Phlebotomized - Immense Intense Suspense (1994)^{Release ID: 9893}

Tremendously creative and unique album that overcomes some awkward misadventures.

Immense Intense Suspense is an album that showcases just how few boundaries the art of extreme metal has, despite what the outside world may perceive it to be. Bands within these genres very rarely have monetary or fame goals in mind when creating their music and so have a freedom unknown to the popular and mainstream. The knowledge that one will always be among the underground (as 99% of extreme metal bands are and always will be) must surely give them the strength to please their own musical curiosity without the concern of mass failure. That curiosity was obviously rather high amongst these Dutch maestros as one thing’s for certain… you will not hear another band like Phlebotomized.

Trying to describe their music to others successfully is near impossible due to its bizarre and schizophrenic nature, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Immense Intense Suspense is first and foremost a death metal album. It's got a chunky and raw death metal sound, which is totally at odds with almost all other influences to be found here. Extremely guttural death growls, a rather filthy bass sound and intense blast beats are combined with exquisite violin and flute, progressive keyboard passages and clean male / female vocals to form an utterly spasmodic yet entirely captivating album.

The only other band I can come up with that remotely resembles this would be Maudlin of the Well, but Immense Intense Suspense contains a lot more death metal than the often-cutesy approach of those US eccentrics. But if you're into Maudlin, then it's possible you're open minded enough to enjoy what Phlebotomized have to offer. Beneath all the brutality on display is a level of beauty and talented musicianship that overcome any awkward misadventures, of which there are quite a few. Each track has me switching between complete worship, wide eyed disbelief and grimaces of confusion. But considering how courageous this music is, I will forgive Phlebotomized for getting the odd section wrong. Barricade, Dubbed Forswearer, In Search of Tranquillity and Mellow Are the Reverberations are the most consistently brilliant tracks to be found here, but all 9 tracks contain sections of genius. I love this album and recommend it to any metal fan out there that's not afraid to venture out from the more safe and generic blueprints.

As a final note, I played Dubbed Forswearer to my very un-metal girlfriend (she does share my love of the melancholic though) to see just how at odds all these influences were to someone outside the scene and her response surprised me somewhat. She suggested that while the classical and progressive elements were much more to her liking than the death metal, they still contained an element of haunting morbidity and fit the musical context much more than I might realise. I may have to trust her on that one as I rarely venture outside minor key driven music, so this is about as bipolar as my listening journey gets.