Satanhartalt - Forscr​í​fan tape

Fuck yes new Satanhartalt tape after like 5 years and it's still as ominous and cavernous as ever revolving around an unbelievable dissonant chord. Amazing shit, much better than all that sketchy and untalented bm, punk or whatever Legion Blotan does. 2022 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Shady Glyphs - Meditations On Caligari's Shadow

 

Amazing devotional fourth-world pagan ambient ritual similar to Vibracathedral Orchestra and Million Brazilians by this unknown Yorkshire project (though I suspect an Ashtray Navigations connection...). 2019 cd on Memoirs Of An Aesthete.

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Million Brazilians - Strange Oasis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is their most recent release and it's extremely cavernous, minimalist, and ritualistic, as well as much quieter and more esoteric. Which is a great thing when you take a listen to it. Some of the parts would actually be envied by the Wolf Eyes of Undertow. 2019 cd on Nonlocal Research.

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Ak'chamel, The Giver Of Illness ‎– The Totemist

This new blogger interface is breaking my balls when I'm trying to upload pics. Three out of four times the pics won't be uploaded. Whatever. If any of you have any ideas how I can bypass this, or even better revert to the old interface, your advice will be deeply appreciated.

Mysterious duo of fourth-world cannibal witchdoctors plays guitar/percussion hymnal incantations of desert folk psychedelia. 2020 LP on Akuphone.

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Möbius - Time Is What We Ride

Another great offer of sorcerous vocal drone by Möbius dedicated to a close one of theirs that was lost. 2019 self-releases tape.

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Various - Witchcraft & Black Magic In The United Kingdom

E-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t compilation revolving around devil worship in the UK including Rapoon, Satori, Grey Frequency and others. 2019 cd on Eighth Tower Records.

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1727 & Möbius - Burning The Black Candles

The new release of Möbius is a collaboration with 1727, a Gateshead project of Esmé Louise Newman (also of Penance Stare), and the droning noise of 1727 accentuates the ritual chants of Möbius perfectly and makes them even scarier. 2020 tape on Panurus Productions.

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Wolf Eyes - Undertakers Part 1 tape

Shiiit this is dark and satanic. It sounds like they've been performing a ritual on fucked up drugs. 2003 tape on Since 1972.

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Xqui - Elemental

Xqui always manages to end the year with a superb release. In this third full-length, which is dedicated to the chemical elements, he seems to have foregone of most "musical" features (beats, guitars, voices) present in his previous - and stellar - Capitulate, and focusing instead on the most elemental aspects of his work. In other words, this cd is dominated by creepy subdued ambient sounds with a very lo-fi quality (be reminded that Xqui works mainly with mobile phone apps), which accentuate what I have called his urban Lovecraftian atmospheres. Everything sounds as if it has been extracted from basements, underground tunnels, manholes, and there are also several howling voices, offering a ritualistic and menacing feeling. Only the last track, "Vanadium," has a more musical approach, sounding like a noise string orchestra. Xqui never disappoints, so go now to his bandcamp, and get the last remaining copy of this excellent year finisher. 2019 cdr on Wormhole World.

Xqui's bandcamp
Wormhole World's bandcamp

Xqui - Timepieces/Settlers EPs

After the feverish Capitulate full-length cd earlier this year, Xqui returns with more subterranean manipulated sonicscapes. My description of his music as "Lovecraftian horror for urban landscapes" continues here; subdued dreamy and unsettling passages in undeground tunnels is always what comes to my mind when I hear his stuff, and while I was hearing "Biff" from his latest EP Settlers, I couldn't help but remember when I was playing maniacally Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth, and thought how much these tracks would fit that awesome game, (Which reminds me to ask, has anyone played the new Call of Cthulhu game? Is it worth?), or they could as well have been released by the master label of dark ambient in the late 1990s and early 200s, Roger Karmanik's Cold Meat Industry.

Both Settlers and Timepieces are available for free on Xqui's bandcamp, so enjoy them, and why not, help the artist continue his awesome job. Plus, I notices a new track from an EP due out in May called "Monatomic," which mixes the dark ambient style with a slightly 1980's experimental industrial style such as that of the very early Coil or Current 93 ritualistic feel (or even with SPK's Zamia Lehmanni), with an amazing reverb feel. Really excited for this new EP!

Tepe Gawra ‎– A Rise In The Chalcolithic

Hails to Radio Free Midwich for introducing me to Other Forms of Consecrated Life, an online-only label releasing SUPERB drone/ambient/electronic music. So far, they have done only five albums, all of which are worth mentioning, but the one here (the label's debut release) is absolutely exceptional. Tepe Gawra (named after an ancient Mesopotamian city) is an otherwise unknown entity, since I don't find any info on discogs, and this makes it even more interesting. The music here matches the name and the cover art (all of OFOCL's releases have minimal artwork depicting ancient artifact), as we have some of the most enveloping, consuming and hypnotic drone I've ever listened to. There's a definite ritual and devotional atmosphere emerging from the crushing, powerful drones, which could be likened to Troum in terms of the mystical atmosphere, but the ones here are even more addictive. Track 2, "Tholoi B", in particular, has this Middle-Eastern wind instrument melody underneath the drone heaviness and it's, well I can't describe, you must hear it.

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As I said, all releases of Other Forms of Consecrated Life are worth a listen, and I also recommend especially buying and listening to the piano recordings of The Shattered Vessel by Eva Kierten, and Fundamental Colours by Lynette Sandholm Evvers.

Equimanthorn - Lectionum Antiquarum

Extremely busy these days with my PhD, baby and work so I'm just going to make a rudimentary post without trying to describe music I've only recently heard, but something you will have probably listened to already. Equimanthorn is a side project of ex-members of Absu (usually boring US pagan black metal) playing ritual black ambient. Their first album (Nindinuga whatever) had a Sumerian approach and was mainly boring and I've also heard the 2004 Second Sephira Cella which was absolute shit. But this demo compilation rocks. I first heard it when I was 16 or something, just discovering noise/ambient/drone and kind of getting over aspirations to make Satanic rituals myself and fortunately becoming a rational atheist; I got this cd from a stupid far-right black metal magazine that offered it for free. At that time I was studying too hard for school and for eventual access to university plus I had a very demanding girlfriend, which means I was usually exhausted and sleepy. So listening to these dark, ominous, subdued sounds was kinda calming. But oh dear, one afternoon I was sleeping to it, and I had a sleeping paralysis combined with Lovecraftian nightmares while track 3 ("Black Mountain of the North" - great percussive loop and threatening reemerging sounds for 15 minutes) was playing and it scared the shit out of me. On the whole it's fun; there's some stupid very "live ritual" moments (track 4 in particular), but the first two tracks have a cool guitar-bass drone approach, and tracks 6-10 are from a unified session with more elaborate ritual ambient orchestration that is totally Abdul Alhazred-worthy. "The 131st Spell of Ninazu", with its pulsating loop and Azathothian flutes still makes my hair stand up. 1999 cd on Unisound Records.

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Inverted Pentagram ‎– Thee Astral Sign of War tape

Continuing in the Xmas festive spirit, here's an ultra rare promo tape by obscure Dutch black/death metal band Inverted Pentagram, who ran for a few years in the early 1990s before changing their name to Omnihierophantom (anyone heard their album?) before reverting back to the original name quite recently, and put on real fun corpsepaint and clothing, as you can see here. While this starts out in a typical early 1990s sloppy fast Beherit/Von fashion with heavily echoed vocals, there are a few surprises under their belt. There's ultra slow dirge black/doom with nice heavy bass (lovin' the continuous bell effect on "Ritual of the Black Woods", there's fun ritual improvisation with entertaining gurgling/water bloop effects on "Nyarlathotep...The Messenger" on an attempt to fascimile a Dagon effect, there's heavy organ. Nice!! Quite close in the more experimental aspects of early 90s black metal such as Necromantia, and with the obligatory clumsy-as-fuck and almost comical musicianship of that era, this makes a really cool listen on a night when you have come back home with your metal buddies to continue the drinking. 1993 tape on Black Flame Produxions.

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SPK - Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers

Since I referred to SPK in the Roberto Musci post, I thought I should post Zamia Lehmanni which was the first album I heard from the industrial/ambient milieu, when I was still in school. I guess there's nothing new to be said about this masterpiece; the mix of dark ambient, industrial field recordings and African/voodoo voices and percussions is sublime. 1986 LP on Side Effects/1992 cd on The Grey Area of Mute.

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Roberto Musci - The Loa of Music (The Complete Sessions)

I consider this one of the most accomplished releases of all time. Released in 1984 after years traveling Africa, India and Southeast Asia assembling field recordings and instruments, Roberto Musci created one of the most ambitious ambient records - and think that this was recorded in the early 80s, without the technological conveniences of today. This is a combination of field recordings of traditional songs and choirs from Africa and Asia documenting Voodoo cultures, Indian raga, percussions, and ritual dark ambient, creating a deeply hypnotic and immersive vibe. Listening to this I am tempted to say that SPK must have been hugely influenced by this album when they recorded Zamia Lehmanni, which is another summit of 1980's ambient (some windy/screeching and percussive samples from "Invocation" and "Palms Crossed In Sorrow" sound suspiciously similar to stuff from here). So, The Loa of Music was released in 1984 but due to space constraints, not all of the recordings had been released. After 33 years, Soave re-released it in 2017 as a double vinyl including in full all of the material created by Musci, so here's one hour and twenty minutes of perfection.

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Spill That Blood For Satan: Dapnom ‎– Regwoisvokwos Gwhenmi Welminti tape

As a complete antipode to yesterday's Christian soul upload, let's get into some satanic ritual black/dark ambient by this French guy using that invented language employed by all those weirdo black metal bands from France in the mid-90s like Moevot. A descent to the depths of inferno. 2005 tape on Necrocosm coming with an inlay claimed to have been drenched in human blood, that smells awful.

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Leteo - Phantasm

Leteo is the alter-ego of Mexican black metal band Funereal Moon and membership includes one of the blog's favorites, Miguel Pérez of La Mancha Del Pecado and The Skull Mask. They play ritualistic horror ambient/noise inspired by the classics of the video nasties/giallo scene, and their sounds could have well been included in those films. They have released two more tapes, one on At War With False Noise, and one on Matching Head respectively, both of which are definitely worth checking out. 2016 cd on Christfucker Records.

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Satanhartalt

This is another project involving Mike Simpson of Xazzaz and Jamie Stewart, who plays with Mike in Oppenheimer and Dark Bargain. This is an unsettling, dungeon-like, lo-fi mix of psychedelia, drone, black metal, doom metal and ritual music that became less metal-y with the years (fortunately) and which creates an atmosphere of enveloping and oozing, walls-closing-in darkness. All of their tapes have been released by Legion Blotan.

2010 - Hæðenfolc


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2011 - Carcernþéostru


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2011 - Féondscipe

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2012 - Déaþscufærgewinn


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2013 - Sigeléas



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2017 - Ágenslaga




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