I first want to start by warning that this review requires serious consideration. Suicide is no joke, and if you joke or bully people about it, we’ll find you. Hence, I’ve been delaying my take on Construct of Lethe‘s A Kindness Dealt in Venom. First, my underpaid interns have been struggling with your requests, and second, I didn’t want to review something that approaches such a serious matter in an exploitative way (not the case here, fortunately). But let’s focus on the music, shall we?
A Kindness Dealt in Venom isn’t an album you can simply dive into and relax with, like a comforting night watching a film while eating junk food that’s slowly killing you. It’s a deep dive into the nightmares and challenges many of us face every day. As you can expect, there’s nothing kind here. If anything, there’s only the unrelenting voice of sorrow and anxiety crippling any chance of joy that the protagonist of this autobiographical track experiences. There are names for several tracks, but in the end, they’re all part of one single phantom that preys on the will to live of its creator. Needless to say, A Kindness Dealt in Venom takes itself seriously and approaches its complicated and tormenting subject matter in one of the most haunting ways, without making a circus out of it.
How about the music? Well, it’s not easy to describe either. At first, I thought the album was going to be the expected dissonant battle that Transcending Obscurity has accustomed us to this year, but as I swam longer into this sea of self-hatred, I found Black, Industrial, and straight-out electronic elements that mix effortlessly into a level of chaos reminiscent of An Isolated Mind‘s I’m Losing Myself, another masterclass in portraying the horrors of mental illness. Alright, you want the dumbed-down version: yes, the guitars are brutal, the drums shift grooves mercilessly, the vocals traverse different sub-genres, and you can even hear the bass sometimes amid this dark journey. Back to the smart part, what are the downsides?
Similar to my retro-review of Scorn, this isn’t an album you can happily put on during your warm summer days. You’ve got to be ready to dig deep into your own demons. On a more concrete note, so much experimentation does get a bit inconsistent, especially in the tracks that have more “talking” and “sound exploration” that make it hard to match well with the beginning and end of the album. Songwriting structures are a challenge to follow in this release, so I can imagine some will penalize the brain-eroding transitions.
I still think this is an enigmatic effort that portrays the struggle of self-destruction in a compelling and disheartening way. Anyone who likes their Metal serious and not fun at all (if you hate Power and Folk), then Construct of Lethe has crafted something here that will make you defecate your underwear harder than drinking water from a school fountain. You just need to be willing to accept its intrinsic weirdness.
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release date: 21 June, 2024
Website: https://www.facebook.com/constructoflethe
Country: USA
Score: a bit of mercy for your broken heart, or 3.5/5.0 for the lost and forgotten.
Metal Eclipse Reviews 