Pando - Rites

PANDO - Rites (AESTHETIC DEATH - CD 2021)

Damn, albums like this one are such a pain in the butt for every reviewer. They are albums, which escape all easy classifications and contain music, which is anything but obvious and foreseeable. This is what describes many releases from Aesthetic Death, actually. And Pando's "Rites" is another challenging and difficult album from that label. About the band I cannot even say much, other than this two-men project is from Massachusetts. "Rites" is not their debut, they already have few recordings behind them, but since I have not heard anything from Pando before, I will not make any comparisons or comments for how much the music of this project has changed or developed over the years. 

As for "Rites" itself, I have to admit that I really enjoyed this music. At first, I was like "hmm, will they ever decide what music they want to play or what?", because so much is "Rites" away from the usual musical schemes and rules. And what Pando does is sort of ambient / noise / drone with a harsh, ferocious and lo-fi dissonant black metal and as such, it simply needs certain conditions to be set, before you play the fuckin CD. It's not an album, which you want to listen to, when you want something powerful to give you energy or when you just need something what will provide some sort of entertainment. "Rites" is something what you listen to in careful way, you may prepare a proper atmosphere for it - like a candle-lit room and a glass of wine... or some other sort of that cheesy crap. But only then such music can really speak to you. Obviously, there are some more "metal" fragments on the album, like "Total Station Theodolite", which is probably the least interesting part of the album - just because I don't like the main opening riff there... To my surprise, the most interesting pats of "Rites" are all those ambient moments, when the music is experimental and when it crosses some boundaries, like such "Excarnation" for instance. But I won't go deep into describing that or any other song, because basically every part of "Rites" is different, with many different layers and emotions. But I can say that "The Octagon Room" is probably my favourite part of all, if you ask. All in all, it is quite adventurous album, I sometimes seek for less violent, but more ambient kind of music and this one can fit there, even if sometimes it goes into more raging and aggressive territory. Still, an interesting effort. 

And holy crap, the booklet filled with disturbing, yet beautiful photographs only add mystery to this project. Just take a look... 

Verdict: 70/100