Artist: Maljinn
Title: Thirst
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Lily Of The Valley
For me this is about as obscure as I can get I guess – unnamed artist(s?) behind it and only available on the new-to-me Lily Of The Valley site (not Bandcamp) which specialises in MP3 download only things. Or ‘Dedicated To The Old Ways. Human Made. Anti Fascist. Mystery By Default’. And was
I was sent a link for this. Which I trusted for…reasons… and was presented with a 25 minute six track album in one file.
‘Thirst’ opens with a dark, distorted noise, a bell and a sudden influx of pounding black metal. The bell sound remains within this darkness as the guitar line begins to weave eerily until the savage vocals take over. The sound rattles, no doubt. Whether this is ‘Thirst’ or ‘Devil-Blood Rise’ (which seems likely, I can’t say but is threatening, mid-paced raw black metal is your thing (which it is mine) this is excellent. Keyboards are used well, complimenting the darkness with subtlety rather than grandiose symphonic notions. It winds up the entsion with remarkable deftness, drums pounding away and the presence seeming to grow closer and closer with no way out before drifting into the synths, a perfect slide into the darkest and most raw dungeon synth to fade. I assume the weird, almost cosmic music which follows is ‘Kanta’. Again the use of keyboards is excellent; the tone and level suggests dungeon synth practitioners even as an almost prog tinged black metal riff levels it. Is this still ‘Kanta’ or ‘Born Of Scorn And Death’? Again who knows. It is slow, heavy and heavy on the drums and even as it pauses to wind up there is still the feel of something gathering spped, raking up the thick muck as it comes. An excellent guitar line rises over the top; almost a warning, a harbinger of the rumble of disgust behind it. And suddenly all that anger pauses. The sound of a void opens out; notes at first then the unfurling of almost delicate synth sounds. It feels lonely, but the fear is gone. This is a place where someone or something has found its peace.
I give up on the track names as that fades. A new passage begins. A slow and doomy black metal pound that almost reminds me of Norrt in its fine melding of the disparate genres. The guitar melody is very doom metal as is the riff that gradually gathers pace and yet the harsh vocals, half buried, work perfectly with it. The raw edge to this clear but like the teeth digging in and keeping it clinging to your flesh. It is an excellent hybrid of the best kind; not two things spliced unevenly, more a twisted stirring of black metal and doom together with just the odd sprinkle of DS. Seventeen minutes gone.
The track that follows is a heftier, speedier affair with an initial backened death feel but something strange happens as it opens up. The guitar pushes through and drags into a stranger much more chaotic space. The kinetic energy here is fantastic. It has an almost cosmic feel to it, spinning through the void with flames billowing after it. It seems to stop suddenly and a wave of pure old school dungeon synth washes out; the hiss of white noise behind it gradually becoming almost like a swarm of flies. And thenthe music pounds down; malevolent, arcane and dark black metal with the vocals howling and gnashing as though prowling around the edges of the room. I assume this is the Eaters Of Ghurkul. The DS returns, an unsettling rminder that you are trapped in a place with something that is other, something that has nothing but malice in its hunger.
Sometimes these anonymous things can be annoying. Sometimes getting the tracks delivered as one file is frustrating. Neither applies here. This is just perfect as it is. It has an oppressive, trapped atmosphere, a true feeling of the ‘occult’, the ‘unknown’. It has an alchemical touch for blending and weaving together the different syles and subgenres with a touch unhindered by expectation and driven by ideas and talent and delivered with a remarkable touch.
Damn, this is good. If the mystery is lacking for you this Halloween, try this strange and ominous corner. Bring a good lamp. It won’t matter though because the shadows herein will close about you and what is there has no good will.
Gizmo
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Walking The Liminal Space 