Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Ambient, Perfection
Label: Loki Foundation

After the cataclysmic disaster that was Control’s Deadly Sins, I’m almost too scared to review any more ambient releases. I mean, I fell HARD for this genre and I don’t want anymore shake-ups. My fragile Piscean emotions don’t like to be toyed with…wait. Michael JV Hensley of Yen-fucking-Pox is the sole musician at the wheel of Blood Box? Folks, I think I’ve overcome my fears!

Oh good lord! Funeral In An Empty Room is every bit as compelling, thought provoking and emotionally impactful as I wished it would be. Light, almost nonexistent “noises” greet you at the beginning of every track. It’s something that really used to get on my nerves as a budding fan of the ambient genre. But when Mikey H. does something, he does it right! Those little bits of sound heighten the anticipation for the good stuff to get going. So much so that in the following tracks, you’re going to sit there in the seconds between tracks and foam at the mouth waiting for them to start welling up from the void!

Every song is covered with layers upon layers of everything from cosmic scores played by a billion piece symphony of tachyons to harsh frozen swells that morph into whirlpools of flame to hypnotic tides that splash on the base of the rocky cliffs of madness! Yeah, it’s all in there. Every track is an adventure to the edge of reality and back.

Overall: Funeral In An Empty Room is easily one of the top five best releases that I’ve heard this year! I honestly can’t believe that an airy, ethereal release in a genre like this can be so complex and dense. There is so much going on in EVERY track that your head may very well explode!

10/10
Blood Box On Facebook
Blood Box On MySpace

Genre: Ambient, Noise
Label: Malignant Records

Ugh. It’s finally happened. I’m listening to something from my favorite supplier of audio crack and I ain’t feelin’ it at all. This isn’t the normal offering that I’m used to. It a ton more abrasive and too far into the realm of BORING.

Sure, there may be a lot going on in some of these tracks (a random scream here or there as well as some inorganic swells and jolts) but ultimately, this album just feels directionless. As the listener, I was in the same boat. I was never really sure what I was supposed to be feeling or what the artist wanted me to feel, even though the Sin (re: emotion) was the name of the track! The sad hallmark of a unrealized idea.

Broken down, Deadly sins has a cool premise: each track is meant to remind the listener and/or relive an experience related to the Seven Deadly Sins (something I think that Negru Voda would of hit with a direct bull’s eye. But, hindsight and all that…). Instead, the listen is reminded that there are much better releases out there that make them feel more than just utter annoyance.

All Deadly Sins sounds like to me is noise. Other releases in similar genres make me feel something. Relive something. Transport me somewhere alien or familiar. Deadly Sins just gives me a god damn headache.

Overall: I am thoroughly disappointed that my new go-to genre isn’t as bulletproof as I wished it was. Foolish. :(

3/10

Control On MySpace

Genre: Ambient, Industrial, Experimental

Label: Malignant Records

And here we are again with another collection of new, re-released and previously unreleased music. This time, it’s from The Swedish Ironic Commando known as Negru Voda. Oh… and did I mention that there is THREE DISCS WORTH of music in Vald De Luxe? This is going to be an endurance trial that could end in ambient madness, isn’t it?

Three Hours Later…

…I think I jizzed a little.

Negru Voda’s four years in the making, Vald De Luxe is easily the most diverse sounding ambient album I’ve ever laid my ears on! There’s a ton of distorted vocals, lots of mild static, soft feedback in some spots that EXPLOEDES on you if you’re not ready for it, wrenches hitting pipes, mothers slapping babies, a kitchen sink and a partrige in a pare tree! I think it goes without saying at this point but, Vald De Luxe is DENSE! One of the reasons might be due to the fact that this collection is split up into different albums.

Disc 1: Vald De Luxe – This disc houses the newest material that is, in my opinion, the strongest material of the three. Lots of light and airy tracks that are laid in contrast next to some pretty fucking heavy tracks! Most noticeably, Infected By Remix which is a remixed version of the gut-ripping V:28 song, Infected By Life (if you don‘t know who V:28 is, do yourself a favor and check them out!).

Disc 2: Dark Territory – An appropriately named disc if there ever was one! Originally released in 1998 to the tune of five hundred copies, Dark Territory is a down and dirty mixture of industrial and dark ambient. Dark Territory transports you to an Eraserhead-ish land of rubble, mutants and black and white industrial areas. It’s literally the stuff of nightmares.

Disc 3: Whispers From The Silent Shaft – This one is the most diverse in terms of release type. Most of the tracks come from different periods in the artist’s career, so there’s a schizophrenic element to this disc with certain styles clashing. Yes, clashing. But not ever really breaking the flow at all. And what’s this? A live track to take us out with? How thoughtful!

Overall: Vald De Luxe is a monster of a release! Each of these three discs would of done great standing on their individual merit, so you know that a release with all three (if you can, play them back-to-back-to-back) is going to send you through a damn wall!

10/10

Negru Voda On MySpace

Genre: Dark Ambient
Label: Black Drone

Alright now. If you’ve been a visitor for awhile, you know my opinion dark ambient. In short, for newcomers, there’s two types of dark ambient. Really fucking good, or pure shit. There is no middle ground, that I have heard yet anyway.
And so here we sit with Asbaar, a Spanish one-man band with a dude known as Marc Merinee behind it. It’s actually really fucking good. I’m not getting bored, I’m not wondering when it will be over, and I’m not getting uninspired to write this review.
I’m impressed by the more organic sounds, winds and the like, that fuel the ambiance, rather than the new wave of “Let’s sound like Sunn O)))!” bands that are out there, or the “Let’s hold one key down on my keyboard for thirty minutes then call it a song” bands that are way too often rearing their heads. This is ACTUAL dark ambient, the kind that takes talent and thought to make.
So please, check out the CD, and then check out the photography by Manel O. Company that inspired the CD.
7.5 out of 10.

Asbaar on MySpace.

Genre: Progressive Metal
Labels: Armoury Records, Mystic Productions

The third CD in that package I got forever ago, Proghma-C sat, unreviewed (but listened to) for a long time. The reason why I haven’t said anything about it yet is simple: laziness. BUT ALAS!
Proghma-C are another Polish package of progressive perfection that will piss off your parents. Think Tool, with some Meshuggah, Portrait of an American Family-era Marilyn Manson, Fear Factory, and a fair amount of drugs. In other words, it’s out of this world. Throw in a Bjork cover, “Army of Me”, and wow.
8 out of 10.

Proghma-C on MySpace.