Terry Vainoras is a musician of a certain weight within the Australian doom scene, having been part, albeit fleetingly, of bands such as the immense Cryptal Darkness and their subsequent incarnation The Eternal, both creatures of the better known Mark Kelson, with whom he also shared the fate of In Somnius Dei. Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure is the second full length of Subterranean Disposition, solo project of the multi-instrumentalist of Melbourne, which offers a form of death doom full of interesting ideas, starting from the collaboration with Gelareh Pour, a virtuoso of stringed instruments such as Kemanchech and Qeychak, typical of his homeland, Iran. The presence of elements of discontinuity from the canons of the genre is also noted for the use of the saxophone, which goes to embellish with its warm sound two excellent tracks such as Wooden Kimono Fixative and Aggressors Clothed As Victims (in the latter stands also an excellent lead guitar, an instrument used with a certain measure throughout the work). In addition, Vainoras does not make the mistake of many of his colleagues who, wanting to do almost everything themselves, resorting to a drum machine, entrusting instead the work at the skins to the good Dan Nahum and also using the vocal support of Daniel Lucas of the Portuguese Painted Black. From this picture, what comes out is a record of great quality, perhaps less adherent to the typical styles of the genre but, perhaps for this reason, able to break the defenses that, for example, someone like me tends to erect when he hears the sound of wind instruments in his beloved doom. In a tracklist that goes to lambire the total hour of duration, to shine is definitely a song like Embittered, to which the contribution of Pour, even at the vocal level, gives it a particular aura, very different from that typical of extreme doom, going to cloak it with a substrate between ethnic and experimental; the combination between the rarefied passages in which the work of the musician of Persian origin predominates and the typical progressions of death doom is the key to the success of the song and, in terms of intentions, even of the entire album. If All Roads Lead To Perdition borders on post-hardcore sludge, with its rages and its compressed anger, A Lifelong Slumber, at least in its initial part, is the track most devoted to the word of the dying bride (and, just to close the circle, it should be remembered that Vainoras was replaced in Cryptal Darkness by Martin Powell who was among the main architects of the seminal early albums of My Dying Bride). Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure is a work that, in the end, shows a certain compositional restlessness on the part of the Australian musician, and this makes it a stimulating listen beyond what may be the liking for the specific genre; Subterranean Disposition is therefore confirmed as a reality of certain interest and to follow with extreme attention in its future developments.

2016 – Hypnotic Dirge Records