First Utterance [Import]

Comus | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 28, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Phantom Sound & Vision
• ASIN: B00020H8NA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,082,775 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Diana

2. The Herald

3. Drip Drip

4. Song to Comus

5. The Bite

6. Bitten

7. The Prisoner

Editorial Reviews

Comus' first album contains an imaginative if elusive brand of experimental folk-rock, with a tense and sometimes distressed vibe. At times, this straddles the border between folk-rock and the kind of songs you'd expect to be sung at a witches' brew fest, the haunting supernatural atmosphere enhanced by bursts of what sound like a theramin-like violin, hand drums, flute, oboe, ghostly female backup vocals, and detours into almost tribal rhythms. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars futthewhuck..., August 31, 2003

By 

Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Utterance (Audio CD)

I heard about Comus reading an interview with Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt. He has very interesting taste in some very obscure 70s bands, and mentioned Comus so I thought they might be good. I knew nothing about the band except that they took their name from a John Milton poem, and my only expectation (judging from the disfigured wretch on the cover) was that it would be a dark album. I never expected it to be so good. This is one of my "desert island albums" for sure, because of its unique sound and power.

How to describe it for someone who doesn't want to rush in blindly like myself? One critic described it as "a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Ok. Well, at its core it is based in idioms of British folk music, but it is fusionized and rendered with a harsh, dissonant strikes with aliens bursting from the chest cavity. It can be rather heavy music -- not metal or hard rock heavy, but heavy in the atonal ferocity with which they are capable of attack their instruments with at times. I never thought acoustic instruments could sound so nasty. That raises another point: Comus' music is almost entirely acoustic -- acoustic guitar, electric bass, hand drums, flute, violin (and a little bit of electric guitar). This gives the album a very stark sound which adds to the genuineness of their doomy, dark fantasy world. The complex arrangements and rocking power of this band are tremendous. This band can rip it up like Gentle Giant or mystify with haunting musical landscapes like King Crimson (without sounding like either). The vocals run a remarkable gamut, from evil munchkin snarls to wispy female vocals to normal male singing.

Musically and lyrically, Comus evokes visions of pre-Christian pagan nature worship -- but this is starkly anti-Romanticist, dark, paranoid and vengeful. Just listen to the first song "Diana": goblin-like voices sing is a very credible hymn en masse to the eponymous goddess. The lyrics are twisted and sometimes violent. Some good examples: "Chastity chaser virile for the virgin's virtue | Excite her exciter you better go before you bleed and he hurts you | He chased the chaste you better leave if you value your virtue" from "Song to Comus"; "Your soft white flesh turns past me slaked with blood | Your evil eyes more damning than a demon's curse | Your lovely body soon caked with mud | As I carry you to your grave my arms your hearse" from "Drip Drip". (The attentive Opeth fan will notice that this is where Mikael Akerfeldt's took the name for Opeth's third album, which is easily one of their best albums too.)

The reason for Comus' obscurity is obvious. This is disturbing and weird music, but beneath the woe is a strange beauty, entrancing like a dark fairytale. Most people will aggressively dislike this, but on the other hand it may appeal to many different sorts: in general anyone interested in weird & dark music; Opeth fans (especially if you think _Damnation_ would sound good if it was less sad and just weirder, darker and more primitive); anti-symph prog fans might enjoy this too, and perhaps even the few 70s symph fans that are more inclined to weirdness and WYRDNESS; fans of very weird folk music; the uncommon fan of Scandanavian black metal who has a coterminous interest in dark folk music; and perhaps fans of the band Agalloch.

You will not find an album like Comus' _First Utterance_ anywhere. I suggest you check it out. Don't let the steep import price deter you, it's worth every penny. It's especially great if you listen to it in the forest at night with a full moon. Once you "get" it with maximum perspective, I think you will have to agree that it is one of the best albums to ever come from Britain.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable, twisted progressive folk classic, October 21, 2007

By 

Elliot Knapp (Seattle, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: First Utterance (Audio CD)

If you couldn't tell from the cover, Comus' First Utterance album isn't a particularly sunny album. No--in fact, it's truly one of the darkest, scariest, most disturbing albums I've ever heard, in a way that makes me wonder "Who could actually think this up?" If you're put off by music with lyrics that graphically describe violence, madness, and rape, you'll probably be revolted and offended by First Utterance. If you don't mind separating yourself (and your idea of the songwriter) from the songs themselves, First Utterance is one of the most unique, fantastic, special, creative, and impressive albums you may ever hear. Even if you're of that persuasion (which I and many others are, it seems), the album is still a dark, taxing affair and has sort of a "car wreck" appeal--it's gruesome, but you can't help staring.

Comus' special blend of...er, progressive folk-rock(?) is immediately palpable as "Diana" makes itself known. Jerking violins and a mischievous bass line are underscored by a sinuous and creepy slide guitar part. The singing is another story--many members of the group sing, but the dominant voice is Roger Wooton's. Throughout the album, he stretches the possibilities of his voice to fascinating lengths (one of the most innovative elements of the album, not unlike Captain Beefheart, if more tuneful), including low groans, demonic falsetto, and some really interesting singing-while-chest-thumping. "Diana" quickly picks up speed, and the tension bursts into a tribal explosion of hand drums. It's one of the shortest, most accessible songs on the album, despite its vague lyrics that seem to forbode some hazy violence in the forest. "The Herald" eases the dangerous sounds prefigured by "Diana"--it's easily the most gorgeous cut on the album, with some dreamy flute, some really technically impressive fingerstyle guitar and vocals, as it languidly tells its story over 12 minutes.

Just when "The Herald" has lulled you into a false sense of peace, here comes "Drip Drip," a song about a murderer dragging his victim to her grave in the forest. As with "Diana," there's something morbidly, medievally British about this, and Comus manage to evoke the type of darkness and violence that must have been the reality of those days but hasn't been passed down with the cheery tales of Robin Hood etc. "Drip Drip" picks up where "Diana" left off, offering a portrait of the psyche of a killer. It is much more graphic, though, with some really gnarly grooves set up by slide guitar, violin and that urgent hand percussion. Echoing the jolting style changes of contemporaries like The Incredible String Band, around 7:00 the song busts into a spaced-out groove, before returning to form for a harrowing climax.

"Song To Comus" is pretty similar, about Comus, who bewitches virgins with his flute playing, lures them to his cave, then rapes them. With these themes, it's hard to believe that the whole band actually got behind the music. The evidence is before us, though, in its bizarre glory, and Wooton's hypnotic repetitions ("play play play play...") are doubled by ghostly female harmony. It all unfolds over surprisingly driving grooves and some pounding acoustic guitar. The album's final highlight is "The Prisoner," another character study--this time, a mental patient. Slightly lighter fair than all-out villains, but still a bit unsettling and tragic, as the narrator's wild creativity is violently put down by his doctors, under the pretense of helping him.

If you can stomach it, First Utterance is a brilliant album bristling with interesting musical ideas and fascinating (if insane) lyrics. The music here is definitely 5 stars, but this release, put out by Breathless, doesn't warrant 5 stars--about 7:00 into "The Herald" there are some quite audible sound defects (sounds like popping and scratching from old vinyl) that proceed a couple minutes into the next song. Not really acceptable, especially since I bought it brand new--it really cuts into some of the gorgeous guitar on "The Herald," and its' really distracts. If you're interested, I might suggest you try Song to Comus: The Complete Collection, which includes everything on this disc (even the 3 bonus tracks), as well as the entire belated 2nd album, which is supposed to be much less interesting than this one. I haven't gotten that one yet, but I'll comment on the sound quality as soon as I do.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comus for a good price!, August 29, 2004

By 

Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Utterance (Audio CD)

Comus' _First Utterance_ is one of the creepiest, weirdest prog albums to ever come out of Britain, and also one of my favorites. It has only been available as a Japanese import for a long, long time, and you know how expensive those usually are. But finally it looks like it is available for a more competitive price. I encourage you to check it out.

Here is my review for the Japanese import, the musical content of which is the same. The import comes in one of those awesome mini-vinyl sleeve things (like the reissues of the King Crimson back catalogue up to _THRAK_); I don't know how this one is packaged, but hopefully it's cool, because an album like this deserves more than a cheap azz jewel case.

"I heard about Comus reading an interview with Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt. He has very interesting taste in some very obscure 70s bands, and mentioned Comus so I thought they might be good. I knew nothing about the band except that they took their name from a John Milton poem, and my only expectation (judging from the disfigured wretch on the cover) was that it would be a dark album. I never expected it to be so good. This is one of my "desert island albums" for sure, because of its unique sound and power.

"How to describe it for someone who doesn't want to rush in blindly like myself? One critic described it as "a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Ok. Well, at its core it is based in idioms of British folk music, but it is fusionized and rendered with a harsh, dissonant strikes with aliens bursting from the chest cavity. It can be rather heavy music -- not metal or hard rock heavy, but heavy in the atonal ferocity with which they are capable of attack their instruments with at times. I never thought acoustic instruments could sound so nasty. That raises another point: Comus' music is almost entirely acoustic -- acoustic guitar, electric bass, hand drums, flute, violin (and a little bit of electric guitar). This gives the album a very stark sound which adds to the genuineness of their doomy, dark fantasy world. The complex arrangements and rocking power of this band are tremendous. This band can rip it up like Gentle Giant or mystify with haunting musical landscapes like King Crimson (without sounding like either). The vocals run a remarkable gamut, from evil munchkin snarls to wispy female vocals to normal male singing.

"Musically and lyrically, Comus evokes visions of pre-Christian pagan nature worship -- but this is starkly anti-Romanticist, dark, paranoid and vengeful. Just listen to the first song "Diana": goblin-like voices sing is a very credible hymn en masse to the eponymous goddess. The lyrics are twisted and sometimes violent. Some good examples: "Chastity chaser virile for the virgin's virtue | Excite her exciter you better go before you bleed and he hurts you | He chased the chaste you better leave if you value your virtue" from "Song to Comus"; "Your soft white flesh turns past me slaked with blood | Your evil eyes more damning than a demon's curse | Your lovely body soon caked with mud | As I carry you to your grave my arms your hearse" from "Drip Drip". (The attentive Opeth fan will notice that this is where Mikael Akerfeldt's took the name for Opeth's third album, which is easily one of their best albums too.)

"The reason for Comus' obscurity is obvious. This is disturbing and weird music, but beneath the woe is a strange beauty, entrancing like a dark fairytale. Most people will aggressively dislike this, but on the other hand it may appeal to many different sorts: in general anyone interested in weird & dark music; Opeth fans (especially if you think _Damnation_ would sound good if it was less sad and just weirder, darker and more primitive); anti-symph prog fans might enjoy this too, and perhaps even the few 70s symph fans that are more inclined to weirdness and WYRDNESS; fans of very weird folk music; the uncommon fan of Scandanavian black metal who has a coterminous interest in dark folk music; and perhaps fans of the band Agalloch.

"You will not find an album like Comus' _First Utterance_ anywhere. I suggest you check it out. Don't let the steep import price deter you, it's worth every penny. It's especially great if you listen to it in the forest at night with a full moon. Once you "get" it with maximum perspective, I think you will have to agree that it is one of the best albums to ever come from Britain."