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JUNON “The Golden Citadel of the Astral Sphere”
JUNON “The Golden Citadel of the Astral Sphere”
By Dr. Abner Mality
In my recent review of THE OLDEST HOUSE, I mentioned that that particular record was amazingly straightforward compared to most of the other albums released by I, Voidhanger. As if to atone, here we have JUNON, who proceed to unleash one of the most bizarre and challenging records I’ve heard this year. Back to the roots, I guess.
I’m not 100% clear, but I think JUNON is the screaming banshee who sings here, assisted by various German black metal musicians. And black metal does play a major part in what JUNON is about, but hoo boy, there’s much more than that going on here. Four songs, including a 20 minute plus mammoth (par for the course with this label) and they all push the concept of “music” to the breaking point and beyond. “Propheten der Blaue Flamme” kicks things off with a cyclone of shattered glass and black metal at its most extreme. The guitar here sounds like a giant cloud of angry mosquitoes at some points and an outraged trombone at others. It’s beyond dissonant…almost atonal. JUNON herself unleashes some hideous croaks, all in German. The song then breaks down and deconstructs itself in a long stretch of free jazz atonal noise, with JUNON switching to a kind of torch singer croon that still sounds subtly “off”. Things build back up to another black metal blizzard and you are left wondering what the fuck you just listened to.
“Unterm Glummon” is shorter and almost opens like early BATHORY or HELLHAMMER. This track is more “coherent” but still features odd diversions and ice-cold keys to mix things up. It’s as close to traditional black metal as this act gets. On the other hand, the relatively brief “Inanitas Cendit Profundo” goes overboard with silly male vocals that sound like a cartoon supervillain mixed with JUNON’s own croaks and rasps. It’s a crawling horror of a tune but those bass male vocals are hard to take seriously.
That leaves the 21 minute monster “Dolorossa” to finish things off. This is a test of endurance, like putting hot sauce in your eyes or trying to watch a Trump speech front to back. A combination of skronky, utterly off key tones, with the early part sounding like a piano being taken apart and then moving to a stretch of fierce but more traditional black metal and then a long swing where JUNON’s more normal voice recites dour poetry that seems to be fighting the actual music to the death. Brother, this one is TOUGH, that’s all I’ve got to say.
If you are an aficionado of the avant-garde, the atonal and the extreme, this is a project well worth exploring. I can’t imagine I will be returning to this on a regular basis, though.
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