Kvadrat – The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion Review

Back in June 2021, when my Instagram page was fresh-faced and non-AMG-affiliated, I reviewed Kvadrat’s EP Ψυχική Αποσύνθεση. Struck by its mesmerizing blend of atmospheric, dissonant death and black metal, I bemoaned its truncated length as I was sucked in by what I then described as “a gripping black hole of sound.” With the vividness of this experience having faded into a memory of “that really great Greek EP,” everything came flooding back upon receipt of a DM from the (sole) individual behind Kvadrat, Ivan Agakechagias, asking if I wanted to review his upcoming debut. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion, “built to remind, provoke, traumatize and disturb, to fuel and awaken the nauseating sensations of uncertainty, alienation, hatred and pain” with artwork, drawn by Ivan himself, accompanying each track, is a plunge into the existential nightmare of being-in-the-world, and meaning, or lack thereof. As of course, all the best extreme metal is.¹

The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion assertively cements Kvadrat’s signature voice in the scene, enhancing those most alluring, and crushing, aspects. Guitars don’t just resonate, they hum, even whistle, as they whip like icy wind in mournful, piercing melodies (“Σηπτική Ανυπαρξία,” “Γυάλινα Μάτια”). And melody is what makes this music so powerful. Melody in that pseudo-dissonant, urgent, mournful sense that draws itself up into spikes of biting drama and waves of washing catharsis that crash down into ferocious, blackened ire (“Υπόγειος Λαβύρινθος,” “Ολική Αποσύνθεση”). The propensity for compositions that endlessly undulate with a feeling of push and pull, driven by writhing percussion stop-starting and pacing, demonstrated in Ψυχική Αποσύνθεση, is here expanded on, as is how these tides of melancholic refrain lead the rhythmic convolutions into mesmerizing patterns. It’s bleak and it’s beautiful, and with a longer runtime than previously afforded, the album provides a longer, and deeper experience that is insidiously affecting.

Like the ancient Greek tragedies of aeons past, The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion plays out a drama of pensive mystery, rising, ebbing, then resurgent tension, and melancholic lamentation. With “Υπόγειος Λαβύρινθος” opening the album with an intriguing play of gentle plucks, and closer “Ολική Αποσύνθεση” gradually building a delicate, ever-more-mournful melody, the remainder—save “Αμνησία”‘s cavernous, hair-raising inhale of unease—pulls a thread of nerve-wrecking, endlessly punishing intensity. The tremolo that comes to those opening and closing tracks, projecting the theme into a renewed acuteness and gravity, is like lightning licking the smoky ground. The long screams that bridge spidery chord progressions and torrential washes of guitar (“Υπόγειος Λαβύρινθος,” “4°C,” “Γυάλινα Μάτια”) are little shivery breaths. And together with the push and pull created through the endless tumble and roll of percussion—shifting tempos breaking down in stripped-back echoes (“Η Φρικτή Δυσαρμονία της Λήθης”), dropping down to heavy pulsing, and racing back up again to dbeat double-bass devastation (“Σηπτική Ανυπαρξία,” “Ολική Αποσύνθεση”)—this creates a momentum that is violently addictive and compelling.

It was probably whilst hearing the title track (“Η Φρικτή Δυσαρμονία της Λήθης”) for the second or third time that I realized what it was that holds the record back from complete perfection: reserve. While there are great, extended parts where the tragic dramatic elements interweave and rise together beautifully—”Ολική Αποσύνθεση”‘s first half is probably the highlight in this regard–there’s a sense in which it seems Kvadrat is teasing us. Beyond the most potent peaks of melodic and tension-releasing beauty (“Υπόγειος Λαβύρινθος,” “Σηπτική Ανυπαρξία,” “Ολική Αποσύνθεση”), the compositional waves in this storytelling ocean are more akin to the churning of agitated waters (“4°C”) or ripples on a deceptively still surface (“Αμνησία”). And it’s in the title track, where things threaten multiple times to break into floods of pathos—but never quite do—that the unbearable tension of the dissonant and semi-dissonant scales and circling drums is the most immediate. The thing is, what I condemn for being unsatisfying I ought perhaps to commend for representing, in musical form, that from which the album takes its name—an endless, placeless dysphoria.

To say that The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion succeeds is an understatement. It is a crowning glory of existential agony and dark beauty. And it’s a debut. Even though the compositions fall short of total devastation, there is more than enough time, both for them to grow obsessively in the mind, and for Kvadrat to release their future masterpiece. It should not stop anyone, least of all myself, from diving headlong into its depths.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Desolate Depths (EU)/Nuclear Winter (EU)/Total Dissonance Worship (US/ROW)
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2024