal but owe more sonically to jazz, krautrock and post-rock. ‘Voix’ comprises six intricate, expansive, interlocking parts. The rhythm section explores vast tracts of space and mesmeric repetition while the guitar adds shade and texture, from gossamer-thin threads to waves of crashing intensity. The overriding sense is of a looser, less-regimented – and less dub-inflected – Blind Idiot God; but while Andy Hawkins’ outfit operate as an exhilarating cerebral exercise Aluk Todolo penetrate to a deeper and far more primal level that renders ‘Voix’ intense, exquisite and not a little terrifying.