Today I'll tell about one of my favourite avant-garde albums - 'Under Phoenix Phenomenon' by my countrymates DIVINA ENEMA. It was released in 2003 and was available worldwide through Canadian underground label Great White North. It is virtually unknown outside the underground realm to this day, so I'd like to give credit to this record.
Describing DIVINA ENEMA's music is a bit like summarizing the plot of 'Mulholland Drive' or 'The Holy Mountain' to a person who haven't seen the movies. But still I'll try. Usually, listeners' reactions to the album are all extreme and nowhere in between. Some label DIVINA ENEMA as the worst band ever, some say they are genius. What arouses much controversy is the vocals. They are very peculiar and theatrical, but not everyone will like this kind of delivery for sure. As well as not everyone will dig into this kind of music.
What kind of music? Hmm, difficult to say. When I first came across DIVINA ENEMA on the pages of a fanzine, their previous effort 'At the Conclave' was described there as an unforgetable W. Blake's opera-like Black/Heavy/Doom/Gothic Mystery. But that definition is way too narrow. Apart from traditional metal genres one can find the elements of pop, swing, funk and industrial in their music. The musicians themselves defined their style simply as W. Blake Art and Gothic Farce. Anyway, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
The closest reference here would be KING DIAMOND with his concept albums you need to listen to from start to finish to grasp their general idea. 'Under Phoenix Phenomenon' tells a story Hieronymus Bosch would have liked to draw for sure - a schizophrenic tale of a man possessed by demons who decides to commit suicide. Here's an extract from the booklet describing the protagonist:
Victor Melnik: 36 years old man. Now his family is two daughters only. His wife died ten years ago. Recently Victor hears strange voices coming as if out of nowhere and sees sometimes the shapes of fabulous beings trying to tell him something. He takes them for demons and angels and at the same time he tries to know out from them everything about their roaring company. From time to time he feels something similar to awakening and, seeing only terror and despair in the eyes of his relatives, he starts thinking of himself as of a madman. Realizing his alienation and seeing its progress, he tries to get a job for himself then - to prevent thus 'further spreading' of his disease. The place he finds is steel-casting foundry where he starts working in the melting room. Time has passed and his visions seemed to fade away... Only to press at him harder in the next two months. But now he sees and feels his pursuers as well as if they were material. He can speak now to demons freely. He needs not to explore their world anymore - he sees that he himself became a part of this ghastly realm. But he heeds the pain of his family too, he feels it as he never did before. Victor decides that the better way to resolve this problem is to commit suicide. On his last night he answers a phone call and to his amusement hears a devil singing a song: 'No Corpse - No Funeral'. The puzzle is almost resolved...
Apart from a regular 6 page booklet there's a folded A3 newspaper which contains all the lyrics and some comments to them. I have never seen anything like this before. There's lots and lots of lyrics, and they are presented in the form of dialogue between Victor and the demons, almost as in a play. Quite a reading!
I could actually write a lot about this record, but it always makes more sense to listen to music than to read about it, so here is my personal favourite from 'Under Phoenix Phenomenon'. Give it a try.
I have done my best trying hard to play my game with Devil...
I've possessed demon mastery top level!