The Metamorph: Zenith – UK – DL/CD/CASS [2024]

1. Zenith
2. The Discovery Of Radium
3. Archipelago, Viewed From Above
4. The Golden Man
5. Underwater Cinema
6. Secondhand Regret

The Metamorph continues apace on his fourth new release so far this year. Putting that charlatan, Bill Nelson very much in the shade! And this time he’s exploring what he describes as a “dystopian ambient” vibe. Well, dystopic times call for dystopic music. Music with much longer timespans that we’re used to from the synths of The Metamorph. rather than his usual concise, two to three minute songs, these compositions really stretch out into much longer frameworks.

A distant hum throbbed on the horizon. The title track, Zenith,” was static with a monolithic implacability. Content to be unfathomable. Suggesting a vast and ancient power at work. A modest whirring was content to break the tension at random moments. On occasions, a plaintive sibilance would issue like steam from fissures in the earth. Minutes later, one might notice that the sonic landscape had completely changed without it ever being immediately apparent. Events like this had plenty of time to slowly manifest in the 15:20 opus before its coda became an inscrutable hum overpowering a distant melody.

The mystery and intrigue of “The Discovery Of Radium” pull us into the environment. Foreboding undercurrents are layered stealthfully during the 9:30 composition. Was the barely perceivable neigh of a horse actually present here? Sibilant electronic coos were content to bubble up from the depths of the anonymous choral patches.

A dramatic synth flourish heralded “Archipelago, Viewed From Above.” Deceptively bright vapors of synths wafted aloft, redolent of an old China Crisis instrumental B-side, but the need to unsettle was triumphant, as the shards of groaning synths and the sound of howling winds erased all hope. “The Golden Man” sported what was almost a bass line in this program until liquid pools of sound and lowing synths set the place for a pianistic melody snaking through the song. Wooshing synthesizers issued like spray from a whale’s blowhole until the main theme manifested on its circuitous route once more.

Thus endeth the DL and CD version of “Zenith” but the extremely limited cassette edition [20 made] provide a pair of bonus tracks that I feel badly even mentioning since the cassette sold out within a few hours of release as The Metamorph’s ardent cult audience are prone to eagerly snatch up his limited editions.

“Underwater Cinema,” besides sporting a John Foxx adjacent title, opened with sonar beeps and the first hints of light in the twilight environment of this album. Shafts of sunlight began to penetrate the nurky depths of the song as an electronic claxon sounded the warning call as is passed from right to left in the soundfield. Making me wonder when Steven Wilson might take a few minutes out from his busy schedule to perform 5.1 mixing honors on some of The Metamorph’s music; this album first? While “Secondhand Regret” was redolent of Robin Guthrie vibe until its midpoint where eruptions of earth shaking sound suggested a behemoth awakening.

The sound was carefully mixed in the soundfield here, rewarding headphone listening to discern the subtle details. Or play it on the living room mains for a broader womb of sound to experience. I’ve listened to this all morning on repeat and it all seems to last mere minutes instead of the near hour it occupies. The first track alone would have been a full side on a Vangelis album of the 70s! But unlike examples of The Vangelis Effect®, there’s no surface noise to compete with the music here. Listen now, below.

Fans of The Metamorph may now obtain this music as a 24 /44.1 DL or as a compact disc [with DL] for the same price of £7.00 /$9.12. But the cassette pictured above we can only hope that The Metamorph will re-issue one day with those bonus tracks on a simple CD for us all to hear the full monty of this subtle, yet fascinating program. DJs hit that button!

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