Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Dark Ambient

Label: Malignant Records

Up next on my round trip into the gates of madness and back to where reality and dementia connect through a leyline of self discovery is Phragments and their 2008 dark ambient and third release, Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood.

Right off the bat, Phragments separate themselves from the rest of the Malignant Records releases that I’ve heard so far by tossing actually vocal and lyrics into the fray. This intrigues me! Normally ambient artists tend to let the music speak for itself through avant garde channels. Luckily, instead of blathering on about absolutely nothing at all, they spend what little time they do on vocals warning mankind about it’s own atrocities. War. Genocide. Cultural rape. These things chime back at you through industrial distortion, tapping that little guilt button in the back of your mind. Ah. Human feelings forced to respond to the actions of the cruel. It’s one hell of a self-awareness exercise.

As for the actual ambient music, it get the emotions flowing with gusto! From the opening title track to album closer The Return, you feel the weight of the world come slamming down on your shoulders and slowly, but surely you’re crushed under the sheer magnitude of what Phragments brings to town. Metallic  “twangs” and “clanks” can be heard mostly at the beginning of the songs as an attention grabber, then gradually fade into the ether. In the track entitled The Fogs Have Risen, you find yourself greeted by what sounds like a muffled, digital klaxon. It’s like it’s warning you to turn back now if you have doubts about the amazing finale that’s heading your way! I, of course, braved through it and was rewarded with twenty six tons of atmosphere that finished the job… Phragments have a brand new fan.

Overall: I don’t know how many times I can keep falling in love with this genre! Phragments co-owns the dark ambient crown and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

10/10

Phragments On MySpace

Phragments Bandcamp

Genre: Dark Ambient
Label: Malignant Records

Derelict World. What a fitting name for this release. The album cover says it all doesn’t it? A ship that appears to be miles away from anywhere it should be, all alone and broken. I got chills looking at it the first time. And now that I’ve listened to Derelict World over and over, I’ve come to identify with it. Tobias Hornberger (False Mirror’s one and only member) obviously has a natural talent for grabbing noise (organic or otherwise) and transforming it into something that’s not quite sonic, nor cerebral.

While listening to Derelict World, I envisioned a world that never was. It was like if Earth had formed, but no life ever sprang forth. Or maybe a world where all life just disappeared and everything was left behind. Decrepit buildings, structures resembling Swiss cheese, rather than national monuments and homes… rows and rows of homes. Abandoned . Some, still smoldering from the fires that broke out. Others, morbid museums of what human life was life for some kind of alien life form that might visit in the future…

Overall: This was my first experience with False Mirror’s brand of dark ambient music. I guarantee that it won’t be the last either! I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of this stuff! Especially is it’s as amazing as Derelict World!

9.5/10

False Mirror Official
False Mirror On MySpace

Genres: Black Metal, Blackened Dark Ambient, Drone, Doom, Industrial
Label: Crucial Blast

Mories is back with another album full of terror-fueled and terrifying sounds under his Gnaw Their Tongues banner.
It’s really difficult to describe GTT’s sound as far as genre goes, because there is a lot of different things coming together to create the album. There is definitely black metal and dark ambient, but there’s also a little bit of drone/doom going on, and some industrial embellishments, reminding me of Skinny Puppy’s darker stuff at times.
The black metal is not your average Scandinavian fare, nor even American styled. It’s more like True Mories Black Metal, really. His vocals are tortured, his songs all explorations to the shroud of death on this album, and the ambiance throughout is deep, dark, and fucking horrifying, with the keys and strings coming more to the foreground over the vocals.
If you’re into Aderlating and haven’t checked Gnaw Their Tongues yet, or if you’re a fan of GGT already, just get the CD. You won’t regret it.
9 out of 10.

Gnaw Their Tongues on MySpace.

Genres: Black Metal, Dark Ambient
Label: Crucial Blast Records

Crucial Blast sent me a package with two CDs in it, Nekrasov and Gnaw Their Tongues. I checked out Nekrasov, and by the song titles and artwork inside I thought it would be pretty much straight ambient.
I was totally wrong.
Half of the album is really chaotic, evil sounding black metal, while the other half is wonderfully done dark ambient. But unlike most bands who write albums that are half-one-genre-half-the-next and splitting the tracks into what would be a Side A and Side B, Nekrasov split it up into black metal song, dark ambient, black metal, dark ambient, etc. A nice change-up.
The music itself is also a nice change-up. It seems that Nekrasov is actually trying to be original, and succeeding at it. It’s still black metal and dark ambient, but I can’t hear another album from a more known band when I listen to this. It’s pretty much 100% new for me, and I like it.
Aderlating, Gnaw Their Tongues, and Wold fans would probably enjoy this.
Add in some awesome artwork from Exotic Corpse, all in a sexy digipak, and you’ve got an awesome blackened package that you should not miss out on.
My favorite tracks are “We Are Just An Indifferent Interpretation of the Black Plague”, “Pre-Fetal Non-Mantra”, and of course, the title track with it’s epic length of nearly seventeen minutes.
8 out of 10.

Nekrasov on MySpace.