Himmelfahrtstag

Dolorian - Voidwards

Wounded Love Records, 2006

An oneiric transformation of the familiar tropes of doom metal, from the Finnish Helixes Collective (Halo Manash, Arktau Eos, etc.) associated act. Also not coincidentally harkening from the land that brought some of the most significant reformations of the genre in acts like Thergothon & Skepticism. Ostensibly the first project of the collective, although I.Corax may have a small claim to that. Voidwards sees them in a particularly near approach to the collective's usual improvised ritual ambient work, with particularly Helix-ish song titles (i.e. "In The Locus Of Bone," "Raja Naga - Rising"), mystical lyrical content chanted in the same whisper-croak style seen in Arktau Eos' rare vocal pieces, and a shared amorphous, ululating, nigh-improvised aural haze, albeit amplified by resonant, nay even psychedelic, metallic guitars that remind of the midrange sound of the classic doom-death band dISEMBOWELMENT on entheogens. I have been hunting for some dark metal that matches emotional intensity with creativity of composition, and outside of Corrupted and unearthing the late drone metal group The Angelic Process' Weighing Souls With Sand, this album has hit spot on for me.

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Corrupted - Garten Der Unbewusstheit

Nostaliga Darkrain, 2011

Highly recommended end opus of this incarnation of the Japanese "doom" masters. Their playing has never been more epic, more emotive, move evocative. Beyond excellent and probably one of the best albums not only of 2011, but of at least the past 5 years.

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Tropic Of Cancer

The Dull Age/ Victims 10" (Downwards, 2009)


Be Brave 10" (Downwards, 2011)


The End Of All Things (Downwards, 2011)


The Sorrow Of Two Blooms 12" (Blackest Ever Black, 2011)


Tropic Of Cancer is the groovy UK duo of Camella Lobo & John Mendez producing some bleak noir wave and minimal post-gaze auras that works in the general framework laid down by recent Suicide-revisers like Dirty Beaches as well as being a stripped down version of re-wave operators like Blank Dogs and Gary War. Tastefully minimal but not devoid of feeling, works because just enough seems to be going on. For slow motion dancing in the black lodge.

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P.J. - M.F.C.S.J.

Recontextualized sacred music recorded live in the eponymous church, from sometimes film composer and founder of the increasingly astonishing Subtext label. Minimalist electro-acoustic classical musick that distills the unequivocally holy acoustics of many a Christian church and cathedral, reminds much of Arvo Pärt, but with the subtle electronic edge of Jacaszek or Roly Porter. Ends with a beautifully sombre string flourish.

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Allseits - Hel

Cyclic Law, 2009

Underrated guitar-based orchestral dark ambient project from the sometimes extra live ⅓ of Troum. Very much in the vein of the parent band, but as one can infer from the album/track titles this is more a heavy journey to the nethermost regions of Norse mythography, where no transcendence is found, only the furthering low tones of abyss upon abyss. One of the most chthonic pieces of dark drone since Lustmord's Heresy.

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