Review by Saxy S for Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse (2021)

I've had this record sitting on my review bench for a couple of months now and I'm still perplexed by it and trying to put this review together has been a struggle. Anyone who knows what I appreciate out of a good album will know that I have no time for extended technical, musical wankery that is unjustified within the greater context of its composition. Ad Nauseam really took their time with this new album to test my patience as to how much musical nothingness they can place into a single album before I have to either skip to the next track, or turn off the album entirely. 

Imperative Imperceptible Impulse might be an appropriate title for an album like this because it it's impulse is to frenetically whiplash transition between short musical ideas that have no connection to one another, and are never developed throughout this album's excessive runtime. Take a song like "Horror Vacui"; this track begins with arguably the album's best hook, all before aborting that idea about a third of the way through, and transforms itself into a deathly slow doom passage for the next third of the track, and then ending with frenetic tech-death again, but incorporating new ideas and themes that have not been properly developed of referenced previously. It takes the song that I initially liked at the beginning and turns it into something that is painfully forgettable, since none of the ideas are given the appropriate amount of time to breathe. Instead, Ad Nauseam quickly transitions away from that really good opening idea, and then never references it again.

As a result, this album suffers in many of the same ways that almost all technical death metal albums do for me. While the technical proficiency is on full display and typically very impressive, because Ad Nauseam are so scatterbrained and cannot have a consistent through line in their music, it all sounds the same. Many tunes have likable portions, but are surrounded by so much fat and bloat that its a chore to find them. The band immediately references Stravinsky (presumably Rite of Spring and beyond), Penderecki and Ligeti in the Bandcamp bio for this album, and it's so obvious.

And it is a damn shame because the production is top notch. Whoever produced this album needs to be recognized for how they are able to make everything sound so brilliant through the hectic song structures. Percussion has always been a swollen thumb for technical music, but here it has no overbearing presence at all! The guitar leads sound full and emphatic, while the bass lines are thorough and independent from the chugging rhythm guitar, adding for a new layer of polyphony that sounds excellent. As for the vocals, when I can hear them, they have so much gravitas in the guttural howls that allows for the themes of suicide and annihilation that much more impeccable. The only problem is that, as I briefly mentioned before, they can be drowned out by the instrumentals on occasion.

Even now I still don't know what to think of Imperative Imperceptible Impulse by Ad Nauseam. Never have I heard a technical death metal record that has sounded so precise and clean, and yet so flailing and rough. This album gives me the same impression as Liturgy's Origin of the Alimonies did late last year; an album that is fully aware of its technical proficiency and uses that as an excuse to create something that is as anti-pop as possible. As a result, this album will not be for everyone. If it is, then you are a much stronger soul than I will ever be.