The Rock Blogger

Maeror Tri - The Beauty of Sadness. 1996. 5 stars.

This an exquisite and emotional drone/ambient album from this now defunct German trio. Deep bass lines and subdued guitars underlay the brooding moans of synths which lapse over each other in densely layered compositions. Jangling riffs are contrasted against airy ambiance, evoking desolate spaces broken only by soft pillars of light.

While many experiments in the genre have crafted moody atmospheric pieces, they cannot compare to the fluidity of Maeror Tri’s progressions as they slowly build around shimmering motifs. The cascading waves of sound, the resigned melodies against buzzing effects, is musical transcendentalism at its most refined. The Beauty of Sadness avoids the tedium of minimalism and the harshness of hard noise to find the golden mean between experimentation and tragic catharsis. Like a Mark Rothko painting set to music, Maeror Tri chart the landscapes of sleep and find hollowed ground. If you are familiar with Labradford, William Basinski, and Stars of the Lid you will certainly appreciate the fine nuances of this record.

Evening

The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven, one that falls;

and leave you, not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion
of what becomes a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, now immeasurable,
it is alternately stone in you and star.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Pictures

Enmerkar. Starlit Passage . 2008. 5 stars .

A simply mind-bending EP from this little known black metal/dark ambient band. A swirling celestial atmosphere hangs over these 5 songs, sending the listener through a cosmic rush against the void. Enmerkar builds an impenetrable wall of sound from waves of distorted tremolo guitars, melancholic drones and distant, rumbling percussion.

Eerie arpeggios drift in and out of the darkness, similar to the lonely dynamics of Paysage d’Hiver and Drudkh. Raspy whispers echo throughout, giving the black sea a solitary, searching voice. While the layers of instrumentation make this a heavy release, there is still rousing lightness to the climatic wails of guitar, like satellites pushing against the burning atmosphere.

Despite it’s brevity, Starlit Passage is just as deep and compelling as any full-length metal album to come out this year. Enmerkar pushes into the domains of post-rock and shoegaze far more organically than others and remains focused on it’s interstellar mission without being too self-conscious about it. A mesmerizing work that discloses the shamanistic verve of it’s aesthetics.

AIR

Jabladav - Entisaikainen Herra Hihkasis Atilaa Menna Pilver. 2008

Powerfully deep drones and minimalist ambient drawn out for close to an hour. The slow bass tones are both pulsating and transient, encouraging stillness and isolation. Recorded live, this rare release demonstrates exceptional focus and insularity.

EARTH

Echtra. Burn It All Away . 2009.

Densely textured Cascadian black metal similar in scope to Fauna, Krallice and Skagos. Three epic tracks of raw tremolo riffs layered over waves of distortion produce hypnotic effects. Captures the harshness and primoridal beauty of staggering cliffs and mountains.

WATER

Velvet Cacoon. P Aa Opal Poere Pr. 33 2009.

The notorious Velvet Cacoon has plunged again into oceanic black metal, grim, textured and ambient. Shimmering noises and melodic touches lurk beneath the dark water and draw the listener into an icy sleep.

Spectral Lore. II. 2007. 5 stars.

Athens’s Spectral Lore is a one man black metal project that incorporates dark ambient and acoustic passages into its massive compositions. This is one of the more effective releases to follow this astral aesthetic, producing etheral works akin to the masterful Paysage d’Hiver. The center piece of this album is "The Thorns that Guide my Warpath", an epic 25 minute track that turns down multiple paths in fleshing out its vision. From eerie woodland samples to full-blown blackened drone, the winding roads of this album never cease to intrigue.

While this release is forest deep with atmosphere, it still conveys intense personal passion, carrying with it the voice of a wanderer long lost in the crevices own mind, calling for release beyond this world. Though it takes a while for these (sometimes overlong) passages to sink in, there is a sense of discovery that builds with every listen. After listening to this while walking for some time in the woods, all the pieces fell together into a cohesive stream of consciousness. This is metal with philosophical aspirations. Highly recommended.

Vinterriket. Zeit-Los:Laut-Los. 2008. 4 stars.

Eerie winter ambient in same tradition as Northaunt and Paysage d’Hiver. Zeit-Los: Laut-Los features one forty minute track with drawn out ambient synth loops and atmospheric sound samples. It’s an incredibly effective release that conveys feelings of cold, rugged isolation. A suitable soundtrack for wandering the frozen landscape, as life falls to a quiet standstill.
While there is not much variety across this epic track, it is still an entrancing listen as its soothing lifts produce a hypnotic effect. With patience and reflection, the icy drones and all their subtle oscillations become more distinguishable.

“When, in the darkness of a winter night, a snow storm surrounds the shelter and covers everything, then the great moment of philosophy has arrived. Its questions must become simple and essential…”
-Martin Heidegger, 1934.

Vinterriket “Lichtschleier”
This is actually from another album, but the sound is essentially the same.

Sunn O))). Dømkirke. 2008. 4 stars.

Along with close contemporaries Earth and Boris, Sunn O))) have become flag bearers for the doom-metal avant-garde, pushing the genre to new experimental boundaries with each full-length album. While they may have just lovingly mimicked Earth’s early drones with their first set of releases, Sunn O))) quickly evolved into a innovative force of their own right, pushing out heady, slow-as-molasses jams of impenetrable darkness. The chilling spoken word intro of White 1 or the pseudo-black metal wraiths on Black One demonstrated the cloaked duo’s capacity for creating exciting and terrifying masterpieces that were as unique as they were heavy.

Dømkirke carries on with the proud tradition, bringing the distinguished drone masters and their special guests to an ancient Danish cathedral where their compositions could be given a full atmospheric treatment. From what I understand, this was recorded live, giving the album raw power and urgency - a strange word to use given the band’s snail-like pace. The majority of this album moves away from the groaning and drawn-out riffs of the past, opting instead for dense, dark ambient pieces. That being said, the album is still bass-laden and unbelievably heavy, its just more focused on atmospheric drones rather than lumbering guitar work. Vocal contributions from black metal artist Attila Csihar are spine-chilling, as his dark, operatic chants echo like the rites of some ritualistic cult-figure. The later half of the album has him more restrained, offering distant and indistinguishable shrieks and rasps to hover over the searing drones.

Dømkirke may not sound as direct or metal as 2005’s Black One, but the thick graveyard atmosphere and dense production remains fully intact. The inclusion of monk vocals and the chosen recording space also lend Sunn O))) even more gravity to pull you down into their murky pits. As a band willing to take risks with their already unconventional and disturbing sound, Sunn O))) have once again shown their intense mystique and musical craftsmanship.

Somnivore. Clergy of Oneiros. 2007. 4 stars.

Finnish dark-ambient artists Somnivore draw on allusions to Greek mythology to create this somnambulist album. Deep, rumbling drones, distant voices and airy electronics suck you into these 6 unsettling dreams. A cold atmosphere hangs over the entire album, conveying scenes of abandoned buildings, smoldering cities and mildewy caverns.

The progressions here are absorbing, with enough subtlety to invite meditative, introspective experiences. While the mood of these pieces is vaguely sinister, with its many whispering actors and eerie chimes, Clergy of Oneiros still stirs reflection.

Some of the tracks can be a slightly repetitive and downright baffling, but the more industrial tinged songs at the album’s conclusion brings the meandering to satisfying apex. Midnight music for the lucid dreamer or the downright deranged.

Nahvalr. Nahvalr. 2008. Enemies List Recordings. 4.5 stars.

Nahvalr, described by its founders as “open source black metal”, is nothing less than a landmark in originality. Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga from Connecticut’s equally brilliant Have a Nice Life have taken submitted noises, samples and instrumentals from across the web and melded them together into 8 terrifying movements that shift between ambient, doom, drone and black metal styles. These impenetrable walls of sound are as compelling as they are suffocating, rich with grotesque detail and atmosphere. While numerous dark ambient acts have touched on the same blackened corner stones as Nahvalr, both the innovative creative process and the density of this album is remarkable.

The idea of having many so disparate sounds compiled may seem daunting, even counter productive in the creation of music, Nahvalr moves far beyond mere bursts of noise and finds a common, sinister and even spiritual thread that runs through their collections. Their compositions, whether they are cavernous, bass-driven processions (”Blood Flood”) or ghostly, free-floating ambiance (”Swallower of Bile”) are given ample room to stretch out and breathe, uncovering a powerful emotional center in each.

Music this experimental, haunting and visceral demonstrates the often neglected potential the Internet has for collaborative projects. It may be overlong in some segments, but the dark energy within Nahvalr is impossible to ignore and shake off, making it a masterpiece of devastatingly bleak reflection. I can only hope that projects like Nahvalr, with all their promise and dynamism, will continue to take shape and flourish in our digital culture.

Deathprod. Morals and Dogma. 2004. 3.5 stars.

This album has the power to induce multiple nightmares. It’s cold, ambient drones washing across like floodwater through an abandoned city, Morals and Dogma pulls you into a strange landscape populated by specters and fallen angels. This is dark ambient to the core, with 4 slow-building movements stretching across 50 minutes of sullen meditation. Dense reverb, deep bass tones, unintelligable rumblings and eerie voices create an absorbing sonic environment to get lost in. While the mood is somber and the performance quiet, these pieces have a subtle, unsettling edge to them, as each droning composition burns with dread and tension. Its emotional power is intense and shows composer Helge Sten’s commitment to atmosphere. Each of these drawn out pieces seeps stealthily into your mind, giving you ample time to conjure evanescent imagery.

Given the deep impression this type of music makes on you, and its incredibly slow pacing, Morals and Dogma is an intimidating record. Its difficult to get into and the lack of sonic variety in some of the longer tracks can drag down the experience if you’re not in a completely reflective mood. That being said, Deathprod’s work is uniquely disquieting, managing to foster complete emotional engagement with great subtlety and minimalistic style. If you are willing to confront the demons living in your subcontinents, Morals and Dogma is a well-versed exorcist.

Deathprod - treetop drive 3
(not from Morals and Dogma, but its still a cool video)