Verinen's Almostopster: Code - Resplendent Grotesque

Let's hope the album is better than the cover

My pick stems from the same place as ferday’s. It stems from a time before I got caught in an insane Vortex of new listens that has me react to novelty with a shrug and a 5. Back then, things were easier, simpler, and new albums felt special. That’s right, in my case, I’m talking about teenage years.

At that time, my musical landscape was a hodgepodge of whatever I came across. I was coming from a background of listening to classical music that my dad played in the car. I liked it, but it wasn’t mine.  I didn’t start to actively look for new sounds until I reached middle school. It was then, as puberty-fueled hormones were wreaking havoc in my teenage self, that one day I brought back home a ripped CD of Rammstein’s Mutter. Jumping all the way to Feuer Frei, I stood there as industrial guitars and Till’s booming voice made me discover something far different from the intricate sophistication of classical music. This too, I liked.

But we’re not here to talk about this album, that still stands proud in my reliquary as one of my only 10s, but of the ones that didn’t quite make it. Moving from Rammstein to so-called ‘extreme’ music took me a few years. For a while, I didn’t quite like any kind of harsh vocals, but I kept wanting to hear more for some form of morbid curiosity. This delicate balance leads me naturally to bands that can mix growls and cleans. Opeth and Enslaved hit the nail right on the head for me. The melancholic atmosphere and rather progressive music were exactly what I was looking for.

But, once again, we’re not going to talk about these two behemoths of bands that everyone is familiar with. If you’re still reading this, you’re probably happy to know that this blurb is going to stop meandering and finally reach its point. Indeed, in my search for progressive, melancholic extreme metal, I stumbled across a much more obscure album, < c o d e >’s Resplendent Grotesque. 

The band has changed line-up and style plenty of times along the years but at that time, < c o d e >’s melody was carried by clean, plaintive vocals that produce a distinctively melancholic atmosphere. Black metal howls, often doubling the cleans, bring some intensity into the mix and keep the tracks strong. The slick bass is fortunately not hidden in the mix and adds a nice touch to the album. That’s why I took a liking to it back then, when I first discovered it, and that’s why I still enjoy it now.

Overall, what I retain from this album is its very characteristic atmosphere. With the numerous listens that I was putting in new albums back then, it created a deep sense of familiarity. While it might not generate enough enjoyment to be a true part of my reliquary, it’s very comfy and deserves a place in my almostopster.