Taipei Metal

Review: Evocation - Take Your Soul

Evocation were founded in 2004, and presumably spent the last four years crafting their epic debut album, Take Your Soul. It was well worth the four-year wait. They are Hong Kong's own Dissection, producing an utterly impressive brand of progressive black metal, with six of the disc's nine tracks clocking in at over six minutes. The vocals have a slightly necro tinge, somewhat akin to Ihshan's sound on the early Emperor recordings, but vocalist Tomy also throws in some lower tones and the sound is  less muddled. The music itself is a mixture of melodic Swedish death and Norwegian black metal. In other words, Black metal riffs are reinvented with a Swedish twist. It's very disarming at times, as is the case with the clean neo-classical guitar interlude on “Final Division,” but the lull is quickly broken by brutal shrieking and blast beat fury.

The themes that the lyrics suggest are those of hopelessness and despair, typical of black metal, however there is more at play here, something more philosophical and metaphorical than what you hear on your average black metal record. For example, “1942” uses battle as a metaphor for betrayal and broken promises. In another interesting twist, “Take Your Soul,” according to the band, is about how young people should think twice before engaging in the act of procreation, as bringing life into this world in these harsh times could be deemed an act of cruelty. Clearly, this isn't your parent's Satanic black metal.

A synthesizer melody underlies “The Seventh Day,” most likely a biblical reference to the day on which, according to Christian belief, god cooled his heels. This is a plodding track, atmospheric at the beginning, a reprieve from the first three blast-heavy tracks, the aforementioned “1942,” “Final Division” and “Take Your Soul.” The lengthy compositions allow the songs to change directions several times in their course, and the band never seems to be at a loss for engaging riffs. This keeps the listener interested whereas a lesser band may have their audience yawning beneath their corpse paint with such long and ambitious songs.

Evocation are skilled in painting with many different shades of black to avoid becoming sterile. “Inducer” is an an eight-minute-plus powerhouse of a track, placed appropriately in the middle of the track list. It's the centerpiece that draws your attention; the stark white corpse lying a in a black satin coffin at the front of the funeral hall with the other tracks arranged ornately and skillfully around it. And where would any self-respecting atmospheric, progressive black metal band be without an instrumental interlude? The acoustic number “Episode of punishment follows, with “Punishment,” a track that truly lives up to its name, on its heels like a rabid wolf. This is perhaps the most overtly violent song on a disc of carefully tempered and measured violence. A ruthless beat reigns down blows mercilessly like a savage assault, giving way to the merciful but still blackened guitar lead before the listener is thrown into an even more tempestuous whirlwind of blast beats and sweep picking before the song lets loose its grip on its limp victim.

Take Your Soul offers a much more engaging style of music than  run-of-the-mill black metal. There is more depth in the music, more to keep the listener interested. It's more complex, for those who are tired of the same old themes worn out by the repetition of cookie cutter black metal bands aping a Norwegian style that is now over 20 years old. Elements of traditional black metal are there, but this is not a one-trick black metal band—not even close.

Evocation are extremely technically proficient, but it is not proficiency merely for proficiency's sake, for those of you worried that the term “progressive” implies a band that works out how many messed up time signatures they can cram into a song with a calculator. Every part of each arrangement seems well-thought-out--an indispensable piece of the plan of attack. There are no throw-away segments or needlessly added parts in this product simply to impress.

There are many weapons in Evocation's arsenal, and they have learned to use them all well and at the appropriate time, from black metal mainstays such as single-note sweep picking, to clean interludes, and even atonality. As in battle, sometimes a band needs stealth, and at other times, simply to lay the whole battlefield to waste, as does the final track, “Disaster Inspired.” It slashes and burns everything in its path, leaving the listener bloodthirsty for the next annihilation.