LEVIATHAN "TRUE TRAITOR, TRUE WHORE" (Profound Lore)

The master returns. Few other hiatuses in the black metal universe left as large a void as Leviathan's; only Varg's incarceration has the same level of importance for me. When Jef Whitehead dissolved the project a few years back he left behind a body of work that pretty much lays waste to any other black metal band's discography in terms of atmosphere, originality, and sheer emotional intensity; i cannot recall the amount of times i've listened to "Verrater" and been moved near to tears by the dark, haunting beauty and sheer relentless of it (in fact, i listened to it once in the throes of a mushroom trip and had to hide under a pile of blankets for an hour and simply focus on trying to fucking breathe because the experience was too overwhelming.) Whitehead is one of few musicians able to tap into some extremely void recesses and emerge with the scars transformed into music; as a result virtually every work by Leviathan feels personal and universal, something horribly intimate but so reaching and vast that you feel like it's going to consume your world in its fragile entirety.
It was hard to function musically in a world where something so triumphant had been laid to ashes by its creator. Perhaps Whitehead's resurrection of the project was an inevitability, given his prolific approach and musical restlessness, but with the release of "True Traitor, True Whore" it's hard not to feel like you're in the presence of something monumental, a truly important piece of time in the black metal timeline. I feel i hardly need recount the facts regarding Whitehead's current legal troubles and their relation to the album title (which i'm not entirely sure of anyways-i have different ideas as to its meaning) but i will say that i find the amount of backlash he's received from much of the black metal community to be absolute bullshit and disturbingly hypocritical. We have to reach a point in society where we can separate the art (and not just art-any sort of expression or message) from the person creating it and allow ther work to be judged on its own merits. I have a sneaking suspicion that this critical lack was in part responsible for the tepid review given to "True Traitor, True Whore" by Pitchfork; instead of looking at the record as it relates to the body of work that preceded it and Whitehead's aesthetic, the review was more or less a call to diminish Whitehead's standing amongst the musical landscape and reduce his influence to something inconsequential. Anyone who actually listens to "True Traitor, True Whore" will see how shortsighted that vindictiveness is, as well as understand the foolishness in dismissing so rich a piece of blackened art.
"True Traitor, True Whore" is very much a Leviathan album (some reviews have said contrary, focusing on the dissonant and "ambient aspects) and very much a refinement of the aesthetic showcased in crushing works like "Tentacles of Whorror" and "The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide." I think this record is an incredible improvement over the swansong "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life"; while that record felt a bit overwrought to me, this one seems lean, focused, and fucking hungry. Obviously bearing the marks of its creator's personal struggles, "True Traitor, True Whore" cuts away everything inessential to the pure viscerality of black metal abstraction and delivers eight punishing songs that wave the flag of black metal classicism as well as Whitehead's unique reimaginings of those same tropes. Whether it's the lightning trilling in "True Whorror" reminiscent of Gorgoroth or the blazing Darkthrone-like primitive arpeggiating that makes up most of "Every Orifice Yawning Her Price," Leviathan is a project that can both reiterate and innovate. Whitehead's personal touch screams across the record's whole: the aching dissonance that practically defines him is all over this, as is the strained and mutated melodies that make Whitehead's music so fucking soul-carving. Some of the guitar work in "Shed this Skin" and "Harlot Rises (Mesmerized Again)" is so fucking triumphant it dares the listener not feel some sort of emotional connection to it, and elsewhere Whitehead's choices to drown the musical environment in swirling psychedelics practically lift you up into some state of transcendence. But the ultimate statement here, and probably one of the best Leviathan songs i've ever heard, is the bruising closer "Blood Red and True." As much an accusation as an expression of philosophy, the song takes the best elements of Melvins-esque obstinancy and chromaticism and fuses it to a punishing structure of drums and texture that leaves room for little other than total immersion. Whitehead's yearning lead work fuses a carved out sorrowfulness to the track, creating a piece of music so suffocating and gorgeous that it can't be classified as anything other than a Leviathan song. I cannot think of a higher compliment for any artist than the triumph over influence, the ascension to true and actual creation.
This is a landmark work. I sincerely hope this is the start of a new cycle in the Leviathan orbit, the mere first part in what can only be a total mastery of the black metal form. There is so much happening in "True Traitor, True Whore" that i feel like it's going to take me weeks to absorb all of it in. As a record it's a massive, challenging work from one of black metal's true auteurs; as a statement of intent and philosophy it's vicious, uncompromising, and near beyond reproach. However Wrest's troubles work out, only an idiot would refuse to acknowledge the power of this piece. That so many have only reminds me of how close minded the general black metal audience really is, and how conservative many of its ideals really are. For me, that's what the title "True Traitor, True Whore" really means. It's a calling out of everyone who's forgotten what black metal is supposed to be. It's about rebellion, and it's about violence, and it's certainly about controversy. But it's also, most importantly, about amazing music that no one else can tap into. It's primal, it's raw, it's purely aggressive and unabashedly emotional at its best. Leviathan is all of that; this record is the fucking proof. A masterpiece. Highest possible recommendation.