Yattering - Murder's Concept

Admittedly, Yattering didn’t impress me much when I first heard them on 2000’s Polish Assault (they were hit-or-miss, but the Assault compilations for various countries were brilliant ideas, and I wish Relapse kept doing them). Not long ago, though, I heard some clips that made me go apeshit so much that I bought all three Yattering studio full-lengths (not counting 2005’s III, which was evidently a bizarre electronic experiment).

The Polish Assault tracks came from Yattering’s first album, 1998’s Human’s Pain, which I discovered was extremely solid, perfectly executed, and balanced between technicality and groove.

But Yattering’s keeper is 2000’s Murder’s Concept. This album makes me recall when I first fell in love with death metal in the ’90s.

On one hand, the songs are extremely physical, with punishing grooves that induce headbanging, goat throwing, invisible orange-ing, or whatever you do when metal truly moves you. On the other hand, they’re extremely weird – not Cryptopsy weird, but getting there. Songs barrel along with godlike riffs, then suddenly switch gears and rain down discordant harmonies, then chill out with brief, jazzy drum breaks before returning to crushing skulls.

The result is…ambient. Black metal may think it owns metal ambience, but, man, in an airplane, nothing cuts through engine noise like technical death metal. I just sit back and let odd meters and spiky dissonance twist around me; the effect is narcotic.

2003’s Genocide is also fluent, but it apes Suffocation and lacks the same “magic.” Sadly, Yattering recently split up, so its peak remains Murder’s Concept. It’s on sale at the moment at Relapse.