Ivan Tibos.

If I’m not mistaken – and since I’m a smart guy the chance is almost nihil – ‘Arkona’ is the name of a cape on the Rügen island, nowadays in Germany (Baltic Sea, close to Poland), where the Slavic fortress Jaromarsburg was built. Like many castles, it has been a source of inspiration for many Metal bands. Behemoth’s first recordings, for example (at the time that they did still play ‘real’ Black Metal), referred to that era / area, but there are quite some bands named after that specific historical place too.

I knew an act from Brazil called ColdBlood, being active during the first half of the Nineties. And because this release (which was send to me, the kind way, by my dear colleague Aleksey K. from e.g. the Abigorum project and Satanath Records), did deal with a Rio De Janeiro based act with the very same name, I was kind of wondering: is this the very same band? So, here I seemed to suffer from a period of total amnesia.

Keys of air, keys of fire, throw my soul, rise it higher…

Frenchman Arthur Arsenne is quite an occupied person within the international Drone / Ambient / Noise / Experimental scene. He runs the labels Arsenic Solaris and Death Carnival Records, and he’s involved in different projects, both as solo artist or in co-operation with others.

In late Summer 2016 I somewhere, somehow ‘discovered’ another excellent great Russian label (actually residing in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, close to the river Ob, and ‘only’ about 350 kilometres away from the border with Kazakhstan), called Black Mara, sort of specialised in Dark Ambient, Drone, Esoteric and Ritual Music. They did release some stuff for great acts such as Paul Minesweeper, Creation VI, Ugasanie or Carst, and this review deals with Welcome Black, a project led by Alexandr Smirnov (who took care of mix and mastering duties as well).

I was quite surprised when I did receive Darkness And Decay, which seemed to be an album by Orpheum. I surely did remember that name from a couple of years ago. I wrote a review for them, for their self-released EP Treason, which was released in March 2012. In case you’re interested, you can find that chronicle in the ‘Archive’-tab, published on November 30th 2012.

It’s the unholy year of 2014. Ebola took a new step for mass extinction in the West of Africa. An airplane from Malaysian Airways crashed – no survivors. The idiots from Boko Haram had a great year, kidnapping those young girls, raping women (and men) all over the country, and burning villages just for fun. Russia sort of conquered both the Crimean Peninsula and regions in the East of Ukraine, with a bloody (civil) war as result. The f*cking Muslim terrorists from ISIS did think it would be fun to start their own state in order to ignore their insignificant and imbecile existence.

The old English word láðspel means something like ‘evil story’ or ‘ominous news’, and it gets used in the Lord Of The Rings saga. The character Grima Wormtongue calls Gandalf that way, for the wizard only enters the halls of Meduseld in times of grief, despair or war. But that could be basic knowledge for Tolkien-adepts, I guess, so I won’t go deeper into the etymological or literary definition of this word.

The origins of Enoid go back to the mid-nineties, when Sergio ‘Bornyhake’ Moplat started the project Pest. This Swiss guy is or was in many extreme projects, but I think Enoid, which actually is the successor of Organ Trails, with Organ Trails being the follow-up of higher mentioned Pest, might be one of the best known ones he’s involved with, and for sure one of the best.

A warm, dark and subtle but complex drone experience awaits…