Μνήμα (Mnima) - Εφιάλτες του Απόλυτου Κενού EP
Digging your own grave XVIII: Do not go gentle into that good night.
There often comes a point in an artist’s career where they release something that could very well be considered a pinnacle of theirs, be it on an artistic or personal level. With it, comes the question of “What now?”. Artist and audience are forced to reckon with the fact that a work of art has been so profoundly affecting for either or both parties, the former also having to ask themselves the daunting question of what is to follow. Does one try to outdo their masterwork, and risk turning into an Icarus, falling victim to their own ambition? Are they to look backwards and attempt to go back to basics, at the potential cost of sounding redundant to the outside world? Or should altogether ignore it, and move past it in an effort to explore different territory, in turn subverting whatever expectations might’ve been foisted upon them?
In Μνήμα’s case, they’ve always opted for the third option, regardless of what one might think they’re planning to do next. Sure, their black metal releases have an identifiable sound and style, but interspersed within those “core” releases lie experiments that ostensibly avoid sounding like “a Μνήμα release”. Be it the punkier releases that dotted 2021, or the foray into borderline harsh noise with The Supreme Poisoner of Time. Point is, the band never liked being stuck in one gear, and it would be very much unlike them to change that now, even after a release as monumental as the closing chapter of the Gathering Sorcery... series. This insistence to subversion leads us to their final release for 2022, the Εφιάλτες του Απόλυτου Κενού (Nightmares of the Absolute Void) EP.
Now, I must come clean and admit that I too engaged in a little subterfuge of my own at the start of this series when I said that Forbidden Creatures of Time was the last time the band would do anything weird with song lengths. I said that knowing that this EP, and the topic of this particular review, would be Μνήμα’s longest song to date. Not only that, it’s a fully instrumental piece where the only instrument in use is a guitar. Although there’s slight traces of black metal in the licks and motifs that show up, it is more akin to a deconstruction of the motifs that comprise the genre, to the point where would be more apt to refer to it as a dark ambient.
It’s a rather cacophonous work, despite its relatively approachable nature. Throughout the piece, a lot of the repeating and dejectedly melodic passages are obscured underneath a perpetual hum of feedback, its enveloping nature akin to staring into a yawning void. Lick after lick, they all come and go, eventually looping into the one that kicked things off. There are moments where the composition becomes a little less formless, or offers something in the vein of a crescendo, such as this brief moment around 07:30 where the guitar screams out in an uncannily human manner.
This distant and dehumanised air is quite fitting given the context this particular EP came out in. Through the blackness surface most vague notions of stability and repetition, as if faded memories meant to entice you into delving deeper into the fathomless depths of time and obscurity. They’re pained memories, but they nevertheless provide a lifeline to hold on to, even if distorted by their surroundings. There’s the slightest hint of safety and salvation in them, but ultimately all this void does is refract and reflect one’s anguish back to themselves. It induces a spiral where you are bound to circle yourself, over and over again, in a fruitless attempt to find some solace in the past, despite its having been eroded by time and pain. It meanders on and on, gradually embraced by a nothingness that almost feels comforting at this point, before abruptly ending on the same motif that we started on.
Ultimately, Εφιάλτες του Απόλυτου Κενού possesses the peculiar quality of being a would-be eulogy to Μνήμα as a whole. There’s a sense of finality that feels like an extension of Gathering Sorcery… III’s coda, though the tranquillity expressed there is obfuscated and corrupted, the band refusing to let itself go into the dark as peacefully as that song implied. It’s hard to ignore the air of resignation that seeps out of this EP, even if the band soldiered on in the following years. Although I do have my misgivings with its repetitive nature, as it does run thin over the course of 20 minutes, but it remains a part of the wider emotional arc the music, and Μνήμα as a whole went, and is still going through today. As it stands, this EP is a pre-emptive tombstone for the band, one that looms large over what is as of right now an empty grave. Then again, it’s not like Μνήμα would content themselves by going down without dragging the world along with them.
In Μνήμα’s case, they’ve always opted for the third option, regardless of what one might think they’re planning to do next. Sure, their black metal releases have an identifiable sound and style, but interspersed within those “core” releases lie experiments that ostensibly avoid sounding like “a Μνήμα release”. Be it the punkier releases that dotted 2021, or the foray into borderline harsh noise with The Supreme Poisoner of Time. Point is, the band never liked being stuck in one gear, and it would be very much unlike them to change that now, even after a release as monumental as the closing chapter of the Gathering Sorcery... series. This insistence to subversion leads us to their final release for 2022, the Εφιάλτες του Απόλυτου Κενού (Nightmares of the Absolute Void) EP.
Now, I must come clean and admit that I too engaged in a little subterfuge of my own at the start of this series when I said that Forbidden Creatures of Time was the last time the band would do anything weird with song lengths. I said that knowing that this EP, and the topic of this particular review, would be Μνήμα’s longest song to date. Not only that, it’s a fully instrumental piece where the only instrument in use is a guitar. Although there’s slight traces of black metal in the licks and motifs that show up, it is more akin to a deconstruction of the motifs that comprise the genre, to the point where would be more apt to refer to it as a dark ambient.
It’s a rather cacophonous work, despite its relatively approachable nature. Throughout the piece, a lot of the repeating and dejectedly melodic passages are obscured underneath a perpetual hum of feedback, its enveloping nature akin to staring into a yawning void. Lick after lick, they all come and go, eventually looping into the one that kicked things off. There are moments where the composition becomes a little less formless, or offers something in the vein of a crescendo, such as this brief moment around 07:30 where the guitar screams out in an uncannily human manner.
This distant and dehumanised air is quite fitting given the context this particular EP came out in. Through the blackness surface most vague notions of stability and repetition, as if faded memories meant to entice you into delving deeper into the fathomless depths of time and obscurity. They’re pained memories, but they nevertheless provide a lifeline to hold on to, even if distorted by their surroundings. There’s the slightest hint of safety and salvation in them, but ultimately all this void does is refract and reflect one’s anguish back to themselves. It induces a spiral where you are bound to circle yourself, over and over again, in a fruitless attempt to find some solace in the past, despite its having been eroded by time and pain. It meanders on and on, gradually embraced by a nothingness that almost feels comforting at this point, before abruptly ending on the same motif that we started on.
Ultimately, Εφιάλτες του Απόλυτου Κενού possesses the peculiar quality of being a would-be eulogy to Μνήμα as a whole. There’s a sense of finality that feels like an extension of Gathering Sorcery… III’s coda, though the tranquillity expressed there is obfuscated and corrupted, the band refusing to let itself go into the dark as peacefully as that song implied. It’s hard to ignore the air of resignation that seeps out of this EP, even if the band soldiered on in the following years. Although I do have my misgivings with its repetitive nature, as it does run thin over the course of 20 minutes, but it remains a part of the wider emotional arc the music, and Μνήμα as a whole went, and is still going through today. As it stands, this EP is a pre-emptive tombstone for the band, one that looms large over what is as of right now an empty grave. Then again, it’s not like Μνήμα would content themselves by going down without dragging the world along with them.
Rating: 65%
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