This review deals with another collaboration by two of my mostly appreciated labels, Cyclic Law and Sentient Ruin Laboratories. And… This review also deals with a collaboration of two mostly appreciated North-American projects, Sutekh Hexen and Funerary Call, respectively coming from The U.S. (California) and Canada. I won’t go into these labels’ or acts’ biography this time, yet I’d like to go into this album’s content immediately.
Cyclic Law, currently located in France, were formed in 2002 ‘to promote international musicians working in the field of Ambient, Experimental and Industrial Soundscapes’. The label gets run by Frédéric Arbour, who is the same mastermind behind projects like Visions, Instincts and some others.
This release was released more than one year ago in the meantime (it got prepared a while ago, but I just forgot to finish and publish it), but I couldn’t just ignore it. Due to circumstances in 2022 I haven’t been active for a long time, but even ‘older’ material that deserves all additional support and promotion, will be taken care of by yours truly.
Curse All Kings is a young project by Rob Fisk aka B.S.s., whom you might know from his outfit Common Eider, King Eider in the first place, and some Psych / Indie Rock bands with international fame as well.
It would be a waste of time to invest my time on an introduction, and it would be a waste of time for you to read an extended biography / discography on Raison d’Être, probably the best known outfit by Swedish multi-talented artist Peter Andersson, active for three decades at this very moment. So I’ll skip this part. You can still search for additional information in one of the former reviews I did (links for some of them, see below) or on the Internet.
(review for an older recording, released in 2020, but who cares – it’s all about aural art and sonic supremacy!)
For some incomprehensible reason I did miss Beckahesten’s 2020-debut Vattenhålens Dräpare, although Cyclic Law did kindly offer this material to me. I don’t know why, how, when, but I never got to download that great album. A shame, a pity, a stupid thing to occur.
I usually think about Death or Black Metal in general, or Grindcore, when considering the sonic scene from Czechia. When it comes to Ambient, Drone, Ritual, Occult and the likes, however, my ‘knowledge’ is limited to just a handful of projects. AutopsiA, Blear Moon and Orbbiss are some examples, but one cannot ignore the impact of Lamia Vox on the audible part of my (intoxicated) brain.
I was truly thrilled and aroused when I heard about the follow-up of 2019’s The Substance Of Perception, which I do consider one of that year’s highlights when it comes to the more ritualistic and darkened side of Ambient. That album was the official debut by Neraterræ, an outfit by Italian musician Alessio Antoni.
Galician trio Black Earth are ‘begotten in chaos and speaking an abject language that hides the secrets of the great truth beyond the lies of the material world. Beyond the present, beyond the past. Feasting the survival of the old knowledge beyond history and the putrid path of mankind. Riding the tiger along Kali Yuga.’ It’s a mystic and mysterious introduction, offering bleak and ritualistic visions (haha, ‘visions’ and Cyclic Law in one sentence; what a coincidence) on mankind and its many imperfections and demerits.
