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.