Xenoglyph - Mytharc

The email subject line read, "Greetings sentient organism," so clearly it was not another mass promotional email sent by a hired sales-drumming company; it's so easy to tell these days. In fact, I am simply no longer even looking at most of the requests that come across now unless they are direct from the artists... or in Xenoglyph's case, direct from a distant species' terrestrial messengers. I'm not sure what the two beings from GJ357D are trying to tell us about their world on Mytharc, but the decision to model the soundscapes with vacuumous and echo-laden atmospheric layers mixed with sharp snappy drums perfectly expresses what the icy gases of their Gliese-world must be like. Mytharc is less a narrative telling or cinematic score and more the sound-image of specific scenes flashing into the imagination. In this respect, the album takes a decisively different path than albums which I associate with cosmic elements such as Arcturus' Sham Mirrors. I can find some general similarities to Benighted in Sodom's Dismal Ethereality Stellar Celestial Void, but Xenoglyph are far removed from the Depressive Black Metal austerity. In truth, the atmosphere is void of emotion. It is only a gateway for us to perceive the objective architecture of other intergalactic creatures.

Mytharc is quite light and airy. It is heavy in refined melody and guitar activity. This combination of weightlessness, and continuous downplayed intricacy teems with vista-fabrication. The percussive elements throughout the album are used not to add intensity, brutality, or complexity but the exact opposite. Set back in the mix, the snare and resonant high hat work are complemented by the undulating rhythm guitars which only occasionally find themselves riffing, such as the memorable mid-paced breakdown riffs in "Repression Regime." The percussion and rhythm gently propels the listener like a tourist guide wooing the listener through one finely decorated room after another. One element which I felt took away from this effect were the heavily effected vocals. Each throaty rasp smeared with an almost endlessly drifting reverb. While the reverb theoretically fits, the usage here interrupts from the scenery and draws my attention away from where I want it to remain; gazing at distant alien oilfields, hovering angular military escarpments, and tubular transportation hubs. Restraining some component of the reverb here, to provide more clarity could benefit the overall atmosphere; a shorter length to the effect, a quicker decay, more attack up front; the impression that these words being provided to us are the best these beings can do to mimic our Earthly pronunciations.

Opening track, "A Flickering Eternity" introduces the overall style of Mytharc nicely. It is a full, complete track that begins the task of removing us from the world we are accustomed to and replacing it with incomprehensible tests of our understanding of physics; it's turning a corner on a street and peering into a chasm of disembodied intellects drawing soul-material into fetal forms; horizontal tetrahedral habitation structures slowly gliding by; communicative nebula clouds sharing creation plans. The album title track follows. It is the most traditionally riffy to my ears of the five tracks and the most intense rhythmically. It is triumphant in a way. Solemn. A repository of alien warrior bodies preserved for posterity and reverence. Injected cultural nano-memory alteration devices force-assimilating slaves into the Mytharc fold. Mytharc dips slightly with "Shades of Illusion." The track has it's moments, such as an early guitar lead which on first listen sounds out of key  - tertiary listening overrules this poor initial impression - but I feel "Shades..." doesn't have an equivalent atmosphere to the other four tracks. It shifts back into form midway through, but I am lost at the outset.



Mytharc's best moments reside in the final two glimpses into the Hydra-system civilization, "Wraith Chamber" and "Repression Regime," the former being the release's best song. "Wraith Chamber" is a monstrous theo-spiritual journey into the cored out hollows of the Xenoglyphian homeworld's long dim pith. Heavy tolling bells sound the procession of alien coroners and floating vessels. We watch the cosmic decomposition rituals unfold from our vantage by way of what could only be described as an unknown civilizations courtly hymns. Interweaving guitar harmonies ascend and descend as the song's layers unfurl. The sarcophagus lid detaches and lifts against gravitational laws; within, the expired soul resides. Exoplanetary-soulular microbes are applied with precision pneumatic needles and the casket is closed, rotated, and inserted into one of the infinite slots in the compressed gaseous walls. It will be several thousand years for the isolated soul to fully break down. "Repression Regime" is complex structurally. At ten minutes long, mixing chunky rhythmic sections, as previously discussed, amid the albums busy melodies and tremolo guitars, the song properly capitalizes on the stylistic elements previously experienced while maintaining fresh and vibrant new moods.

I am really impressed overall by what Mytharc has accomplished. When the songs debuted on a streaming site a few months back, I felt it was going to be an interesting release, but I never wrote down to follow up on it, so I am very thankful I received a copy. The material and sound sits in it's own throne in the black metal halls. The tape production is done well also. The album art stands out as some of the best of recent memory, the tape release from Glossolia is top notch, as expected, and leaves little to be desired. I think I would have enjoyed some form of lyrical content, but it's absence doesn't negatively impact anything because, for me, Mytharc is all about exploring my own imaginative constructions of alien worlds and unknown extraterrestrial civilizations. I am hopeful that Xenoglyph follow up Mytharc with an equally evocative and colorful sophomore release in the near future and I'm curious to see how the pair involved in it's creation build on this project. I can expect this to be one of my favorite releases of the year.