Eigenstate Zero - A Thousand Blind Windows

Eigenstate Zero is a one-man progressive death metal band from Sweden, formed in 2018 by scene veteran Christian Ludvigsson.  The latest album, "A Thousand Blind Windows," is the project's fifth full-length album.

Muted fury and strange spoken words open the song “A Thousand Blind Windows,” but it feels more like being exhausted from trying so damn hard yet still willing to back down. The project isn't any stranger to unconventional structures and guitars that are seemingly thrown against the wall just to see what sticks—and somehow making it work in strange favor. Much remains the same, yet the band continues to act as a force of nature…so change is still constant. 

It feels in these early moments of the album like a bit more focus has been found but it's more like the wild animals have been cornered instead of tamed. Nothing is more dangerous than an animal with nothing to lose not because it's at the end of the line but simply because it has zero fear within.

“The Golden Dawn,” probably won't ever arrive, at least not for the favor of most, yet here is one anyway. Layered guitars build off riffs from a maddening rhythm machine. The sprinkling of clean vocals pulls the entire beast further into the deepness, the wild drums and winding guitars splashing about. Nothing is drowning here, if anything the band has found a way to thrive within seemingly endless death throes. 

As the song hits the halfway mark, it breaks itself down but builds back up to something less stark but dangerous all the same. The kaleidoscope of instruments crashes together as they funnel down this rabbit hole that has anything but innocence and warmth. The bass guitar sounds like the musical steps to a losing mind, but its purpose is still there and holding these elements together to the explosive final. 

Inside “Obsidian,” lives a dog whose bark is worse than its bite except it only bites. Every second of this song is the result of an unrelenting attack. At any given moment, this song feels like it is barely hanging out. But it never runs of out fuel with its supply of death metal riffs and vocals that represent that weird foam that comes out of a person's mouth after they snort crystallized pure grain alcohol*

The music does sort of fall apart in the best way possible around the 3:40 mark with a proggy passage that would make Dream Theater smile if they were rabid. Does this work? Yes. Should it work? Yes. Afterwards, the song enters a new state of panic with solos, riffs, and vocals ripping open reality every five seconds.

“Hollowheart,” offers a flavor tapestry in its burgeoning moments, which aren’t words I usually have to write for death metal but here I am—-thankfully so.  The juxtaposition of these guitars and growls contrast in a way that works for the song instead of being worried about conforming to whatever rigid lines exist in the genre.   Best described as “falling down my stairs while holding a smoldering cup of hot coffee," the song’s middle passage is just as unconventional.  Through the pain of these burns, unique sounds twist around corridors to lead to unsuspecting locations.  

The final half of the song is unhinged and maddening, guiding me through with tight, crisp drums and a sense that no matter what path I take, I’m still going to end up twisted and torn. The last precious seconds are the fading of a dream with clean keys dripping their sound to the ground as the steam rises into the air.

“Moloch!” is bombastic with fire and fury pushing the brimstone to varied vocal patterns, including operative cleans that compliment this cacophony of chaos.  I love how the Eigenstate Zero never forgets its foundations of extremity; no matter what is happening, there are always riffs and rhythm prowess to be had.  

I was nearly put into a trance-like state of dreaming, finding myself at the epicenter of the song with nowhere to go except to face my acceptance of this world.  I wasn’t there wrong, the strong grip of searing vocals and grinding riffs grab me by the through and pull me through a forest, each branch bringing a brutal smack in the face and another reason why being odd can still be punishing. 

“Mr. Illuminati,” begins a little spacey but I’m quickly pulled back to the Earth, or some alternate dimension of it, with riffs that groove just enough to make my neck pop (I’m old).  The next couple minutes switch between vicious death metal and surprisingly catchy vocal patterns.  This song really left me guessing—at moments, it almost sounds playful and whimsical, but the deadly fire still burns.

From the six-minute mark onward, the music is like a circus mixed with a meat grinder, but we will put humans in the grinder instead of the animals.  That words anyway because my brain somehow feels twisted as fuck by the time the song ends.  Did it end?  I might still be trapped there.

“Darkroom Dread,” is one of my favorites on the album.  The opening is sinister as hell with the clean vocals adding a horrific layer to it.  This song feels very wrong, in the best way possible.  I’m not sure what’s going on at the 3:33 mark but I like it. Lasers bounce off riff-based walls, crossing across the space and leaving echoes behind them.

Afterwards, the music reforms into a more focused attack with the death metal elements out in full force. It is quite intense but, then again, the album offers that adjective in a myriad of ways but that's what makes the song so inviting. 

I could still stand up at this point, but I had to find a chair because the nearly 19-minute epic “Mockingbird,” made me collapse.

Landscapes come floating by my eyes a mile a minute. There isn't time to adjust or do anything other than catalog these brief glimpses as they push through.  There are moments where the unconventional had me hanging from a ledge. Where could I grasp?  I need not worry as the skeleton of the song reformed enough to pull me up.

After the 12-minute mark, melodies within a regal atmosphere settle in, not pushing away or destroying the song's fabric but helping the change along even as the passage itself transforms from a towering prog mountain to an avalanche of falling stone.

Eigenstate Zero not only lives but thrives in a world that's anything but conventional. But an air of familiarity lingers, just long enough to make me complacent enough to shake me down to bones when the rug is pulled out from under me. “A Thousand Blind Windows” is actually a thousand different worlds. Find one and enjoy your stay. 

 

*I have no idea if that's even a thing or what would happen to a person if they did this. At this point, I was sort of doing what Dimmu Borgir does with album titles and just threw some words together.

Rating: Excellent