Vaina - Futue Te Ipsum - Angel with Many Faces

VAINA - Futue Te Ipsum - Angel with Many Faces (AESTHETIC DEATH - CD 2022)

Every time I get something new from Aesthetic Death, it is a big uncertainty. Musically there could be anything and I already learned that it's better not to expect anything. This label can release whatever they want, even fuckin country music. Well, it's exactly the case with Finnish one-man project Vaina and the second album "Futue Te Ipsum - Angel with Many Faces". Even though you will find (on the Metal Archives' description) that it's a black metal, I can assure you that it's far from the "typical" and "orthodox" black metal - so, something perfectly suitable to Aesthetic Death roster, right? 

Well, speaking of the content of "Futue Te Ipsum - Angel with Many Faces", there's an hour of very experimental and intriguing music, which takes the listener for almost a cosmic, bizarre journey. The opening song "Oppenheimer Moment" has a bit of that Dodheimsgard or Aborym fell - if you think of industrial, avantgarde black metal and all these weird melodies, dissonant riffs, sick vocals and lots and lots of electronic background. And that would be a pretty suitable comparison, but I think that Vaina goes much, much further into the experimental territory than those two bands ever did. The second song, which is called "I1", has even less of everything stereotypical, you could forget about obvious song structures or things like that. But the real fun starts with "Yksikuisuus", where Vaina basically drops every black metal leftovers (except the shrieking screams) they had before, swapping them for something like an electronic / dark ambient, other time orchestral music (occasionally reminding me Profanum). And "About:Blank" has sort of sick, techno beat alike Diabolos Rising, if anyone remembers that old project. 

And the further you will do, the more surprising "Futue Te Ipsum - Angel with Many Faces" will be. Synthesizer plays an enormous role; guitars are rather secondary in all that madness. Plus, the drum machine, some electronic effects added here and there... Yes, the music has a very cold, inhuman feel and I just start to wonder how much will it annoy some listeners hah? And if there is a room for such projects in times, when most of the extreme music listeners tend to prefer more traditional, old school metal bands? I don't know and I am not gonna even try to guess. But the point is, Vaina didn't record an album for everyone and it is a music quite hard to comprehend and assimilate to. Which is not a mission impossible. It is an interesting album for sure, I think, a real experience. Give it a chance, don’t be afraid! 

Damn, even song titles are insanely bizarre here (my favourite is “--. .-. . . -.”, hah!). 

Verdict: 70/100