Review by Arek on February 8, 2018.

Qip, or rather qip, is a solo project of Maciek Pasiński, who, for older folks like me, is known from the doom/ gothic band Sirrah or the industrial ensemble TheMANcalledTEA. For anyone who has not yet come across the power of his voice and creative invention, I invite you to this 59-minute feast. On Ephemeral Substrates is a debut album, but it is a very mature nine tracks woven with electro-death-doom metal threads and a post-industrial image of our world. It may not be the newest position or some milestone in our metal community, but being utterly possessed by this music I could not resist writing this review regardless of the date of its release. Music, and certainly the music presented on the album, is timeless.

In the promotional materials one can read that On Ephemeral Substrates begins where Sirrah’s Did Tomorrow Come ... ended. I think it is rather the result of inspirations that remained after the work in Sirrah and TheMANcalledTEA, which were developed by Maciek. Whatever there is to be said, without reaching for the very music itself, all the agonizing divagations will simply mean nothing. Although the album consists of nine tracks, listening to it seems to happen on only one breath, from the first second to the last of playtime. There are no gaps; songs pass smoothly from one to another, and the samples add atmosphere and create this agglomerating, post-industrial climate. The album starts quite vigorously, and the pace is rather characteristic for death metal; then again I would not like to mislead you into thinking that On Ephemeral ... is a death metal album in any way. The electronic melodies and the multitude of industrial fillers cause the music created by Maciek to break out of the typical death metal forms; also, beginning with ‘Payback Ritual’, the doom metal past of the author speaks more boldly. However, it doesn’t mean that the songs are dripping with doom lethargy; they gently slow down (or rather need time to speed up).

The slowest ones are ‘Euroregion’ and ‘This Place Is A Tomb’, but even in there the pace is boosted by electronic drums. Generally, the beginning of the album is faster, which evokes the vision of the great, 'bustling-with-life' X-City that is not expecting the impending drama. Maybe it will not be a sudden carnage done by human zombies, or some explosion, but rather a slow death of the city that is caused by the energy escaping from it. Life in this agglomeration is fading; the streets are emptying to show that ‘This Place Is A Tomb’ teems with deteriorating high-rise buildings, abandoned cars and a toxic wind bobbing among them.

Maciej Pasiński disappeared for a long time, but he carried this musical burden within him; once he rid himself of it, he created an industrial-death-doom metal tangle of impressions and emotions that simply crush! The heaviness of his voice integrated into all these samples and electro-metal sound create amazing images of beauty and obscenity, gentleness and brutality, peace and anxiety. I know that qip will not be for everybody, but I encourage everyone to give in to the sounds of this album and let your imagination revel.

Although I am basically a supporter of compositions lasting from about three to four minutes, with pieces such as this one I bow my head, because within three minutes you can create carnage, unleash a war, or a given hell; to build a mood or to give the sound time to paint a picture, you need more time. This task is not easy, and many have already found that out the hard way, since long compositions are only a touch away from boredom and rejection. Maciek managed to create a record that, despite an hour-long run-time, lashes effectively and does not even approach monotony. The one thing that I regret is a low chance of seeing qip on stage. This music and its power could seriously unleash some severe havok in a live setting. Maciek wrote to me that he is already working on the successor of On Ephemeral Substrates, and I am immensely pleased. Do not hurry, Maciej, because you need to give this creature enough time to create the beast. High praise and appreciation goes fully to Krzysiek of Arachnophobia Rec. for the superb release of this work in digipak edition, a six-panel digipak with a 20-page insert is readily available at the Arachnophobia Rec. store for only $13; you will not regret one penny spent.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Carl on January 8, 2024.

Brutal death metal apparantly has a lot in common with my love life, there's a lot of one-man action going on. And Catatonic Profanation is another name in that long long list of down-tuned lone ra(n)gers, so let's give this one a spin, shall we?

What at first seems to be another cookie cutter example of your typical slamming death metal offering, turns into something a bit more surprising. For a while, at least. Spliced between the usual staccato percussive style of guitar playing that is so prevalent in slam, there are these Incantation/Profanatica style dark death metal riffs, which sounds absolutely great together with the slamming parts, adding additional bite to the band's sound. It's an approach that gives tracks like "Neurological Emaciation", "Contorted Perception" and "Tyrannical Oppression" an awesome brutal and menacing vibe, but is unfortunately largely absent from the rest of the album , which is somewhat of a shame, really. Sticking doggedly to the tried and tested formula of slamming death for most part, sole member Anthony plows through the usuals such as the low guttural vocals, pinch harmonics and heavy slamming parts alternating with fast grinding velocity, without many surprises thrown in. For most part, it is all kept simple and straight forward, while the whole is delivered with loads of caveman stomp, not unlike acts such as Kraanium, Vulvectomy or Devour the Unborn. Not that there's much wrong with that, I've stated before that I like my slamming death as primitive as possible, but it's a shame that the combination with the dark death metal riffing isn't explored more, leaving me with the nagging feeling that there was more in the can.

The production is not stellar, but also not horrible either. The focus is notably on the down-tuned guitars and vocals, while being underpinned by a tightly programmed, yet very digital and lifeless sounding drum computer. It's a production that sounds pretty compressed and murky, knocking off the sharp edges of the music, while making the whole sound just that bit too nice for a release that puts the focus on blunt force and punishing stomp.

It's a definite pity that Catatonic Profanation didn't explore further into that area of heavy and dark riffing, fleshing out the combination with the slamming parts, because they really had something going there, for sure. However, I will state that I still enjoy this album quite a bit, even if it's not the most original of its kind, and despite the somewhat iffy production. It has its good ideas present for sure, and I can surely appreciate the caveman stomp of the slamming stuff well enough.

And let's face it, flawed can be nice too, isn't it?

Rating: 7 out of 10