Philadelphia death metal band John Frum play technical death metal in the vein of Artificial Brain, with greater emphasis on jittery, claustrophobic grooves, grinding tempos, and creeping, spider-legged, chord progression. They're more blackened sludge in approach but still, undeniably, a technical death metal band. A Stirring in the Noos is their debut album, released on Relapse records, and it seems them boasting a pretty exceptional lineup, one that includes Faceless'es Derek Rydquist on vocals and The Dillinger Escape Plan's Liam Wilson on bass.
John Frum takes their name from the mythical figure associated with the South Pacific cargo cult of the island of Tanna. As legend had it, John Frum would one day descended from the island’s volcano to reward his followers with wealth and other gifts. Against this anthropological context, John Frum (the band) has crafted eight crushing mediations on the nature of myths, the limits of reason, and tricks of human perceptions. Their message takes as its vessel the pensive and propulsive “Presage of Emptiness," the meditative churn of “Memory Palace," the volatile and rollicking “Through Sand and Spirit," the haunting and hooky “Lacustrine Divination," and the thunderous, driving uproar of “Assumption of Form."
It's interesting to me to see a band take such a strange anthropological concept as a cargo cult and apply its lessons to their culture. It makes you think about what aspects of your life are just illusions you've constructed to makes sense of your surroundings. Or at least it should. I think most people would benefit from reflecting on how some of their closest held beliefs and cosmological convictions are actually just watery mental discharge and half articulated justifications handed down to them from those in power. A lot of people believe that swallowing the hook that is offered to them by their boss, a politician, or a beloved media figure, is the thing that will save their life and guide them through the rough waters that lay ahead. In reality, it's just the first step to being gutted and ending up on a plate or mounted to a wall. One of the things that make us human is our critical faculties. I think it's about time some people start using them. Their life might literally depend on it.
