We’ve got a live for you today folks; I hands down guarantee that you’ve never heard anything quite as vicious, weird and dedicated to the avant-garde as Potmos Hetoimos are. These progressive sludge titans are set to release their eleventh (!) album in a month (almost exactly, on September 12th) and they’re taking no prisoners. From the mouth of Matt Matheson, the impetus behind this project: “The eleventh album from Potmos Hetoimos, Vox Medusae weaves a harrowingly vivid narrative dealing with pornography addiction. Theatrically dramatized yet deeply personal, the album conveys the internal psychological struggle associated with addiction by presenting the perspectives of nine voices”. Keep that in your mind as you listen to the firs track from it, “Idyll Anathema”, and have your mind bent into all sorts of shapes. I’ll see you after.

[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=1992131424 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false tracks=61630929 esig=c25b02d3b9900ff84c331f6a40e271e4]

I think the most important thing to note here is this: beyond the concept and the ambition of the project, it’s also damn good music. The bass on this track is especially outstanding, whether the lines nearer the beginning which are all tasty and unsettling groove or the more dolmen like intonations near the end of the track, where the sludge takes over and everything becomes super heavy. Naturally, the vocals also play a huge role here and they’re exquisite; the cleans have that theatrical flourish I love about avant-garde music and the gutturals live just as well at the bottom of the sound. But overall perhaps, I love the screamed passages (most of which can be found around the end) which remind me of Circle Takes the Square in the way they weave different voices together.

There’s so much more going on in this track, from brass instruments to really interesting rhythmical ideas and all the way to beguiling piano. The rest of the album is going to give you just as much of a wild ride; I still haven’t completely digested it as it takes influences from abrasive and heavy acts like Cult Leader but also channels some of the weirdness of bands like Dødheimsgard. But I can easily say that if you’re looking for some heavy, chaotic and conceptually well thought out, look no further; Vox Medusae is exactly for you. Head on over to the Bandcamp link to pre-order it or just wait for release day, upon which it will be released on there for free. Stay weird folks.