A 7” with the artwork of the “never released cd” and two tracks. One is another version for a track that is already on “Great God Pan” and the other is more ambient. A nice 7”, strange design. At least not in the line of the more ambient direction that Endura was heading on the last releases.
A double cd for those who haven’t been able to keep of with the flood of releases of this English industrial band. Disc one contains the magistral debut “Dreams Of Dark Waters” that has been deleted for two times already. Disc two contains the second album “The Dark Light Is Enough”. Then both discs are filled with 4 extra tracks. This might appeal to the real Endura fans, but I’m afraid they will not (like me) find much new. The tracks also appear on the “Biomechenical Soul Journey” 10″ of last year; the 1996 tape “Ard Inn Arr” (which already contains songs from old compilations) and two contributions to more recent compilations; the very last track is one I didn’t know yet, but it’s a boring piece of atmospheric music.
Like I said, this cd is for those who can’t keep up with other releases of Endura. I will not give a rating to this cd, because however I really like the first two albums, I’m still displeased with this 2cd.
The second release of The Fossil Dungeon is of an old acquaintance. I have the 1993 demo “Winter Of Sorrow” in my collection and I used to order obscure material from Michael Ford’s “Abyss Productions” around that time. Since then Darkness Enshroud has released two cds which I don’t have, but I have heard at least one of them. On this cd the line-up of DE is not the same as on the demo. Beside Michael Ford (who appears to be the one lasting person in this project), we see Shanna LeJeun who also makes music under the name “Nythra” (one of the few Dark Age releases that I don’t have…). According to the bio, this duo has also split and the recordings here are a little older. Also DE has been dorment for a while.
The music that you can expect is black ambient, with industrial, atmospheric and ritualistic touches. The music was mastered by Barry Galvin (Mephisto Walz / Christian Death) and now that I am naming names anyway, I might just as well add a few other music projects of Michael Ford that may ring a bell for some of you: Black Funeral (black metal), Valefor (black industrial on Cold Meat Industry) and Psychonaut (I have never heard it, but Dark Vinyl released a few things I believe).
Also here an 5×7″ plastic sleeve with professionally printed colour covers. Musically I think this 30 minute mcd is alright.
Keep an eye open for upcoming Fossil Dungeons, there are plans for an Arcana Art cdr, Dark Muse cdr, Hexentanz 7″ and a 2lp compilation “As She Was Crowned, So Crowned Were They” with Ataraxia, GOR, In Gowan Ring, The Soil Bleeds Black and many more.
The brilliant debut of this project came to us in early 2000 and almost two years later an also very good mcd (late 2001) was made available. It was a long wait for the new cd of this project which I currently consider the most interesting industrial act on CMI. “Shape Shifter” may not be quite as good as “That Which Remains”, but is still pretty damn good. Again fairly dark and evil, but with more vocals (spoken, sung and samples). Also a nice amount of deep drones. No bombastic “Holy War” unfortunately, but definately a cd that will find it’s way to my cd-player quite often, like the debut of 3 years ago still does.
A new star on the CMI horizon. As we are used from CMI not a bad star either. The typical CMI sound (atmosperhic dark ambient), the typical CMI level (very good) and what also seems to become typical for CMI a not too smashing lay-out. I wonder why the latest CMI releases look so simple. But it is about the music after all, eh?
What makes Coph Nia different from other CMI bands is the use of vocals (spoken) which are used quite a lot. Further you will hear the usual drones, gregorian (?) samples, and a few beats here and there. Also female vocals and a ‘folky’/atmospheric sixth track that is rather out of style. But… eight tracks of which most long making a cd of over an hour which is very enjoyable.
Many years ago I got the 12″ “Ritez Of Higher Communication”. The review of it seems to have gotten lost with me messing around with the new reviews and the archive (…). When I heard about this cd I noticed that I have missed a 7″ and another 12″. Also there seems to be another version of this cd with a bonus cdr. Anyway, Combative Alignment makes very dark ritualistic ambient. The 12″ that I have is very enjoyable, this cd is too. Not brilliant or very original, but descent dark and haunting soundscapes going on for about 45 minutes.
Cold Spring released the famous 1993 Staalplaat cd of the extinct Swedish duo Archon Satani (after the split we got Inanna and Ordo (Rosarius) Equilibrio). Industrial ambient with a few noisy touches and unfortunately on this album no vocals. I think most of the Archon Satani material has been rereleased now. Would this make them less of a cult act? Anyway, if you like the old CMI-sound or industrial dark ambient in general, you will have to get some of that Archon Satani material like this one.
I used to own a record of this defunct cult-formation, but I didn’t like it enough to keep it. For some reason I did want to get a copy of this cd with old and unreleased material. Still not exactly what I hoped for. Quite monotous dark ambient, with here and there some industrial sounds, but nowhere vocals… The first disc contains material from “Beyond All Thee Sickness”, “2×6 Dimensions Of A Coffin” and one track from “Andromeda” the second disc 10 unreleased tracks. Some nice tracks, many not too great. The double digipack with ‘leather’ and golden letters is great though!
I still play the debut cd “That Which Remains” quite often and I like it a lot. Now we get a mcd in a simple but well-done digipack. A disc containing 4 tracks (or 7 if you are lucky), beginning with a short piece of dark ambient and followed by a magnificent heavy piece with fierce drumming and shouting about holy wars. The third track is a long dark ambient piece and the last track is a bit ritualistic of style. All in all again a good piece of music from Coph Nia.