Prolegomenon by Skin Tension

Black metal represents an outburst of emotional energy, typically tempered as either blindingly euphoric or massively depressive, but the purity of the energy we find in Prolegomenon by Skin Tension plows straight through this emotional fork. Unlike most other black metal projects that consist of pre-planned songs with defined structures, Prolegomenon leans heavily on free jazz compositional principles, whipping tremolo guitar melodies through tight, unpredictable twists and turns that then ricochet off the pure percussive chaos in the drums and bass. What the musicians lack in pre-planned structures they more than make up for with a common energy, saturating every moment with quantum emotional jitters that switch from positive to negative several times per second. Upwellings of suppressed emotions send us soaring with their unexpected eruptions, leaving us no choice but to sort through the ash later to deduce triumph from tragedy, vindication from laceration.