Ocrilim: Annwn

For an album made by the simplest of means,

Ocrilim's Annwn

poses a number of complicated questions, chief among them, "What, exactly, is

heavy metal" If metal owes its metal-ness to volume or aggression or the kind

of intra-band interplay that wows readers of earnest gear magazines, then Annwn wouldn't really qualify.

But if metal stands as something more like a mood—a system of melodies

and progressions that signify metal, no matter how they're delivered—then Annwn

might be

metal distilled to its ultimate essence.

The premise is straightforward: Annwn features nothing but the

sounds of electric guitars, layered in a series of leads by Mick Barr. Barr has

been a prolific player-thinker with other projects, like Orthrelm, Crom-Tech,

and The Flying Luttenbachers, but Ocrilim seems to be his supreme mission

statement, with no decorations or distractions—nothing to answer for

except what happens when guitars start to do strange things on their own

accord. Barr is an exceptional technician, adept with speed, but the highlights

of Annwn come

when swells of noise rise and drain over what he's doing with his fingers.

Halfway through "Part 2" comes a breathtaking moment when stores of accrued

feedback and noise hit a critical level and start to levitate. It's beautiful

and confusing—and more metal than anything of the sort might seem to be.