META MEAT - Metameat

Upon hitting the play button for the first track 'melt' on META MEAT's self-titled debut, I knew I was going to be in for one hell of a ride throughout the rest of the album. The tribal drumming and chants mixed with the synthetic world of electronic instruments was absolutely awe inspiring. The name of the band perfectly fits with how they present their music. "MEAT" represents the body and flesh of man and "META" represents a transcendence beyond mankind, just as their physical drums are just that with the electronic verse surpassing that. It is quite a thrill ride. 

META MEAT is the project of somekilos (2kilos &More) and phil von (von magnet). While somekilos is the drummer and beat maker in the band, phil von is the banger and stamper of the group. Prior to this album, META MEAT has only made an appearance on the compilation Katharsis Compilation 1 where they contributed a version of their track 'esapism'. After that appearance we are in the now with their self-titled, debut release META MEAT. 

META MEAT is a ten track album full of percussive blasts and sonic-fueled barbaric overtures. 'melt' starts off the album and slowly lassos us in with a dark, atmospheric texture. The bits of drum slowly come in one after another, starting off with a single hit and adding in more as the song goes on. It's a slow paced moving piece full of synths that give off a ritualistic feeling. 'backstitch' brings forth frenetic drums and a deep, background noise sometimes infused with chanting. Getting into the warrior spirit, 'sword' sounds like a track that could be played during a confrontation between two feverish combatants. 

'shudder' is the first song on the album that embraces the tech-side of META MEAT's foundations and uses electronics to their benefit more than not. Think of this as an IDM laced track with varying degrees of background ambiance. 'deepen' has a pattern of going from soft, to loud, and back down to soft again. But each repeat of that phase result in movements that are more booming than the previous. 'tamed' is another back and forth song that battles out both synthetic movements and man made drumming and that was beautiful. 

With 'rampage' the percussion once again goes more electronic making for a cyber-tribal sort of song. 'escapism' is a fast song whose drumming gets louder and louder as the song progresses; it's like the build up of an anxiety attack. 'behaviour' is a slow moving piece full of subtle twists and turns as well as quiet, reflective moments. Coming as the last song on the album, 'converge' ends in an almighty blast of noise, percussion, and heavy ambiance for a beautiful finale. It all goes quiet at the end with a mere twinkle setting us off. 

META MEAT's self-titled debut is the type of album that can be sought for comfort, for battle ready demonstrations, as well as spiritual reflection. The fusion of man made drumming and electronic foreplay is astounding. Cheers to this duo for putting out one hell of an album. 
Nov 29 2016