Review: Neptunian Maximalism – Éons (2020)

Éons is the second studio album by Belgian band Neptunian Maximalism.

Neptunian Maximalism is a band formed in Belgium in 2018, in whose music drone metal meets avant-garde jazz in an original way.

Éons is a mammoth 123-minute concept album divided into three discs. The theme of the mostly instrumental album is quite lofty. The album’s story is that our current geological epoch, the Anthropocene, has ended and humans have been displaced from their place at the top of the ecosystem. A new Proposocene era has begun, and with it the planet has risen to be ruled by a civilisation of super-intelligent elephants. Pretty heady stuff. But so is the band’s music.

The quartet, led by multi-instrumentalist Guillaume Cazalet, creates one hell of a ritualistic-psychedelic racket. Cazalet himself plays baritone guitar, bass, flute and trumpet. His left-hand man in the front line is saxophonist Jean Jacques Duerinckx, who does an effective job, especially with the low, buzzing baritone sax. He also occasionally plays the soprano saxophone. The band is rounded off by a hefty engine room section with no less than two drummers. Thanks to the duo of Sebastien Schmit and Pierre Arese, the band is able to offer not only a truly massive, thunderous rhythmic world but also a seductive polyrhythmicity.

Éons’ esoteric music is a combination of very different influences. Neptunian Maximalism manages to combine influences from artists as diverse as Swans, Sunn O)))), Alice Coltrane and Electric Masada into a very original and very thick concoction. The music is continent-shakingly heavy, brutal and at times downright violent. On the other hand, there always seems to be a spiritual side to the primitive thunder. At its best, the tribal and hypnotic music of Neptunia’s Maximalism achieves quite magical levels. Éons is music that you can immerse yourself in and let it surround you.

The massive 128-minute set is divided into three discs, each with its own name. The first is called To The Earth, the second To The Moon and the third To The Sun.

Each album has its own style built into it, but still in such a way that they clearly sound like parts of the same band and continuum. On the first album To The Earth, the avant-garde jazz influences are more pronounced than on the others, with the winds playing a bigger role. To The Earth, with its complex rhythms, is also the most prog-like of the three albums.

One of the absolute highlights of the whole album is to be found on the first disc. Its second track, the 8-minute ”NGANGA” (the full title is ”NGANGA – Grand Guérisseur Magique de l’ère Probocène”), is a very thunderous piece of music, typical of the album. Its pounding rhythms can easily be imagined as the image of elephant herds rushing around the planet. Nor is it far-fetched that its thickly buzzing baritone saxophones echo those war cries of elephants rushing around the planet. The track is a haunting and downright apocalyptic mix of avant-garde jazz and very heavy metal.

The second album To The Moon focuses a bit more on some kind of extreme metal thrashing and the brass is more in the background. On To The Moon, the human voice also plays a more prominent role alongside the instruments. Here and there you can hear odd growls, growls and sometimes something like a singing. It is apparently some kind of homo sapiens proto language reconstructed by the archaeology researcher Pierre Lanchant of Cambridge University, who managed to reconstruct it. Or so the Neptunian Maximalism press material claims… In any case, the variety of human voices, always buried quite deep in the music, adds an interesting ancient and mysterious tone of its own to the album. It is also gratifying that Neptunian Maximalism never indulges in clichéd and boring black metal noise.

The third album, To The Sun, is the most cosmic in atmosphere. As the album’s title suggests, the band is heading through the void of space towards the sun. Or to paraphrase Pink Floyd: Set the controls for the heart of the drone. More stripped down than the two previous albums, To The Sun’s soundscape is largely driven by slow, wavering drones. Saxophones and drums are only occasionally brought in to fill the spatial void. The album’s first track spends almost all of its 18 minutes on drone, but thankfully the second track ””HEKA HOU SIA” builds more rhythmic energy with interesting percussive chords. I have to admit that for my taste, however, the third album is the most tedious part of Éons. In the right frame of mind, it is also an interesting listen. It’s like ambient music with teeth. Big blocky monster teeth.

Listening to all three albums in a row, Éons would be far too unwieldy to chew, but digested one album at a time, the experience is enjoyable. And unique. I can’t claim to be much of an expert on extreme metal, but I for one have never come across music quite like this before, where spiritual avant-garde jazz collides so successfully with heavy metal music.

I look forward to seeing where in the musical cosmos Neptunian Maximalism will head next.

Best tracks: ”Daiitoku-myōō no ōdaiko 大威徳明王鼓童 – l’Impact de Théia durant l’Éon Hadéen”, ”Nganga – Grand guérisseur magique de l’ère Probocène”, ”Enūma eliš – La mondialisation ou la création du monde : Éon Protérozoïque”, ”Ol SONUF VAORESAJI! – La Sixième Extinction de Masse: Le Génocide Anthropocène”, ”HEKA HOU SIA – Les Animaux Pensent-ils Comme on Pense qu’ils Pensent?”

Authro: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Tracks

To The Earth

Daiitoku-Myōō no ŌDAIKO 大威徳明王鼓童 – L’Impact De Théia durant l’Éon Hadéen 06:13
NGANGA – Grand Guérisseur Magique de l’ère Probocène 08:35
LAMASTHU – Ensemenceuse du Reigne Fongique Primordial & Infanticides des Singes du Néogène 03:59
PTAH SOKAR OSIRIS – Rituel de l’Ouverture de la Bouche dans l’Éon Archéen 09:16
MAGICKÁ DŽUNGL’A – Carboniferous 02:20
ENŪMA ELIŠ – La Mondialisation ou la Création du Monde: Éon Protérozoïque 07:10

To The Moon

ZÂR – Empowering The Phurba / Éon Phanérozoïque 07:05
VAJRABHAIRAVA Part I – The Summoning (Nasatanada Zazas!) 06:03
VAJRABHAIRAVA Part II – The Rising 02:04
VAJRABHAIRAVA Part III – The Great Wars of Quaternary Era Against Ego 08:35.
IADANAMADA! – Homo-sensibilis se Prosternant sous la Lumière Cryptique de Proboscidea-sapiens 05:37
Ol SONUF VAORESAJI! – La Sixième Extinction de Masse: Le Génocide Anthropocène 12:32

To The Sun

EÔS – Avènement de l’Éon Evaísthitozoïque Probocène Flamboyant 18:32
HEKA HOU SIA – Les Animaux Pensent-ils Comme on Pense qu’ils Pensent? 06:20
HELIOZOAPOLIS – Les Criosphinx Sacrés d’Amon-Rê, Protecteurs du Cogito Ergo Sum Animal 15:24
KHONSOU SOKARIS – We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been 08:36

Musicians:

Guillaume Cazalet: bass guitar, baritone guitar, bow, sitar, flute, trumpet, vocals Jean Jacques Duerinckx: baritone and soprano saxophones Sebastien Schmit: drums, percussion, gongs, vocals Pierre Arese: drums, percussion