Customer Reviews

Telepathic With the Deceased

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cold, frozen, black metal with distorted indecipherable vokills very reminicent of everyone's favorite pagan nutjob Varg Vikernes of Burzum. And like Burzum the guitars are distorted to a wash of fuzzy multilayered distortion, the drums plod and pummel, and keyboards add simple yet very atmospheric and ambient touches. In fact several of the songs are effective ambient electronica, for example the album opener "Entrance Into Nothingness". A few songs on this album are fast, but most are at a black-ice glacial pace. And despite being very influenced by Burzum, Graveland and the necro sound of early Norwegian black metal, this album is quite good, ie it's atmospheric, emotional, grim, and even frightening at times. It does what black metal is supposed to do very well. Xasthur bring something of their own to the table in what can be a limited and limiting genre, especially these days. Telepathic With the Deceased is chillingly evil and as another reviewer said, beautiful.

Xasthur's music I have found to be almost the darkest possible place one can "go" with music. The overall sound of this album (I have the LP version), the sense of space therein, with the fuzzy guitars and distant screeching vocals, is almost unique in the genre of black metal. I applaud Amazon's effort to provide samples of tracks, but I still think black metal is a genre best experienced as complete albums, not a track here or there, and certainly not in low bit-rate, 30 second pieces (which can be ample for radio pop music).

Thus I encourage you to buy this CD, or LP if you can find it. If you're reading this review, you must have at least some interest in black metal to have found this item. The production will be considered horrid by some standards, but, in my opinion, it's part of the experience and works perfectly; these songs wouldn't have near the effect if everything was crystal clear.

I encourage you to seek Xasthur's even newer album called "To Violate the Oblivious". Thanks for your time, good day.

Xasthur's music isn't for everyone. Production values and accesible musical structures are thrown out the window in favor of primitive passages and ultra-depressive funeral dirges. Through chaos and perversity, a vision of nihilism and total annihilation for everything that stands for good is quite easily achieved. After a brief eerie intro, the carnage begins in the form of repetitive guitar interludes, and strained vocals. The drums and vocals might sound a little too buried in the background, but they only help the guitars spew their mournful laments up front over everything else, which is fitting seeing how this record mostly focuses on atmosphere. While there's some good partially fast tracks in here, I feel Xasthur are more lethal and effective at its slowest. It is when the sentiments of sorrow and grimness come across more predominantly. It is a pleasure to see that in thia age and day bands are still producing black metal of the highest caliber devoid of any outside influence or irrelevant progression. It doesn't really surprise me to see that Xasthur is quickly becoming a cult act of sorts within the black metal underground circles.

Telepathic with the Deceased was met with a lot of criticism when it was first released. Many people argue that this album was rushed along with its counterpart, To Violate the Oblivious, and that it wasn't as memorable as past releases. To be frank, I don't think there is anything wrong with putting out a lot of material. Malefic has a lot of time to record. He is not touring the country. He is sitting in his house in sunny California and harvesting the hatred inside of himself. What is so wrong with that? Ultimately, I think Malefic has improved as a producer. For one thing, this album seems to be pretty well produced (I guess, for Xasthur). It may not be quite as good as To Violate the Oblivious, but it sure is better than the muddy sound of The Funeral of Being. Of course, trve black metallers don't consider that kvlt enough... but it gives Xasthur a shimmering quality that would have been nonexistent otherwise...

Honestly, this is a good album. I can see why most black metal fans don't like it, though. It is actually less metal than Xasthur's past releases. Of course, it is still black metal, but this music is more experimental and leans more towards mood than anything else. This release truly shows the ability Malefic has to get some incredible sounding tones out of his guitar, too. And also, of course, the layering of the guitars themselves is phenomenal. Malefic deeply layers his music with harmonies/disharmonies, clean arpeggios, and fuzz. The results are truly bizarre and almost art rock sounding. It is definitely something you wouldn't expect from black metal...

This is better than most black metal. It stands out as something else rather than another Darkthrone rip off, which is good enough for me.

Edit (2010):

When all is said and done, this is probably my least favorite Xasthur album.

Not to say that it isn't worth your time, but...

It's definitely my least favorite.

I feel like Xasthur's "Telepathic With the Deceased" should come with a warning label, because this type of music probably has the most limited appeal of almost any genre out there. If you're a metalhead into Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, but you can't stand that "black metal noise" you will suffer brain aneurysms from this album. However, if you ARE a fan of Darkthrone, Emperor, and other black metal you owe it to yourself to check out Xasthur--the pain in your eardrums means it's working. In a word, atmosphere. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. This album is evil, distorted, and hypnotic in its intensity, and even (dare I say it) darkly beautiful. Not everyone will "get it," but for those who do "Telepathic With the Deceased" is a trip not to be missed. Personal favorites: "Abysmal Depths Are Flooded" and "A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness".

When reviewing an album like Xasthur's "Telepathic With The Deceased," I feel it is important it let the readers know what "plants" were ingested upon listening. The other day I ate a hearty dose of psilocybin mushrooms and listened to a few tracks on this cd with some friends.

I was told that this is a one man band from Florida, he is HORRIBLY depressed, suicidal, and addicted to Heroin. I dont know the man personally, but while hearing the music, I can understand why simple minded folk would jump to these conclusions. It is slow paced, thickly distorted, and accented with blood curdling screams of painful agony.

However, when the psilocybin took over my brain, this album warmed the atmosphere. The sun was going down and painted the walls a beautiful reddish orange and they melted. The entire room melted. Upon closing my eyes, I jumped on board with the music and it went places beyond explanation.

To me this is not the work of a tortured soul, but a really tripped out dude who has an intense connection to his caucaphonous noises, and an inspired vision. Even listening to this album sober is captivating. Buy Buy Buy.

With this release, Lord Malefic certainly isn't pulling any punches. The cold, seething feeling that emanates out of this album is almost palpable. His ideology presents itself in the music as well as the pointed lyrics. Highly recommended for fans of Leviathan, Burzum, and Weakling. I picked it up for $9.00 on Ebay, but if you can't get it there or direct from Mordibund Cult, this isn't a bad place to start.

I want to start off by saying that Malific is both

a genius and a pretentious @sshole.

Looking inside the CD I find that he dedicates this recording to

no one, and then he attacks so called black metal elitists.

Who comes off as an elistist more then him?

I find it laughable to see someone who revels in depression

as if it is a superiour state of existence then that of "normal"

people.

But as far as the music is concerned, Malific creates an evil

atmosphere of intense music that sounds like the soundtrack

of one who has just entered hell. His vocals, although not discernible, are definately evil, as he is buried in the mix, but in such a way that it contrributes to the overall sinister

production that makes this music work. I think he could be a great 21st century composer, but I'm afraid that he would find that if he had more then 100 fans then he would consider himself

a sell-out.

Did I say composer? What that shows about this music is that it is far superior to the old black metal, including Mayhem(who is far overated in my estimation, although this is more in line with old school black metal). Much of this material has an ambient quality, as other reviewers have pointed to. Much of it is mellow, but in dirge like sense. When I think of this CD, I think of death, darkness, sadness, hopelessness, etc. In other words it touches the soul, but my reaction to it is empowerment.

I hate the church, Christians, government, the media, etc. I am enslaved to no one, thereby I am free. That's what this music is to me. Malific has much potential and I look forward to hearing more by him. This is much recomended. My only complaint is that he should find a good drummer and then his recordings might be near perfect.

My favorite song is 'May Your Void Become As Deep as my Hate". The only problem being the cheap drum machine sound that detracts from the brilliance of it. May Malific repent of his wayward ways concerning the drums.

Praise be to the concept of Satan and "self". In the beginning man created God.

some of the best black metal ever. raw, primitive, and atmospheric, with haunting screams buried deep in the mix, like a ghost from the past condemning those that murdered him.

I strongly believe that anyone who gives this albun 5 stars hasnt heard many black metal albums.Or maybe they like music purposely recorded with a muffle sound as is this album.I hear what Malefic is going for but I think its too much.Even the earliest black metal(most with truly bad production)is more discernable.It's a shame too because this album has some pretty cool music(entrancing),and definitely atmosphere.The vo-kills are evil as well.Basically this is great music to play as you mind torture a blindfolded,bound victim in a dark basement.