Pharmakeia, Maenadic Ecstasy, Germany, Amor Fati Productions, AFP 252 cassette / vinyl LP (2023)
The youngest of the Prava Kollektiv projects, Pharmakeia issued its third album “Maenadic Ecstasy” on the same day (December 1) as its sibling acts released their most recent albums as of this time of review (February 2024). Fittingly for the newest PK act, Pharmakeia is a primeval and savage beast, certainly the most brutal and bestial out of all five PK acts – but funnily, in this respect, Pharmakeia is a bit more accessible to listeners than the other acts in the collective. From start to finish, we have a raging monster lashing out in all directions, howling in anger and maybe even pain, against a background of more or less continuous and dense rapid-fire tremolo guitar noise scrabble and outbursts of death metal blast-beat synth percussion. The dark distorting production gives very little depth to the musical presentation so nearly every sound is upfront and blunt, and there’s very little subtlety in the noisy turbulence.
Although “Maenadic Ecstasy” presents six tracks of music, these are best treated as linked chapters with only the barest pauses between individual tracks, and even then, there is usually a thread of noise ambience linking one track and the next, all the way through. Of course, all tracks do differ in their riffing, their moods and the style of vocal attack, but the pauses, no matter how brief they are, allow some of the tension to relax and dissipate when perhaps it should be one relentless, constantly changing work that never permits any chance for escape or recovery to emerge. The track titles trace a narrative from “Vision” through various stages suggesting reactions of resistance in an unknown protagonist to an external influence, through to acceptance and then the results of that acceptance: madness, possession by a demon or other entity perhaps, and then the action that follows and fulfils the purpose of the original source of the vision or influence. You can hear that narrative as expressed in the screaming, especially in the second track “Execration” where the vocals become heavily distorted and drawn out to excessive levels of pain and torment, while the riffs repeat over and over, and the tinny pin-point percussion keeps ticking over furiously. On the following track “Furore”, the vocals become a bit clearer so you can almost hear what they are saying, even as the music escalates to more intense and crazed levels of noisy insanity.
As you might expect, the pivotal track is the last, “Consummation”, where everything that has occurred over the previous five tracks comes to fulfillment, and the reason or purpose of the madness or ecstatic possession is revealed. The music becomes even more noisy and deranged, the howling becomes more disturbing and demonic, and in its final moments the track threatens sheer savagery and violence.
There’s not so much variety in music and atmosphere in Pharmakeia’s music compared to some of the other PK acts I’ve heard on their respective December 2023 album releases, and I must admit I found Arkhtinn and Hwwauoch more enjoyable in their individual styles and concepts, and their sheer hysterical dementedness. On the other hand, what “Maenadic Ecstasy” lacks, it makes up for in sheer power and brute force.
The concept behind “Maenadic Ecstasy” – in which through ritual intoxication and dancing or performing some other rite to achieve communion with an adored deity, a participant unwittingly ends up becoming a monster and maybe stays a monster permanently – is not hard to understand and identify with, and can serve as a metaphor for conditions (like drug and other addictions, religious or ideological fanaticism or even depression) that most people are familiar with.