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dark ambient

Dødsmaskin – Verdenssmerte (2020)

I have known Dødsmaskin for a while, but apparently I have never reviewed an album of theirs. I remember liking the first album that I heard in a style that I call “ambient noise” with here and there some dark ambient.

Later albums that I heard seemed to focus more on the dark ambient, with only here and there a noisy tone. Also more and more atmospheric elements seemed to find its way to the music. Thus came that I only liked some of the tracks.

After releases on Malignant and Cyclic Law, the project has been picked up by Tesco. “Verdenssmerte” opens with a soft piano and slowly but surely the track goes over into a noisy texture.

The second track sounds a lot more interesting to me. A somewhat industrial dark ambient soundscape gets some noisy tones after a while. This track is nicely dark and in the style of Dødsmaskin that I like best, especially when things get even more noisy.

After a more experimental ambient track comes another nice noisy industrial track, an alright industrial track and an ambient closing track.

Indeed, some tracks I like, most do little to me.

Links: Dødsmaskin, Tesco

Nordvargr – Tantum Melior (2019)

Discogs.com

A follow-up of the excellent album “Metempsychosis” (hence the dead cat again). Where Nordvargr cooperated with mostly TxRxP on the previous album, the list is a lot longer this time, even projects that I never heard of: MZ. 412, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, Vassafor, Visions, Kristoffer Oustand, Spetsnaz, Michael Idehall, Thorofon and The Benjamin Codex.

Ah wait, it is another of these ‘remix albums’, tracks of “Metempsychosis” have been worked over by the named artists rather than created in cooperation with Nordvargr. I see that frequently recently, too frequently actually. I seldom like such a remix over the original track and the versions of “Tantum Melior” make no exception. Okay, it has been a while since I heard the vocals of Tomas Pettersson and Michael Idehall usually creates moody tracks, but bringing different artists brings different styles of music and less consistency throughout the album.

Perhaps a way to get (re)acquainted with the named artists, but personally I prefer “Metempsychosis” over the ‘remix album’.

Links: Nordvargr, Cyclic Law

O Saala Sakraal – Etmaal (cd 2018)

Only out on December 21th, but the good thing about running a website is that sometimes I get promo material. Here we have a collaboration between five Dutchmen including two from Hadewych (and hence, including Distel).  Indeed, O Saala Sakraal reminds of Hadewych here and there.

Hadewych has a ‘soundscapish’ sound, but with guitar and more energy here and there, a quite unique sound that is hard to describe. That soundscape side is more prominent in O Saala Sakraal, but also here and there the sound becomes more ‘lively’. The music is fairly dark, nicely weird (but not as weird as Hadewych), contains several vocalists who recite poems, scream or sing. Overall this album is more tranquil from what we know from Hadewych and (of course) somewhat different in sound, but I think that band gives the best idea of what to expect from the album that has a Dutch title which cannot be immediately translated to English (perhaps being the reason for being chosen?). The word “etmaal” refers to a day of 24 hours. There are two tracks of about 20 minutes by the way.

So, a nice album if you like something dark and original.

Link: Cyclic Law

va – Dyer’s Pledge (2018)

I thought Belzebez was Michael Idehall‘s publication outlet with an occasional music release. That does not prove to be entirely true. The latest book is a couple of years old and the label’s Bandcamp has a long list of releases. Now Michael comes with an online compilation.

The line-up has known and (to me) unknown artists. Trepaneringsritualen presents a soundscape. There is Æther who once did a split with TxRxP. Hadewych. Of course there is Idehall himself with a nice slightly industrial ritual track. There is even ᚾᛟᚢ ᛁᛁ // ᚦᛟᚦ. Somewhat surprisingly, a project that I located more in the so-called “witch house” scene: V▲LH▲LL. The biggest surprise is perhaps Carl Abrahamsson whose “Occulture” book I am reading right now. Then there are the new projects of which Slow.Slither (about whom I cannot find anything) presented the most interesting track of the compilation (it opens a bit noisey industrial).

As expected on such a ‘magical label’ the music is mostly ritualistic soundscape with a few hints of dark ambient and here and there a bit of industrial. As you probably know by now, not entirely my cup of tea. “Dyer’s Plegde” does contain a couple of good tracks and it is always good to find some new discoveries. Besides, it is easy to get through Bandcamp, so why just not try it? Also check out Belzebez’ other releases on Bandcamp of course.

Links: Belzebez, Belzebez @ Bandcamp

ᚾᛟᚢ ᛁᛁ // ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ ‎– Alpha Ænigma (cd 2018)

The collaboration of Nordvargr and TxRxP on Nordvargr’s “Metempsychosis” is excellent. For “Alpha Ænigma” the two again stepped into the studio together.

The album consists of four long tracks, making a total time of a little under an hour. The style is pretty dark ambient soundscapes and you may guess it: a bit too soundscapishy for me. The album is alright, but not much more than that. The package is great though. An A5 sized digipack, a DVD case so to say.

Links: Nordvargr, Trepaneringsritualen

Nordvargr – Metempsychosis (cd 2018)

This album sounds a bit like a companion to “Kainskult” of Trepaneringsritualen. Even though Spotify lists TxRxP’s cooperation for only one track, I have the idea that all vocals are done by Ekelund. Otherwise Nordvargr’s voice sounds very similar!

“Metempsychosis” in some tracks sounds like the more tranquil tracks of “Kainskult”, very dark, with similar sounds and especially with similar vocals. In other tracks there is more of the dark ambient sound of “The Secret Barbarous Names” and towards the end some more experimental (technoish) sounds that Nordvargr sometimes blends into his music. This does result in some nice sounds though.

I particularly like the TxRxP-like tracks, the others are nice to good. The album is fairly short: 37 minutes.

Links: Nordvargr, Cyclic Law

Analfabetism – Skammen (cd 2017)

The previous album was also released on Malignant and contains an excellent piece of “ambient noise”. Dark and thundering distorted sounds and a very good atmosphere. The latest album opens with a dark ambient track that is somewhat noisy and nicely dark. The rest of the album seems to lean more towards dark ambient than towards noise though. For a dark ambient album “Skammen” is still pretty noisy, but the previous album sounds (to me) more like an ambient version of noise.

There is a very noisy outburst in the third track though that just may be loud enough to scare away some dark ambient lovers, but other tracks are too ambient, even ‘soundscapish’ for people who like noise. Overall the style is rawer and perhaps even more industrial than many dark ambient releases, so do not think that me using the term means that this sounds anything like Raison D’Être.

I personally found “Av Hjord Är Du Kommen” much more convincing, the new new album is still a descent one if I feel more ambient some time.

Link: Malignant

v/a * Estigmas (cd+dvd 2015)

In a double cd pack comes a DVD and a CD. The DVD has the film (or films?) Estigmas, but the package also mentions La Glorificación del Icono Traumatico. The menu has ‘original version’ and ‘directors cut’, the first of which has English subtitles and the latter does not. The film lasts 30 minutes and is directed by Jose Moral and José Luis Martínez. Unfortunately I cannot find it on IMDb. I guess it is not listed.

However the film looks good in colour, contrast and special effects, there is nothing much to the rest. The story is about some radiation experiment during WWII is but a rack to hang strange special effects and gruely characters on. Most of the time you hear a voice-over, of which I am not sure if it is supposed to be the main character speaking or his thoughts. There is a whole mash of the usual shock elements such as Nazis, runes, a whiff of Norse mythology, Ariosophy, sex and some horror elements. Nothing much original.

The soundtrack of the film is mostly the playing of music on the background. There is music of The Protagonist, In Slaughter Natives, Der Blutharsch, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud and some other bands that I forgot or did not recognise.

Then there is the ‘soundtrack’ CD which does not include TMLHBAC, but mostly music by Puissance, then The Protagonist, ISN, Der Blutharsch, Mayhem, Silent Love Of Death and a couple of projects I did not know, Turnavel, Suveräna, Kazeria and Hyperborei. The music is mostly dark ambientish and not too bad. Of the bands I already knew, I also already knew the presented material. The cd makes good background music for when reading or something.

However the film nor the cd is really good, I think this is an interesting project. Something different from the usual compilation release and perhaps a way to get film more into the music scene.

Link: GH Records

Arpatle * Quapi (cd 2015)

However this project is from my own country, I do not remember having heard of Arpatle. Judging Discogs, this is Arpatle’s fourth release in a seven year period (the website also lists a free download album).

Arpatle makes dark ambient which is sometimes fairly typical. Sometimes the music is more “soundscapes”. Here and there the music is a bit darker or even a little bit noisy and the sixth track “Sheithu” even sounds a bit industrial in a few moments.

I am not too crazy about the soundscape-parts, but in the more ‘lively’ parts are more of my liking.

Links: Arpatle, Offshoot Records

v/a * मोक्ष (mc 2015)

I do not receive a whole lot of promo/to-review material. Actually I am glad about that. When I buy an album and do not like it, I will say so; when I do, the same. I hear a lot of music that I am indifferent to. It may work as background music, it does not annoy me, nor does it please me. When I get such an album, I frequently decide not to review it at all. The owner of the Russian UIS label insisted that I would listen to their “post industrial” compilation to hear its brilliance. I did listen to this compilation, three times. There are but few reviews on this website of albums that I heard three times before reviewing it. Still I find it difficult to write this review. However the music on this compilation is varried in musical style, all tracks seem to have something incommon. They do not really ‘work for me’. But, to (probably) present you some new names, here we go for a free Bandcamp compilation that was earlier presented as an audio cassette.

The title of this compilation translates as “Mokṣa”, a Sanskrit term that according to the label means “breaking from chains of reincarnation and all the miseries of material existence”. The music is inspired by the funeral music of the balinese village of Trunyan. There are nine tracks on the compilation. The opening act is the Russian project Obt Grubuscrum with a rather typical, but descent, ritualistic dark ambient track (think of Herbst9 for example), Project Hypoxia reminds more of the Hyperium sound with melodic, ‘ethnic’ sounding music. Per Aspera also starts with such a sound, but goes over in something somewhat technoish. Next up is Bhārata Mātā with a bit of an experimental tribalish track. After this we get a slightly darker, yet melodic track of Krrau. As with Bharata Mata, we now get another piece of experimental tribal industrial, perhaps reminding of the more tranquil material of Hybryds; the project is named ﻗﺎﻣﺖ ﺍﻟﺳﺎﻋﺔ. Угасание is more dark ambient soundscape type music. The same can be said about Vehjora, but this goes over in guitar-drone. The closing track is weird minimalistic and experimental music; Discogs has it listed as “ethno-ambient” which roughly covers the sound (but could be applied to other tracks as well); the project is presented under the monicker Ajuleg & Irm.

The compilation works as background music, but to me the music is not interesting enough to really listen to it. What is somewhat funny, I more or less get the same feeling with each track (indifference, there are not really ‘highs’ and ‘lows’). Would that mean that “Mokṣa” is very well compiled?

Link: UIS