Death Karma: U Jam?

It’s not something detected by a listener, but it might be sensed by one: honesty. See, expressions of any kind that are less than honest can sound different. But let’s neutralize our terms: While the word  dishonest has a purely negative connotation, in art it’s often nothing so sinister. It can be more akin to manslaughter than to willful homicide, in which the artist doesn’t recognize his own lie (eg. cuz he or she has chosen to believe it) or has a benevolent justification for the lie (eg. just trying like everybody to be successful, no big whoop). It’s the artist’s lifelong pursuit to strip away contrivance to get to the honest shit.

In business, it’s the opposite. As such, there’s no flogging due to creators of “dishonest” music, for we all omit, distort, and sugar-coat truth in exchange for the chance to earn the money that we need to live; and anyway, this kind of music tends to either sink out of sight or find a home only with similarly, sympathetically dishonest listeners, and that’s already its own hell. It’s a lonely, black feeling when our untruths are vouched for by others. It’s probably what has driven Kanye West insane.

Not any time soon will the same ill befall Cult Of Fire and the project featuring two of its members called Death Karma. It’s not just their own personal truths they explore, but the most universal one: the acceptance of life’s end. That’s the theme of Death Karma’s just-released gem, The History Of Death And Burial Rituals Part I. Its titles might vibe “textbook” or “photography exhibit,” but this is soul music, dear MetalSucks reader. Neither art for commerce nor art for art’s sake, History joins Cult Of Fire’s 2013 classic मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान in a realm of kaleidoscopic delirium in which destruction is a quiet conveyance to serenity, and omnipotent, uncontrollable forces teach that fear is not to be feared. It’s Death’s hand on your shoulder like a bird forcing its baby from the nest, it’s the charged but steady walk through a wall of flame and into the trees. You will die but your energy will not, it says. The cosmos honors you as rain feeds a flower. U jam?

Death Karma’s The History Of Death And Burials Part I came out Tuesday via Iron Bonehead. Get it here and here.