V:XII - Rom, Rune and Ruin: The Odium Disciplina

V:XII - Rom, Rune and Ruin: The Odium Disciplina (AESTHETIC DEATH Productions - CD 2020)

“... Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned...” 

"Rom, Rune and Ruin: The Odium Disciplina" by V:XII is one of those musical journeys that I like to take once in a while, when I want to listen to something very dark, eerie and very disturbing, but away from my usual extreme metal territory. V:XII is a Swedish project of Daniel Jansson, who performs sort of ambient / industrial / noise, which you could compare to MZ412 or other Nordvargr projects, to name just that one project. "Rom, Rune and Ruin: The Odium Disciplina" is very minimalistic in its sound and approach, this is not music, but rather eight tracks of disturbing sounds and noises, without rhythm, melodies or something what would make you feel like they're catchy or memorable. There are echoes like from deep abyss, industrial sounds, different sort of vocals but not singing... Everything that aims to create a specific atmosphere and could be treated maybe as sort of soundtrack to the journey into darkness. It definitely is not an album that would entertain the listener. You listen to such anti-music under specific conditions, you have to set up the mood in order to challenge it. Otherwise it has no sense. It's not an album, which would work as a background to your daily routine. 

Yeah, if you've ever listened to any similar ambient / industrial project, then you may know what I have in my mind and try to describe here. I fail a little as I’m not big expert of it. And I suppose that this sort of "music" is love or hate kind of thing. I don't think it's for everyone and most people will find it as boring and useless noise. But as I mentioned earlier, listen to it under certain conditions and it can take you somewhere where hardly any metal band can. To be honest, I prefer projects, whose musical story is richer and more "musical", like Puissance, Arditi or Blood Axis. But V:XII is not bad also. And the digipak looks fantastic. 

Verdict: 60/100