There is no rush for O Saala Sakraal. After a debut in 2018 and a second release in 2021, this is the third album again four years later. All albums are released by Cyclic Law.
“Oaster” is again a ritual sounding album, sometimes ambient, sometimes with drumming or weird vocals. As on the previous two albums, the atmosphere is dark and good. A recognisable sound that is quite uncommon in general.
Indeed, another very interesting album. Just a bit short, 40 minutes.
Even though the Discogs of this Portugese project goes back to 1995, in 2001 I reviewed a promo cd in a luxury package. I remember a cork package of which the tape has withered by now. At the time I did not like the release much, too ‘soundscapish’ for my liking.
Almost a quarter of a century later, Cyclic Law presents an upcoming (4 December) dark ambient album with alchemical themes. The music is again/still droning dark ambient soundscapes. I have not listened to this type of music for a long time and “Ring of Spheres” reminds me why. This is not (or no longer) my kind of music. Not that it is bad or even boring, it simply does not do much to me.
Should you like minimalist dark ambient, you could try this long running project. The album does not have a vinyl length for a change, but a cd length of 74 minutes.
In 2016 I reviewed “Unclean“, the first Sophia release in 13 years at the time. After another 8 year gap, Cyclic Law announced another new Sophia album. Discogs also has two releases in 2017 and 2022 that I had not heard about, though, but these are not full lengths.
The blurb for the new album promises innovative rhythms, new kinds of vocals and experimentation with the Sophia sound, “a deliberate evolution in sound”.
The album is very recognisably Sophia. Pomp walls of orchestrations in the background, poundings rhythms and Peter’s vocals. The sound is not as bombastic as Sophia can be.
“The Age Of The Narcissist” is perhaps not the best Sophia material in my opinion, but a descent album. Out on 25 July. It comes as a cd and in two vinyl versions. The length is (thus) about 40 minutes.
Harlow –Funerary Call, Sistrenatus– has a new project: Stars Without Light. “Beneath And Before” is announced for 15 December and will be available on cd in an edition of 300 copies. The album is announced as “dark ambient”, but as usually with this artist, the genre is stretched into more industrial and noisy directions as well.
Most of the tracks are indeed dark ambient, but more in the soundscapish end of the genre. At other times the ‘scapes’ are more noisy and here and there SWL goes into more rhythmic and ritual directions. The atmosphere is dark and threatening (‘of course’ I would almost say).
Not the dark ambient of stretched sounds, but more that of the industrial ambient sound collage type.
The long running Canadian Funerary Call teamed up with the relatively new American band Sutekh Hexen. In three decades, Funerary Call went from “ritual music” to dark / ritual ambient to more noisy material and soundscapes. Sutekh Hexen goes from experimental doom to blasting black metal and also an occasional soundscape. What would the combination bring?
The opening track is a soundscape with a noisy start. Other tracks can also be described as “soundscapes” or sometimes perhaps “noisescapes”. Some tracks are dark and tranquil. At other times the tracks are more noisy. Mostly, there are stretched sounds and vocals giving the material a bit of a ‘ritual feel’. Here and there there is a blast. There are not many metal elements. In the opening track there is some guitar and in “Towards The Eastern Gate” screeching guitars set in about half way, but I would not have mind if that happened more often.
The album is descent, but not the best material of either project in my opinion.
“P:R:I:S:M” has eight tracks and almost 54 minutes running time. The album comes on cd, double lp (red or black vinyl) and through digital means.
Jouni Ulvtharm (Jouni Heikki Ollila (1972-)) is a long-time collaborator of Henrik Nordvargr Björkk. They not only share MZ.412, but also Pouppée Fabrikk and he collaborated on a Nordvargr album.
Ulvtharm has lived in Malaysia for a while, also during the time of the creation of “Svartmyrkr“. His surroundings brought some other influences than the snowy landscape of Sweden, or so the blurb says.
“Wrēkō” does have the more bombastic sound of “Svartmyrkr”, contrary to the more industrial/noisy earlier sound of MZ.412. Ulvtharm is (even) more ‘martial’. Stretched orchestral sounds, blasting drums, some vocals. Perhaps ‘dark ambient’ would even somehow describe the sound, but not as ambient as -let us say- Raisdon D’Être. It reminds a bit of In Slaughter Natives (but much slower), early Sophia, but also of more recent material of MZ.412 and Nordvargr. So perhaps “martial ambient”?
The album is moody. Not entirely my kind of music, but if you like the more bombastic ambient type of material, this new project may be worth checking out.
The Dutch collaborative project O Saala Sakraal released a mini album a few years after their debut album “Etmaal“.
Three tracks and 21 minutes that remind of the previous album, but “Heven” is more ritual ambient / industrial perhaps. The music is pretty dark, has vocals reciting poems, more ritual elements such as drumming and singing bowls. Last but not least, in the third track the vocals are by Michael Idehall.
This is odd. Cyclic Law sent a promo for this album (out 20 November). The project is new to me, so I usually check Discogs to see if there are earlier releases in such a case. Discogs does not have have Beckahesten listed. So I search the web a bit and I run into a Spotify release (which I cannot play) of this album, released in 2017 on a label I do not know: Skullevartslapptigar Records. So I check Discogs again, but they have nothing of the label either.
So I do not really have more information than the Cyclic Law blurb. Members of this Swedish outfit are two people whose names do not ring a bell and Per Åhlund who you may know of Sophia.
Both first two tracks are 5:35 and dark ambient in style. Long stretched sounds, quite minimalist and with singing of sorts. The singing starts to get a bit ‘folky’ towards the end of “Ropet”. This is even more so in the third track where we are introduced to the female member. The music gets a little more pomp too. The next track is the most interesting to me. A bit of an old Wardruna style. The first half of the 10 minute of the closing track is much less dark than what came before, but this is made up in the second half, which brings memories of the ambient side of Sophia.
The album is not the kind of music that I listen to a lot, but in spite of being quite minimalist ambient in basis, it is really not bad. There are some ritualistic and folky elements that go well with the style.
Cyclic Law is busy rereleasing old Cold Meat Industry material, but here they found a new project that would have fitted well on that Swedish label.
“Heljarrúnar” opens with an ambient track with drumming, think Sephiroth or Vortex. Then follow minimal dark ambient tracks that could have been released by Loki. Sometimes a bit of chanting, sometimes a drum, ritualistic and all lengthy, haunting tracks of descent dark ambient.
It is not a style of music that I listen to a lot these days. When I do, I do prefer a style darker than most CMI releases of old and I must say that however “Heljarrúnar” may sound fairly typical, the album is well executed and even manages to keep my attention in spite of the minimalist approach.
Unbelievable. Here is another Henrik Nordvargr Björkk. The man releases so much music, that he has problems picking a name for all the releases it seems.
According to the label, the material was recorded during the “Svartmyrkr” sessions. I already wondered why that was released under the monicker MZ.412, since the album sounds more like Nordvargr’s “Metempsychosis” than earlier MZ.412 material. Perhaps the answer lays in the line: “that can be heard in Nordvargr´s solo efforts”. MZ.412 is a band, Nordvargr is Björkk on his own.
That said, “Daath” is similar to “Metempsychosis” (but also to “Svartmyrkr”) with here and there a death industrial tone, then more dark ambient, but mostly fairly pomp beats and sounds that seems to lean to a more martial approach every now and then. Björkk spits his brutal vocals in some variety.
In my review of “Metempsychosis” I said that it reminds of of TxRxP’s “Kainskult“, but I have this less with “Daath”. Perhaps the sound is not completely alike, or my association is different this time.
A descent album again. Out on December 21th on cd and 12″.
