Brazil-born damsel IO is one of the most productive / active human beings lately. She is, and I quote, ‘visual artist, scenographer, fashion designer and musician’. When talking about ‘musician’, she’s active under different pseudonyms or throughout serial recordings, such as IO, Dragonflies In The Garden, The Flower Book, Modor, Black Paintings, The Hunt Of The Unicorn, For Children: The Gates Of Paradise, Danse Macabre and who knows what else.
Since I was quite impressed by Blood Oath and (especially) by With Hoof And Horn, I did look forward to listening to this newest album by the trio Rituals Of The Dead Hand. Well, after a couple of listens, my appreciation for this act has not disappeared; on the contrary.
Because a new Vyormouth album has been released, first some words about this one, Liminal Spaces.
…originally released in 2023…
…a tribute to Carrie, a magnificent work by the great Stephen King (and for what it’s worth: when I was a kid [a very long time ago], King was my favorite author)…
…a collaboration in between two outsider acts from Germany (noxpox) and Chile (Humanfobia)…
[review for a release that is more than two years of age, yet since it is never, ever, too late to focus on worthy stuff / and because of my appreciation for the label involved…]
Location: Medellin, Colombia
Members: Domos Aidaou (vocals & guitars), Maldito (bass), GoreRoman (guitars), Cadáver (drums)
Recorded: 11/2020-05/2021
Production, mix, mastering: Alvaro Alvarez (Nebuloza Producciones)
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Members: Harlow MacFarlane (Funerary Call, Grey Towers Stone Temples, Between Voices, Sistrenatus, A Thousand Plateaus etc.)
Production: Harlow MacFarlane
Mastering: James Plotkin
Artwork: Lindsey Roderick
Type: compact-disc (300 copies) in LP-like format
Duration: 35:53 minutes
Genre: Industrial Horror Ambient
Drifting into the sacred ocean of creation through the symbolic imagery of death…
Country (for what it’s worth): Russia (Ord) & U.S. (Demonologists)
Members: Ord Err (Ord), Cory Rowell (Demonologists), Evan Price (Demonologists)
Production: Ord & Demonologists
Mix: Andrey Volkov / Ord Err / Evan Price
Hold hands and take a journey into loneliness and despair. We have all been there, we just put the soundtrack together to your terror. Welcome to a place of warmth and tears.
[a review on a re-release, so I’ll keep it brief and concise]
My first acquaintance with Esoteric – and I guess it might count for the better part of us; at least those who were born almost a century ago – was almost three decades ago under the working title Epistemological Despondency. At that moment, I already was ‘into’ the more extreme areas of Mater Terra’s sonic dimensions, yet I still remember what I felt when listening to this debut: confusion, discomfort, as well as awe and respect.
I recently posted a review for the debut of Swiss act Aspaarn, Ancestral Genocides. That album - and the same goes for both demonstrational mini-albums that have been released in the meantime - brings the bare essence of universal Black Metal in its purest form.
