MELETE

Location: Slovenia

Year active: 2008 - 2011

Members: Jaka (guitar, vocals), Luka (bass, vocals), Andrej (drums, vocals)

Related bands: Akedeia, Bogdan, Elodea, Human Host Body, Kripl, Leechfeast, Paperplanecrash

FFO: Ekkaia, Fall of Efrafa, His Hero Is Gone, Tragedy, Supine, Reflections of Internal Rain, One Eyed God Prophecy

It's been a while since I've covered Paperplanecrash and Akedeia for this blog. After getting in touch with their members, I've ended up with a lot more material where that came from, and Melete has been on my queue for a while.

Melete was formed in Slovenia, bringing together members from different places. For two years, they toured extensively, sharing the stage with bands such as Reflections of Internal Rain, Shades of Grey, Kansky and The Plague Mass. During that time, they released a three-track 7" EP and a Tour EP, the latter made specifically for a four-day mini-tour in 2009. In 2011, they announced their breakup after playing their final show alongside Baka Yaro and Tragedy at Gromka in Metelkova.

Across seven complete tracks and roughly 23 minutes of material, Melete played a raw, dark and atmospheric form of neo-crust, incorporating melodic and dynamic tensions borrowed from screamo (Bizniscore, Sungaze), sudden bursts of grindcore (New Kids, Old Guards) and an atmospheric tinge of post-metal.

What stood out to me is that Melete weren't afraid to step outside their usual punk formula and showed a real willingness to experiment. A few tracks particularly deserve a mention. “Failure Is A Design” opens with quiet guitars and somber violin before crashing down into distorted thunder and growling vocals. Another five-minute track, “Rhodonea,” begins with warming-up drums that eventually strike into another crust ambush, only to settle into group chants midway through, fading into silence. After roughly thirty seconds, glitchy ambient sounds emerge before the band resumes its chanting over a lone guitar, eventually ending in silence once again.

For such a short-lived project, Melete managed to pack a surprising amount of ideas into a relatively small discography. Their songs rarely stay confined to one particular formula, instead shifting between aggression, atmosphere, melody and experimentation without losing the rawness at the core of their sound.

-----------

Prošlo je neko vreme otkako sam za ovaj blog pisao o bendovima Paperplanecrash i Akedeia. Nakon što sam stupio u kontakt sa njihovim članovima, ispostavilo se da odatle imam još mnogo materijala, a Melete su već neko vreme na mojoj listi za obradu.

Melete su osnovani u Sloveniji, okupivši članove iz različitih mesta. Tokom dve godine aktivnog rada intenzivno su koncertirali, deleći binu sa bendovima kao što su Reflections of Internal Rain, Shades of Grey, Kansky i The Plague Mass. Za to vreme objavili su 7" EP sa tri pesme i Tour EP, koji je napravljen posebno za četvorodnevnu mini-turneju 2009. godine. Godine 2011. najavili su raspad nakon što su odsvirali poslednji koncert zajedno sa bendovima Baka Yaro i Tragedy u Gromki, u Metelkovi.

Kroz sedam kompletnih pesama i oko 23 minuta materijala, Melete su svirali sirovu, mračnu i atmosferičnu formu neocrusta, uključujući melodične i dinamične tenzije preuzete iz screama (Bizniscore, Sungaze), iznenadne nalete grindcorea (New Kids, Old Guards) i atmosferični prizvuk post-metala.

Ono što mi je posebno zapalo za oko jeste to što Melete nisu imali problem da izađu iz svoje uobičajene punk formule i pokazali su iskrenu spremnost za eksperimentisanje. Nekoliko pesama posebno vredi pomenuti. „Failure Is A Design“ počinje tihim gitarama i setnom violinom, pre nego što se obruši u distorziran grom i režeće vokale. Još jedna petominutna pesma, „Rhodonea“, počinje bubnjevima koji deluju kao zagrevanje, da bi se na kraju pretvorili u novi crust napad, nakon čega se na polovini pesme sve smiruje uz grupno skandiranje koje postepeno nestaje u tišini. Posle otprilike trideset sekundi pojavljuju se glitchy ambijentalni zvuci, nakon čega bend ponovo nastavlja sa skandiranjem preko usamljene gitare, da bi se pesma na kraju još jednom završila u tišini.

Za tako kratkotrajan projekat, Melete su uspeli da upakuju iznenađujuću količinu ideja u relativno malu diskografiju. Njihove pesme se retko zadržavaju u okviru jedne određene formule, već prelaze između agresije, atmosfere, melodije i eksperimentisanja, a da pritom ne gube sirovost koja je u srži njihovog zvuka.

FULL DISCOGRAPHY HERE