Split releases are strange, unpredictable things; they can either demonstrate bands’ songwriting abilities beyond album material, or they can be dumping grounds for half-baked ideas and rehashing of previously done work. The history of split releases is an interesting thing in itself, and I recommend any music fan to read up on it. Essentially, a split release can help to promote two bands at the cost of one, and for that reason, splits have become more common in recent years, especially among metal bands. Usually bands of a like-minded nature will combine for split releases, but in cases like Of Water & Wood – composed of both separately written pieces and collaborative songs between Novia Scotia’s instrumental doom outfit Sea Witch and American black metal soloist Ecferus – two worlds collide to produce a work that stretches the boundaries of both artists and results in a highly satisfying listen.
For context, I loved Ecferus’s debut EP, Prehistory, which combined the dissonance and churning rhythms of French black metal with the nocturnal atmosphere and earthy rawness of the Cascadian metal scene while sounding original and fresh. Nova Scotian doom outfit Sea Witch have already built a solid catalog of two EPs (As Above and So Below, released late last year) and a full-length, The Blackened Sea, which draws equally from the wells of spacious, melodic funeral doom and the eerie atmosphere of black metal. Both bands rely on narrative song structures to draw listeners in to a lightless, mysterious world, and the combination of styles on Of Water & Wood serves to further take listeners into a dark place as the outfits fuse their creativity together.
Unlike most splits, most of the tracks on Of Water & Wood are collaborative in nature: “The Orbis Spike,” with music written by Sea Witch but featuring the raspy, fog-drenched vocals of Alp (Ecferus), marches like a group of pallbearers on a stormy evening, with harmonized tremolo picking floating atop of reverb-drenched chords. The songs primarily written by Sea Witch have a very thick atmosphere of melancholy, while Ecferus’s tracks slow down the tempo from previous works while still reveling in the dissonance that made Prehistory such an intriguing listen. “Inherit the Debris” eschews Sea Witch’s melodic tendencies for an ugly black/doom bulldozer as Alp’s venomous vocals leap out from the dense mix of drums and guitars. Ecferus’ sole individual track, “Upon Shoulders of Wear,” builds on the foundation of the Prehistory EP but takes the formula a step further: Hazy guitars swarm with dissonance as drums twist through frantic blastbeat rhythms and the bass growls, providing the sole indicator of structure in an otherwise chaotic, amorphous beast of a song. Of Water & Wood closer “Mayday” is primarily written by Alp, but features the brooding, murky lead guitars that characterize most of the work of Sea Witch. It starts sparse and brooding, slowly building into a climax that grows in tempo until nearly collapsing on itself before an abrupt cut off. In this world, there is no resolution, and it works brilliantly.
A pairing like Ecferus and Sea Witch may seem unlikely to some, but in this case, Of Water & Wood may become one of the most underrated metal splits of 2015. For those who would dare to venture into the Lovecraftian depths, they will be satisfied to find a wonderfully rendered, boundary-stretching, slab of dissonant and seething black/doom metal.
Rating: 4/5
Of Water & Wood is available digitally via Bandcamp and on cassette through Small Doses.
Interview with Alp of Ecferus
Dustin (BGM): First of all, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Let’s start with the basics – how and when did Ecferus become a working project, and from what sources are you primarily drawing inspiration for music and lyrics?
ALP: It’s my pleasure, thanks for the opportunity… I started recording for this project about a year ago. I didn’t have a name for it and wasn’t sure if I’d end up releasing anything – I really just wanted to document the riffs that weren’t getting used in my band at the time. As things started to come together I became more ambitious and started thinking about an identity for the project and releasing it. I’m a fairly eclectic music listener, but black metal is mostly what I get excited about these days.
DG: Your debut EP, Prehistory, made waves pretty quickly – not just for the musical content, but also for the lyrics based on evolutionary anthropology and science, two things that aren’t talked about in metal very much. What led you to being interested in these subjects, and more importantly, why use the medium of Ecferus to discuss them?
ALP: My interest in evolution was incidental to my musical endeavors, but over time, the idea of tapping into the psyche of early humans through music really excited me. Fossils, artifacts, genetic analysis – these can tell us a tremendous amount, but can’t tell a personal story of what it was like to experience the origins of language and civilization. That mystery is what fascinates me. All we can do is imagine and make up our own stories. Ecferus is not so much about evolutionary anthropology and science as it is inspired by it. I’m not trying to make caveman metal or anything – my musical application is mostly rooted in modern convention – I’m just interpreting this sense of awe in the mystery of prehistoric life through the music. But it should be noted not everything I’m writing is rooted in the prehistoric realm. There are songs on the Split and EP that go in a totally different direction.
DG: Your recent split with Sea Witch Of Water & Wood came out, and it’s a really interesting blend: Sea Witch playing more of a doom style, and Ecferus more rooted in black metal, but the two styles converge in a very natural way on the collaborative tracks. What was it like to go through the collaboration process for the split, and what challenges did it bring to you as a songwriter and musician?
ALP: It was a fairly effortless, intuitive process really. Both bands have an appreciation for a lot of different music so we welcomed the fusing of styles. We knew we wanted to collaborate but weren’t sure in what capacity so just started sharing tracks and eventually fleshed out who was going to do what. We ended up recording one collaborative track and two songs “featuring” the other band, whereby I recorded vocals on a Sea Witch song, and they played e-bow guitar on an Ecferus song. For the truly collaborative track, I blindly recorded drums to a metronome for a couple of minutes and passed it off to Sea Witch. They added rhythm guitar, bass, e-bow, and edited the structure of my drums a bit. After that, I added lead guitar and vocals and we were done. Honestly, I feel like it’s my best vocal performance to date. The biggest challenge was probably staying cohesive while passing songs back and forth, making sure their tracks fit with mine and vice versa.
DG: You also have an additional EP coming out late this year, entitled The Tourniquet Hemisphere. Talk to me about how it will differ from Prehistory and the creative process behind the music and lyrical concepts.
ALP: In a way, it’s a reaction to Prehistory, or trying to improve upon things I didn’t like about Prehistory. The fast parts are faster and the weird parts are weirder. Lyrically, I’m sort of using the volatility of the planet as a metaphor for the volatility of human beings, as in we’re like suppressed volcanoes on the verge of eruption, the tourniquet constricting the hemorrhaging mistreatment of the planet and one another.
DG: What were the main factors in the decision to make Ecferus a one-man project, and how do you proceed through the recording process to keep everything sounding as raw and natural as you do?
ALP: I got my first 4-track at a young age and have been recording just about as long as I’ve been playing in bands. Whenever there’s a lull in a band I tend to gravitate towards doing my own stuff again. Ecferus was the first time I said, “OK, let’s share this with the rest of world.” Regarding the raw sound of Prehistory, part of it had to do with it being recorded in a small-ish room, but I also envisioned it sounding like a 4-piece band knocking it all out in one take. I don’t know if that’s attributed to a long period of playing in a band and not recording any solo stuff, but now that I’ve just been doing Ecferus for a while, I’m getting more into layering a lot of tracks and turning up the reverbs.
DG: Think fast – what are your top three most influential albums?
ALP: Megadeth – Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? I got into metal through the late 80’s/early 90’s Bay Area thrash stuff and this was one of the first albums I totally became absorbed in.
Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age. I should really say Memoria Vetusta I – III because they’re all fantastic. Vindsval’s uniqueness and constant evolution is a huge inspiration for me. Musically, the way the melodies react with the chords and the mutating time signatures are endlessly fascinating to my ears.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven. This album is a work of art – a living, breathing organism on my shelf. The way it builds with intensity into these ecstatic, brilliant moments changed the way I look at composition and songwriting.
DG: Similar question – what have you been listening to recently?
ALP: Some newer releases in my current rotation are Absconditus – Kατάβασις, Pale Chalice – Negate The Infinite And Miraculous, Akitsa – Grands Tyrans, and AKHLYS – The Dreaming I.
DG: What are the future plans for Ecferus?
ALP: I’m working on a new full length that should be released next spring. I won’t give away too much, but I’m definitely going for a more massive, epic sound. This won’t be the “raw” version of Ecferus.
DG: Thanks again for taking the time to talk. Any final words before signing off?
ALP: Thanks for the great questions and the support!
Ecferus links: Twitter, Facebook, Bandcamp
Sea Witch links: Facebook, Bandcamp
Follow Dustin on Twitter.