10 Best Metal EPs Of 2017 (So Far)
2. Schammasch - The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite
Coming less than eighteen months after Schammasch's acclaimed masterpiece Triangle (2016), The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite is an EP that has an enormous point to prove: that the success of the group's prior CD was by no means a fluke.
It demonstrates its argument in a powerful union of avant-garde beauty and black metal destructiveness, making itself somehow able to stand out from the expansive Triangle while also staying true to the emotive, mind-bending style that Schammasch's followers have come to know and love. Driven by a plethora of spoken-word rituals alongside the typical black metal snarls, Hermaphrodite is enticingly post-modern, feeling serene in the most disturbing and unsettling of ways.
The songs found on this EP are shorter than a great many others in Schammasch's back-catalogue, yet the four-piece makes up for this by ensuring that Hermaphrodite is their most fluid release yet, gliding through its half-hour running time as opposed to feeling like a stagnant collection of arbitrary, ill-fitting suites.
Much like releases like Rush's 2112 (1976) or TesseracT's Concealing Fate (2010), The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite is something that demands to be heard in its unhallowed entirety.
The EP is doubtlessly more direct than the 100-minute Triangle, yet it also feels more unsettling, crafting a perpetual sense of dread in its subtle despondency.