Album Review: RES – Strife of Permanence (American Decline Records)

RES is the project of Köln-born, Chicago-based artist and composer Robert Stokowy. Strife of Permanence threads the needle between doom metal and sound art, between a working artist using vinyl as a medium and a working musician inspired by ekphrasis. The album will be released on May 21st 2021 via American Decline Records.

It’s always admirable to hear a piece of work like this. Something that is wholly unique and clearly a labour of love and passion. RES’ Strife of Permanence shouldn’t be judged as a metal album in the conventional sense. To say it’s doom or drone or noise or avant-garde puts it in a specific category and the three tomes that make up the album can’t be categorised.

It’s like hearing the vibrations of something moving in the gap between worlds. Like listening into deep space for years, only hearing silence and then one day… this. It’s the sound of an underground monolith coming to life after centuries buried. The sound of dread spreading through a crowd, everything on a knife edge as panic approaches.

Rumbling feedback, fuzzy noise, muted screeches and discombobulated effects, echoing in deep and dark places. It’s not that it’s got an ancient sound but rather the sound of something from another world. Something unfathomable, something you can’t gaze upon through fear of madness.

This is just some of the thoughts that went through my head as the sounds of 1, 2 and 3 reverberated around my skull. It might sound like nonsense and it is but it’s the nonsense that RES made reality in my head. You might hear Strife of Permanence and take something completely different out of it. That’s kind of the point, it’s not music as you understand it. You’re listening to an artistic performance. You almost want to see some sort of one-man stage show themed around this.

It’s not for everyone. That’s undeniable. It’s also not something you could listen to more than a handful of times. However, those times are effective and RES leaves an impression. Even if it’s just the question of what the hell is going on?

RES – Strife of Permanence Full Track Listing:

1
2
3

Links

Bandcamp | Website | Twitter | American Decline Records