Aderlating – Hell Follows

One has to wonder if composers from the classical period were alive, what exactly would they be doing?  If they were born in the modern era, where would they be today?  What kind of music would they be making?  Avoid things of the popular, its analogies are fruitless, because in spite of what that music meant back then, they were versed in many things, and nothing like the drivel today that infects the music world with its prolific disease.  In our opinion, said composers wouldn’t be within the genres you’d expect, they’d be on the fringes, in realms where musical boundaries are broken, because those are places when a true connection between musician and music finds shape.  Many of them were prodigies, or at least visionaries, and sometimes in their own day were confrontational in ways that didn’t require covering themselves in fake blood, animal parts, or sexual objects. Shock value is the cheap way.  Would Beethoven have had an ear gauge, would Debussy have had a few tats? Most likely not, and if they got together, though all of this is, of course, conjecture, Aderlating would be a likely result.

  

How can this be, aren’t these ideas entirely opposite?  If you haven’t heard of them, Aderlating is a duet consisting of Eric Eijspaart, otherwise known as Mowlawner, and underground legend Maurice De Jong, otherwise known as Mories.  Now, Eijspaart you’ve likely never heard of, unless you’re privy to these things, but Mories, it’s unlikely you haven’t heard his name or at least one of his incarnations.  Gnaw Their Tongues perhaps?  Easily his most well-known project, but we also have Alkerdeel and several others, including Aderlating, which has a pretty respectable output since its inception in 2008/2009.  We say that because side projects often become the bane of a typical musician, stretching their abilities thin and wearing away at the poorly-woven cloak in which their music is draped.  Aderlating proves Mories is no such artist, he is prodigy incarnate, and his weaving thick with years of experience.

 

Though we’ve heard their work for several years now, our last official review was of Spear of Gold and Serphaphim Bone Part I, which honestly, though notable for its more focused approach in comparison to Gnaw Their Tongues, was something of a derivation of the latter. The sequel, however, was a different story, showing the project was taking a more distinct form.  It’s morphed over the years, and with its fifth full-length, Hell Follows, is completely distinguishable from the rest of Mories’s work.  According to the man himself, it was recorded live and with less computer processing, which gives an appreciable, positive affect on how Aderlating presents itself in comparison to before.  Gone is the black metal, ritualistic destruction, this relies on space and input from your own experience in listening, instead of shocking through sheer turbulence.  Most of the noise found in previous releases, in fact, is absent which makes its process of confrontation more difficult, but Hell Follows shows less is more has now become less is all.  A number of the tracks have a primitive, electronic sound, an almost primal quality, as though we’re hearing the lost recordings of some dark industrial band from decades ago, but which is still completely relevant to today’s musical landscape.  The fact that the sound has been stepped back from previous releases to this extent, yet still sounds absolutely terrifying, is more than sufficient proof of what Mories is capable.  Hopefully Aderlating will continue in this direction, because this is easily the best work the pair has released.  It requires the user to become more engaged, instead of simply overwhelming them, and doing that while still creating a sense of affliction is a beautiful accomplishment.

 

Aderlating Official Facebook

Written by Stanley Stepanic

Aderlating: Hell Follows
Black Plagve Productions
4.8 / 5