When Ephel Duath first came around, they were messing around with an experimental black metal sound on their album Phormula. There was nothing really spectacular about the release, and Ephel Duath really didn’t demonstrate anything worth paying attention to. Then, for their second release, Ephel Duath went insane: the band overhauled its sound completely and went for something entirely different. The Painter’s Palette displayed a new, bizarre amalgam of metal and jazz, with some awesome session horns and musical structure to boot. In some circles, they were regarded as jazz-fused metalcore on the use of clean and screaming vocals, but in all honesty the music was so far removed from metalcore structure that this slight technicality was worthless. Regardless, The Painter’s Palette was one of the better releases of 2003 and turned Ephel Duath from a shitty Italian act to an actual force to be reckoned with.

Now we have Pain Necessary to Know, and that jazz metal sound is still fully intact and even more hard-hitting than The Painter’s Palette. The clean vocals are gone, and the jazz-fusion is so prevalent that any slight tinge that metalcore apologists could use to try and have a good band in their camp of metal is long gone. The band is now fully into the territory of the extreme metal avant-garde, alongside Sigh, Arcturus, and Unexpect. Not to say that Ephel Duath’s jazz metal sounds anything like those bands, but it’s to demonstrate how much metal and jazz are fused together in Pain Necessary to Know, pushing them far into the avant-garde territory. While jazz’s influence and presence in metal has been around for years, very few bands run with it as much as Ephel Duath. You have complex jazz breakdowns, soulful melodic riffs, long drawn out instrumentals with perfect song writing and excellent technicality, blistering fast metallic segues and structure, and a set of screaming vocals that actually are delivered with such rarity and reserve that even the staunchest naysayer of the style can tolerate them.

The only gripe I have with the release is the lack of session horns. The horns from The Painter’s Palette were one of my favorite parts because they helped to augment the sound with elements that were so rarely used effectively in most metal acts that one could actually call it unique. However, I’m proud to say that this omission has absolutely no effect on the utter force that is Pain Necessary to Know. The music on this album is so focused, so powerful, and so enjoyable that it easily matches and surpasses The Painter’s Palette. Admittedly, Ephel Duath’s sound isn’t for everyone; however, if you like a taste of the weird and forward-thinking metal releases out there, Pain Necessary to Know is a definite release to acquire.

Written By: Necro-tron