Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations CD

Spectral melodies reverberate from vaulted ceilings, bearing little resemblance to any earthly intonation.  Inhuman vocals emanate from the wrecked, wretched pulpit, narrating arcane rituals of awakening.  Tolling bells, haunting organs and hypnotizing piano passages contribute to the brooding and tenebrous atmosphere.  Negative Plane have summoned a monstrously compelling and unique album, calling forth a beastly presence from “black gulfs of chaos.”  

The guitar work on Stained Glass Revelations is a clinic in barely controlled chaos.  Tendrils of melody assault and entangle you.  We're talking about riffs that could have fallen, fully formed, from the addled mind of a young Dave Mustaine (think “Looking Down the Cross.”)  At the same time, these compositions possess the majestic and sinister dynamics of Mercyful Fate tunes.  Riffs range up and down the guitar neck in a pandemonium of bemusing euphony.  Every sinuous, twisted melody here is memorable;  I regularly find these riffs undulating in the interstices of my mind.

Stained Glass Revelations could have easily collapsed under the weight of the frenzied, mercurial guitars.  Although the riffs show little interest in adhering to any known meter, the drummer has managed to skillfully corral this music into a sensible rhythmic package.  His performance is so brilliant, in fact, that the daedal compositions positively swing, often with a thrashy precision.  The cavernous, reverbed production emphasizes the album's archaic aesthetic.  In my mind, Stained Glass Revelations sounds like it could not have been recorded any later than 1983.  Perfect.

One of the album's more curious features are the vocals.  Mordant, rasping enunciations are delivered in an almost spoken-word fashion.   Lyrics are pronounced with a slow, languorous malignity. The vocal delivery serves to accentuate some of the album's rhythmic peculiarity.  I can imagine this approach might be off-putting to some, but I think it's a perfect vessel for the abstruse sermons Stained Glass Revelations presents.  The lyrics discuss all manner of eschatological perversion, focusing on biblical bastardizations and horrors.