Retro-review Archives - This Is Darkness

Artist: Depressive Silence
Album: Mourning
Original release date: 1996
Original release label: Self-Released
Re-release date: 2016
Re-release label: Unborn Productions
Formats: Digital, Vinyl

Tracklist:
01. Forests of Eternity
02. Depths of the Oceans
03. Spheres
04. Mourning
05. Dreams

Depressive Silence’s 1996 demo continues its influence.

Back in 1996, dungeon synth was not a recognised genre. The likes of Norway’s Mortiis, Austria’s Summoning and Greece’s Lamentation existed in amorphous limbo between dark ambient, medieval music and the black metal scene it stemmed from. It was in this environment that the German musician Ral dropped a handful of releases under the moniker Depressive Silence. Together with the aforementioned artists, his self-titled demo helped found what would become a highly-trafficked avenue of independent music. Renamed Mourning, the album’s return in LP form not only reestablishes its raw mysticism, but heralds its status as both a foundation and a benchmark for dungeon synth.

From the arpeggiated flute that begins the album, it becomes clear that Ral balances submersive atmosphere with acute musicality. No technical flaws and production limitations hold Mourning back as each song sports unique hues through a film of isolated melancholy. “Forest of Eternity,” the first and longest track, spotlights Ral’s meticulous layering and sound choices. Hypnosis coincides with orchestration as choral music and string trills punctuate shimmering chords and moving lines. On top of that, the vinyl pressing imparts warmth to the cold recordings, which increases their mesmerizing aura.

The following track “Depths of the Oceans” comes packed with swift single-note lines over washed out legato, traversing territory as vast as the aquatic catacombs it is named after. Ral balances the delicate and the stark, allowing his songs to breathe naturally within their brittle confines. Field recordings in these and other moments give the realm Depressive Silence conjures tangibility in the midst of otherworldly dreariness.

With such a multifaceted emotional palette, this album transcends the product of a man with a keyboard. The organ drones and wistful crescendos that drive “Spheres” definitely have as much of a synthetic quality as the other tracks, as do the timpany-esque percussion, but Ral’s atmospheric ingenuity creates an indescribable suspension of disbelief. He uses his limited medium to his advantage and weaves a sonic tapestry of accessible mystery. He accomplished this without the brawn many of his contemporaries and successors often implement.

Unlike albums such as Født til å Herske by Mortiis, which tend to utilize bombastic fanfares via brassy synth, this album drifts along its 36 minutes with whimsical grace. The title track encapsulates Ral’s knack for ornamenting his synthscapes with celestial melodies while founding them on swelling modulations. Coating individual timbres and tones sparingly, he keeps his work interesting in its minimalism. Bells, voices and piano creep in and out of the mix as the songs need — never as attention-grabbing gimmicks. Even the concluding “Dreams” finds its footing in echoing harpsichord and marching rhythm, something Ral wisely saved for last. Whether Mourning escalates to a wall of sound or a single instrument, intuitive orchestration makes every moment gorgeously dynamic, yet coy in its execution.

The return of Depressive Silence stands as testament to the longevity of Ral’s two-decade-old album. Though many modern artists continue heightening the instrumental and thematic elements of dungeon synth, Mourning stands as a distant lighthouse beckoning back to the source — a reminder of the potential this vein of dark ambient had already realized merely three years after The Song of a Long Forgotten Ghost by Mortiis which sparked it into being.

Written by: Maxwell Heilman

Vond – Green Eyed Demon – Retro Review

On July 18, 2017

Artist: Vond
Album: Green Eyed Demon
Original release date: 1997
Re-release date: 10 January 2017
Original label: Cybertzara
Re-release label: Funeral Industries

Tracklist:
01. My Dying Day
02. Living Among the Remains of Dead People
03. Satan at My Back
04. To the Dreamer Dead and the Dreamer Dying
05. Hell Starts Now

Green Eyed Demon is the third and final album by Vond, a side project of Mortiis. These three albums were created from 1994 through 1998. Green Eyed Demon was initially released on the Cybertzara label. Now, almost 20 years later, Mortiis has re-released this album through his own label, Omnipresence.

Many of our readers should be very familiar with Mortiis. Several of his Era 1 albums were released through the late, legendary Cold Meat Industry, which was the launch pad for many of the forefathers of the dark ambient scene. The main project of Mortiis started as what is now called dungeon synth. He would later transition into dark wave / goth rock / goth metal or whatever other classification would best describe his varied sounds. But the lesser known side-project Vond, is the one which would be best suited to fans of the dark ambient genre. Vond may not in every aspect fall perfectly into the framework of traditional dark ambient, but it is probably the closest genre to this music.

The album Green Eyed Monster consists almost exclusively of the manipulation and layering of cinematic samples. Throughout the album, Vond sets the foundation for each track with a blend of dense industrial soundscapes and noises. This is industrial in the literal sense of the word, not the genre. We can hear machinery humming, the crashing and hammering of metal, steam releasing through valves. On top of this foundation Vond pieces together a plethora of samples of various cinematics.

The opening track, “My Dying Day”, focuses on descriptions of the early use of the electric chair in the United States prison system. The samples of a narrator describe the procedure in minute detail. Occasionally intertwined with these samples are Gregorian chants, which add a sort of perverse beauty to the composition. All this is placed on top of a thick foundation of industrial noises, which easily brings to mind early works of raison d’être, with particular similarities to the album Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations. As both artists were on the Cold Meat Industry roster during this period, it isn’t hard to imagine that they were likely borrowing a bit of inspiration from one another. Though I should make it clear that these similarities are not nearly enough to warrant calling one or the other a follower or copycat of the other’s style.

The following track, “Living Among the Remains of Dead People”, incorporates large portions of an old film, which appears to be of a documentary format, though it is actually a horror film posing as documentary footage. The story follows the demented and evil deeds of a psychopath by the name of Ezra Cobb. The narrative explains the progression of Cobb’s mental collapse from his initial attempts to cope with the death of his mother through his later acts of grave-robbing and necrophilia. Along with the narrative, Vond layers in samples of the man screaming “mother!” and other sound clips which add to the immersion for the listener.

My favorite track from the album, “To the Dreamer Dead and the Dreamer Dying”, takes us closer to the sounds of Era I Mortiis than much of the other output on the Vond albums. There is much more prevalent use of the synthesizer on this track. Initially, we can hear a wind instrument, later it shifts to a sound which comes closer to a bass guitar that eventually is treated with distortion. As the track progresses the synth work moves into territory that would be very fitting on some soundtrack to a film, which is obviously a natural choice here, on an album that is full of cinematic samples. Aside from the synthesizer, Vond incorporates a variety of cinematic samples which seem to take us into some of the worst sagas of Christian history.

Green Eyed Demon has been given an impressive re-release. While it doesn’t appear that there was any re-mastering done, the physical copies of this album will be a delight to the avid collector. Through Mortiis‘ web-store there is finally an official digital copy of the album. A limited edition LP is presented in several different variations, including: black, blue, testpress, and there are even some copies of the original 1997 pressing available. The album is also released for the first time on CD in an A5 digipak.

For long-time fans of Mortiis, there will be nothing new here aside from the beautifully crafted re-release editions. But, for newer fans, just recently discovering his older phases and side-projects, Green Eyed Demon, as well as the other Vond albums, should be a delightful discovery. Vond definitely shows off a side of Mortiis’ talents that should be highly attractive to fans of dark ambient music. Its gritty production is a reminder of the old days of the dark ambient genre, back before everything could be done with a computer and midi controller. It’s also a reminder of the varied nature of Mortiis‘ interests. I would love to see these old albums draw enough attention to maybe get Mortiis to consider opening the vaults of Vond for one more chapter.

Written by: Michael Barnett

Desiderii Marginis – Songs Over Ruins (1997) – Retro Review

Artist: Desiderii Marginis
Album title: Songs Over Ruins
Original release date: June 1997
Re-mastered release date: 27 January 2017
Original label: Cold Meat Industry (defunct)
Re-mastered label: Cyclic Law

Tracklist:
01. Songs Over Ruins I
02. Scintillate II
03. Ephemeral
04. Chrism
05. Entombment
06. Ashes
07. Solemn Descent
08. The Core of Hell II
09. Embossed in Bones
10. Songs Over Ruins II
11. Chreston

Desiderii Marginis debuted back in 1997 with this monumental release of Songs Over Ruins. Desiderii Marginis took many of the concepts which had been established in the young but prospering industrial ambient genre. Yet, he made them his own, twisted them to his liking, and along the way he paved the foundations of a decades running career in the industrial ambient, later referred to as dark ambient, genre. There is a beauty to this album, a dark and devastating beauty, which can’t be denied. His later career would build upon and often stray from these beginnings, but the fan-base and core mechanics of Songs Over Ruins would become a legacy of Desiderii Marginis ever after.

desideriimarginis_songsoverruinsoriginalart — Original Album Art

So much has changed in the music world since 1997. Not only the landscape of the sounds themselves, or even the labels that presented the genre, but more than anything, there have been many technical innovations, which make a re-master of old releases so tempting. The demise of Cold Meat Industry was a slow one, and Desiderii Marginis had plenty of time to switch his home-base to Cyclic Law. Cyclic Law is a label that hit the ground running, building a reputation with some of the highest quality dark ambient of the genre, in a relatively quick progression. So after solidifying his position as a fore-front artist on Cyclic Law, it only made sense to look back to the classic which started his career. Cyclic Law offered the structure necessary to facilitate a proper re-master and a release on vinyl for the first time, not to mention a CD release, both of which feature new cover art.

For the loyal fans of the industrial ambient genre, fans that have followed this music through its many shifts over the decades, there will be no surprises in Songs Over Ruins, it is a tried and true classic, and album that goes down as one of the stand-out-greats in a genre which is arguably filled with masterpieces. But for the younger fans, this re-release of Songs Over Ruins will be a welcome history lesson, and a glaring example of how amazing this music was, even 20 years ago.

Songs Over Ruins will be noticeably different from the Desiderii Marginis that we know in 2017. It stands to reason that over two decades an artist will shift and morph with their personal life changes, as well as the technical progress of the equipment used to create this sort of music. Songs Over Ruins takes on an industrial feel throughout the album, with the sounds of metallic clangs and down-tempo martial drum sequences pervading through almost every track. But listening closely it is obvious that this is Desiderii Marginis. The changes to come over the decades did not necessarily make the artist better or worse, they evolved in a way which kept the artist relevant and firmly positioned as one of the most revered of the genre.

There is a melancholia, a despair to this album. The religious under-tones are constant. The listener can close their eyes and melt into the soundscapes, envisioning a world actively collapsing under its own arrogance. We feel the presence of dilapidated churches, mourning choirs. There is a sense of warfare, which is just outside the reach of the congregation. As if they sit in waiting, praying to a god which has lost interest in their blasphemies. Humanity is at the brink of destruction, but this is their story, these are the songs that now reflect their dying breed. When only the strong will survive, the weak and reverent will find themselves utterly devastated, struck from the history books, as raiding bandits find themselves relishing in a world without morals or repercussions.

desideriimarginis_songsoverruinsjohan — Johan Levin

Songs Over Ruins is certainly an album of its time. It has many glaring similarities to raison d’être, a musical force that was carving its way into the collections of black metal and industrial fans, paving the path for generations of the industrial/dark ambient acts to follow. As one who can never get enough of a good thing, I find the beauty of these tracks to be first-class. The darkness of the music applies its umbra to the religious samples. What was once a beautiful church choir now becomes a chorus of the damned and dying, the devastation is bleeding through every note sung, every drumbeat hammered. Tracks like “Solemn Descent” and “Ashes” are brilliant examples of this comparison.

Don’t confuse the meaning, Desiderii Marginis is by no means a raison d’être copy-cat. There was a brilliance and an originality to Songs Over Ruins that couldn’t be denied. Cold Meat Industry already had one raison d’être, they didn’t need two. Desiderii Marginis brought a cinematic edge to the sound, taking listeners on a sort of journey through these decaying ruins of western civilization. Tracks like “The Core of Hell II” and “Embossed In Bones” seem to be some of the true precursors to the cinematic dark ambient sound which has really blossomed since the mid 2000s, brought to prominence by artists like Atrium Carceri. While Desiderii Marginis may have moved away from this style himself, it is easy to notice the effect that was left on the genre of dark ambient, a lasting legacy, which proves the reason that Songs Over Ruins can so easily be described as a classic of the genre.

desideriimarginis_songsoverruinsfull — New Album Art

In later years, Desiderii Marginis surely evolved, leaving behind much of this style that originally brought him to prominence. Yet, there should never be a sense of regret, no artist should go on for two decades reproducing the same sounds over and over, ad nauseum. But, that also doesn’t mean that these beginnings should be forgotten. In this remastered re-release of Songs Over Ruins the younger generations of dark ambient fans can learn much about the bygone decades of the genre. They can see where so many concepts came to fruition in the first place. As for the older crowd, here’s your chance to have Songs Over Ruins on a fresh pressed disc of vinyl for the first time ever. It’s a chance to have those magnificent sounds polished and renewed, to find their prominent position once again on the top shelf of any discerning dark ambient fan’s collection. Songs Over Ruins is a classic, the beginnings of greatness from a musician who would never disappoint. It is highly recommended to anyone with any love for the genre of industrial/dark ambient.

Written by: Michael Barnett

Kammarheit – The Starwheel (2005) – Retro Review

Artist: Kammarheit
Album: The Starwheel
Release Date: 2005
Label: Cyclic Law

Tracklist:
01. Hypnagoga
02. Spatium
03. The Starwheel (Clockwise)
04. Klockstapeln
05. The Starwheel (Counter Clockwise)
06. A Room Between The Rooms
07. Sleep After Toyle, Port After Stormie Seas
08. All Quiet In The Land of Frozen Scenes

By now, Kammarheit is about as close to a household-name as one can get, within the dark ambient community. Over the last 15 years, Kammarheit has properly released three full-length albums, as well as the Unearthed 2000-2002 set, all through Cyclic Law.

Kammarheit first made waves on the scene with the Nord Ambient Alliance album. An album which was one of the very first releases on Cyclic Law. To this day it is unmistakably pertinent to dark ambient. Kammarheit released these tracks alongside with a few other artists, including Northaunt and Svartsinn. Nord Ambient Alliance, and its contributing artists, would help shape the face of the dark ambient scene. These three projects have since been referred to fondly as the face of the second wave of dark ambient. The cold, cinematic, and subtle sounds of Nord Ambient Alliance provided a template for future artists, that still to this day holds strong.

Asleep and Well Hidden immediately followed. This album would give listeners a taste of what a full Kammarheit album sounds like. Yet, it wasn’t until The Starwheel that Kammarheit truly found his calling, and his audience. The Starwheel is named almost unanimously as one of the most important albums to the entire dark ambient genre, sharing this coveted position with other classics like Stalker by Lustmord and Robert Rich, as well as Prospectus I by raison d’être.

What could be so captivating about this album, putting it on a pedestal above so many other brilliant works in the genre? The answer is simple, Kammarheit was able to find that sweet-spot where subtlety, cinematics, and boldness all collide. I’ve used this album easily a hundred times to fall asleep, something that isn’t possible with many dark ambient albums. The slowly sweeping drones match brilliantly along side the bold use of field recordings. These field recordings serve two purposes. They bring out the cinematic element, giving listeners thoughts of some massive clock tower, overshadowing a cold, misty landscape. They, simultaneously, give the album a punch, a direct and sometimes overwhelming sense of purpose.

As all the aforementioned elements come together, the listener sinks into a sort of trance-like state. In those moments when the mind is at its most vulnerable, just before sleep takes its grasp, The Starwheel shines the brightest. The mind is able to fall in synchronization with the album. The dreamy drones lull the listener to the very edge of sleep. Just as this happens some bold sounds push through the blanket of slumber. This collision can put the mind in tune with the music. Just as the notes from a guitar take on a celestial perfection as they are brought in tune, so the mind equally finds this perfection in these moments during The Starwheel. As the mind goes in tune with the music, the listener is able to feel an sort of out-of-body experience, a oneness with the music. A relationship is born herein which gives the listener a warm connection, a loving bond which may never be broken. Waking up hours later, reflecting on this phenomenon seems almost impossible. Yet, again, it arrives the following night in those moments before slumber.

What followed The Starwheel was an unexpected gap of roughly a decade before the release of its successor, The Nest. Yet, Kammarheit never lost relevance over this time. Fans pined over The Starwheel and Asleep and Well Hidden. They dug up, from the deep recesses of the internet, previously unreleased works by Kammarheit. These six unreleased albums took on such a life of their own that in early 2015 Cyclic Law released Unearthed 2000-2002, finally giving these albums a proper mastering and a beautiful presentation, in the form of a cloth-bound digibook.

Since the re-emergence in 2015 of Kammarheit, there have been a slew of releases from Pär Boström. The Nest marked the return of Kammarheit. It was a brilliant album full of foggy supernatural soundscapes, true to the form of previous Kammarheit works. Cities Last Broadcast, Pär’s side-project, released its sophomore album The Humming Tapes on Cryo Chamber. Kammarheit joined up with Atrium Carceri and Apocryphos for two of the most compelling dark ambient releases to date in Onyx and Echo. Pär, joined by his sister Åsa, established their new label and printing press, Hypnagoga Press. On Hypnagoga Press, Pär and Åsa released their first cooperative project, Hymnambulae, an eerie, yet beautiful take on the more mystical side of dark ambient. Hypnagoga Press released its second album, Altarmang Void, months later, a mystical partnership between Pär Boström and Kenneth Hansson.

What comes next is anyone’s guess. Among Cryo Chamber, Cyclic Law, Hypnagoga Press, and who knows how many more partnerships, Pär Boström seems to be on a roll with no end in sight. This is surely just fine with his die-hard fans, who were accustomed to waiting great swathes of time between releases. Yet, these die-harders are finding their company growing every day, as Pär Boström takes his career to new heights, and apparently the sky is the limit.

Links: Kammarheit Official Site, Kammarheit Facebook, Kammarheit Bandcamp, Pär Boström Official Site , Hypnagoga Press Facebook, Hypnagoga Press Bandcamp, Altarmang Facebook, Altarmang Bandcamp.

Written by: Michael Barnett

Atrium Carceri – Cellblock (2003) – Retro Review

Artist: Atrium Carceri
Album title: Cellblock
Release date: 3 September 2003
Original label: Cold Meat Industry (defunct)
Rerelease label: Cryo Chamber

Tracklist:
01. Entrance
02. Black Lace
03. Machine Elves
04. Corridor
05. Blue Moon
06. Stir of Thoughts
07. Depth
08. Crusted Neon
09. Halls of Steam
10. Reborn
11. Red Stains
12. Inner Carceri

At this point, Atrium Carceri should be a well known name to any fan of dark ambient music. With 10+ albums under the moniker Simon Heath has built a brilliant labyrinth of story-lines, mythos, and protagonists. The Atrium Carceri mythos is one of, if not the most, impressive collections of music within the dark ambient genre. The depth and sheer volume of the material could honestly thrust Atrium Carceri out of the confines of dark ambient music and into some other varied media. With this much information to pick from, it would be absolutely possible to make a series of books or films just based on the information already revealed. Yet, back in 2003 when Cellblock first released, dark ambient wasn’t really even a thing. Or at least, not in name.

Referred to by many at the time as “dark wave” it was really hard for fans and reviewers alike to even know how to classify Cellblock. There had been hints of music in the past which touched on the cinematic dark ambient experience, but no one had dedicated a whole album to this particular style. Atrium Carceri, as we now know, wasn’t just an artist writing albums. Atrium Carceri was, and still is, a story, a mythos, a set of gods, protagonists, times, and locations across a devastated and dying planet. The world was being turned on its head. The fabric of reality itself was tearing as gods and men reversed their roles, became one, killed each other off.

There are so many questions to ponder when it comes to the Atrium Carceri mythos. Does this take place on Earth, the Earth we know? Maybe. Most likely. It is worth noting that, in Za Frumi, Simon Heath’s earlier endeavor with Simon Kölle, he incorporated vocals in the orc tongue. So taking this into consideration, it becomes more clear that Cellblock must have taken place in Japan and U.S.A. As we can hear dialogues on Cellblock in Japanese and American English. If this were some foreign planet, I have to imagine Simon Heath would have used some other form of communication other than these two well recognized languages.

Having answered (or at least attempted) the question of where, we now must ponder the when. This one is much more problematic. I like to think of the when in Cellblock being in the near future, maybe within 50 years or so. There seem to have been structural changes to our cultures and planet hinted at in later albums, but on Cellblock, for the most part, things sound contemporary. Yet, the timeline of this album seems to lie in two separate time-frames. For the majority of the album we witness the environment and mental deterioration of a prison inmate. As we hear on “Crusted Neon” this is taking place in Japan. “Crusted Neon” appears to be a flash-back, a memory of some scene before the protagonist was imprisoned. Yet, 3/4 of the way through the album we reach “Reborn” a track which in name and sound seems to be a literal rebirth. Within the pages of the album the final line of text is “How many do we have to kill before they stop coming back?” This line seems to hint at the presence of reincarnation. Indeed it would seem that the original protagonist has died and has possibly been reincarnated in The United States. Yet, he still has the same thirst for blood, the hunger for murder is ever present. Coming back with his same desires, the reincarnated protagonist has returned to the murder spree which found his former self imprisoned. A detective on “Reborn” gives us an idea of the man’s deeds, saying “She’s been strangled, her throat’s been slashed. There’s jagged wounds running down the left side of her abdomen…”.

The idea of the change of landscape and time seems to be compounded by the choice of sounds in the two sections of the album. “Entrance” through “Halls of Steam” seem to be very subterranean, murky, muddled in their sound. They seem to depict the prisoner from his initial entrance to the prison, a time of fear and sad realization. As the album progresses the isolation becomes more and more profound, the mind of the protagonist deteriorates as he lies in his filthy cell, devoid of all contact with the outside world, save for his jailer. On “Reborn” there seems to be a good bit more clarity, the sounds are less murky and more crisp and pristine. This gives a sense of being outside the prison walls. The use of the English in its American dialect helps us realize that we are not in the same country anymore. It is worth noting here, that this final section of the album may be nothing more than a dream, an attempt to live through the dreamworld outside the confines of the prison, in a foreign land.

However, this vacation from imprisonment is fleeting. “Red Stains” is a highly suspenseful track, built up by its brilliant handling of the synth arrangement. It feels as if we have followed the detective of the previous track to the scene of the crime. Or is this a second crime? Hard to say, but we do seem to still be on American soil. As the track reaches its close, we hear the sounds of a metal door squealing open and then closed. Is this a sign of entering a second prison? Or, has the original protagonist just been awoken by the sound of his prison cell door opening? Again, it is hard to say. By the final track “Inner Carceri” it seems the murderer has been caught. His reincarnated self is now again imprisoned. The subterranean sounds return, yet it appears to be less muddled than on the previous tracks. This gives a sense of the clarity of the mindset of the prisoner, he has not yet succumbed to the isolation, he still has his wits. The album ends on this note, but we will see in the second Atrium Carceri album, Seishinbyouin that there is still more to be told about the tribulations of the imprisoned.

The release of Cellblock was immediately recognized by many to be a genre defining moment. The attention to detail on Cellblock cannot be overstated. The use of field recordings, human voices, synth, piano, and percussion all come together to present a thoroughly intricate and enjoyable album which not only is a delight to the senses but also tells a story. This story is not easily decipherable. I have given my best interpretation here of what I believe has taken place, but for all I know, I’m totally wrong. Simon Heath has been extremely cautious in how much information to give fans about the story-line of Atrium Carceri. Now over a decade after this debut, we are seeing time-lines and more details of the story slowly surfacing. But, back in 2003 the journey was only beginning and the story was anything but clear to the listener. Simon Heath has hinted at some future possibilities for clearly defining the story, but for now it is totally up to the listener to put the puzzle pieces together, as best they can. The mystery is often half the fun, the other half being a line of brilliant albums to feast upon.

Written by: Michael Barnett (5 November 2016)

raison d’être – Prospectus I (1993) – Retro Review