Did you regret when famous Norwegian vocalist Garm left Borknagar a while ago? Were you crashed recently when you discovered he was no longer in Arcturus either? I got more bad news for you. Looks like Kristoffer Rygg, aka Garm, aka Trikster G is not coming back to join any of those outfits any time soon. Instead, in addition to his personal baby, Ulver, he has also become a ying to one Portuguese Daniel Cardoso’s yang on the newly born avant-rock creation Headcontrolsystem.

Daniel (ex-Sirius, Re:actor, two bands I am not familiar with) wrote all music for Murder Nature, recorded and produced the album. The fellas claim that “guys would listen to this album behind the closed closet doors” and this album might “bring them lots of girls”. The cover art certainly shows that many models did lend a hand/body to a photoshoot, however, it’d be difficult for me to penetrate the minds of many women thinking whether they would like Murder Nature or not. What seems clearer is that the fans of Queens of the Stone Age, Tool and Audrey Horne might appreciate Murder Nature, if they are willing to put their thinking hats on and sit through one busy album.

Aside from many songs starting or ending with alarm siren sounds, it does not look like synthesizers were used a lot here, yet the layering of Murder Nature compositions is almost unmatched. Multitude of Garm’s voices travel across many planes bouncing up and down against the fuzzed out pressure of the music. If you listen hard enough, rock structures with verses and choruses can be deciphered behind all these layers. Even though it wasn’t Garm who wrote this, Murder Nature does feel like Ulver with more of a rock vibe.

On this album dissonance and consonance constantly meet, clash with each other often to resolve in a genius harmony (Baby Blue). Jerky percussion is ubiquitous; it can be jazzy progressive syncopated type while the rest of the music flows steadily by (It Hurts). Even when percussion is absent (which does not happen often), guitars overlay anyway, pull in the dissonant piano, until cymbal/high-hat help everybody else to find the agreement (Blunt Instrumental).

The music of Headcontrolsystem is very much inimitable. In no way I can call it dark, even though it strangely caresses (Rapid Eye Movement) or darker strings are used in the end of Falling On Sleep. More than anything, it is groovy and spacey. The mind is being constantly gyrated on Murder Nature, and, I warn you, multiple repeated listens can lead to total brain dissolution. This is, perhaps, how the goal of “getting girls” can be accomplished by the duo.

The last thing you can call “stable” or “steady”, music of Headcontrolsystem takes your attention to fully appreciate, this is not a one-spin album. I got better with it as time went along, but every time I got through to the end of Murder Nature I felt “grooved out”, searching for the balanced dose of blast or double bass from my collection. Such is the mind, I guess, it can be shaken only for so long, trying to get to the familiar shores eventually.

Murder Nature is great for the moments when you want to lose track of time, hoping you get fast from here to there, sort of like jaunting in Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination.