STYLIANOS OU - Moodtoxicosis

 

Released: September 10

Moodtoxicosis is a disorienting experience wrapped up neatly in the cover of an album. A loose documentation of his exhausting experience with treating thyroid cancer, the album hones in perfectly on that uneasy and uncertain feeling that one experiences when dealing with such a major health problem that may end poorly. Surviving this ordeal, Stellios brings his story here in all its lurching and unstable intricacies. The music is an absolute slew of stimuli that is erratically paced. It consistently feels like moments of barely anything happening followed by a great deal of things happening that are the sandwiching one another infinitely. A sandwich within a sandwich sandwiched by another sandwich. 

It is difficult to capture the actual pacing of the work here in words. The opening track “Il Castillo Del Cattivo Umore” opens with fractured vocalizations and seemingly random drum hits. It fluctuates wildly, sometimes forming the basis of a comprehensible rhythm but never fully fleshing itself out. “Il Castello Di Cenere” takes a similar approach but transforms mid-way into something approach a noise rock aesthetic. There’s also this strange moment on “La Creatura Della Palude” where it breaks down similarly with a sense of delirium induced by these nonsensical mutterings of pyramids and fears. A really poignant moment capturing and exacerbating that sense of disorientation. 

I find Moodtoxicosis to be strangely quite lively of an album despite (or maybe because of) the subject matter. There is a sense of hope and optimism that runs through it, though it feels heavily implicit. But it overall reads much less like a tragedy or even a more stereotypical uplifting story. Instead, it’s more of just a raw reflection on the ordeal, like an honest retelling of the story as it was experienced by the author. It’s both fascinating and uncomfortable at the same time.