I admit; this is an ‘older’ release, but it is in support of Cold Spring Records (and because I want to greet the label’s chieftain Justin politely). Cheers!
This split release is the result of an out-of-the-box idea by two famous and long-time-befriended Metal artists: Igor Graziano Cavalera and Shane Embury. Igor, on this album working under the name Iggor Cavalera (mind the double ‘g’), is known from Sepultura and Cavalera Conspiracy, as you know, as well as some other projects that are not necessarily ‘Metal’ in its purest sense (at all), amongst which Deafbrick, Mixhell [run with his wife Laima Leyton], Mudo, Soulwax (as session member) or Petbrick. Shane then again is best known from his involvement with notorious combos such as Brujeria, Venomous Concept, Bent Sea, Lock Up or (last but not least) Napalm Death.
I wrote that this split is an out-of-the-box experiment. Well, what both artists bring here, is quite different from what we’re used to hear from them, even though Igor has several other strange things going on as well. In this guy’s case, as said: acting as Iggor, it’s all about the very lengthy lullaby Neon Gods. Everything was written, performed and recorded by the guy himself in London (somewhere in 2024), resulting in almost twenty minutes of Electronic Music.
Neon Gods starts quite disturbing, mixing electroacoustic, industrial and ambient elements in an oppressive manner. It represents an ominous wave of sound with a post-apocalyptic atmosphere at first. At almost three minutes, things seem to fade into the unphysical dimension of astral isolation, slowly expanding into Ambient Noise Wall territories. Rough, alienated, mechanoid reverberations dissolve organically into harsher tunes of, well, a futuristic vision of sonic heaviness. Different layers of industro-droning tension result in a dystopian soundtrack. The equilibrium of static, procrastinated ambience at the one hand, and dynamic noise manipulation at the other, works very well. After almost ten minutes, things seem to calm down for a while - yet beware, for the voltage does not disappear; it’s just reposing for its final resurrection. Almost reflective or contemplative, like the calm before the storm, seemingly serene yet eerie synth-lines float by, hypnotic and dreamy in essence. Yet then again, the mixture of Death Ambient and Industrial Noise reappears, thunderous, scratchy, coarse.
Own Your Darkness, the contribution by Shane, is shorter, yet also clocks a good 13:35 minutes. About everything (arrangements and execution) was done by Shane, with some subtle assistance of long-time friend and colleague Russ Russell. And dixit the musician, it was a first empirical tryout with a Solar 42 synth, being one of the most versatile knob- and key-boards for polyphonic experimentation.
This lullaby opens in a void-dark way, through an impressing, monumentally oppressive pulse of droning gravity. It encompasses a sense of melodious suspense, like a harmony for impending doom and life’s completion. This mostly ominous, haunting, spectral form of Black Ambient gets covered in, or penetrated by, a suffocative mist of Death Industrial textures and Dark Drone torpor. It’s an intoxicating wall of sonic hypnosis of the most imminent kind. At nine minutes, addition orchestrations arise, ascending above the initial declination. Clambering downwards the stronghold of subterranean obscurity (or is it celestial swarthiness), Own Your Darkness has become a personal expression of burdensome compulsion in a most fair shape.
Neon Gods / Own Your Darkness was pressed on vinyl in both a white and a black editions, and on compact disc (a two-folded digipack). It comes with cold industro-futuristic artwork in black-and-white, designed by Gydja’s Abby Helasdottir. The mastering, and this is purely informative yet might be of importance for the purists amongst you (such as myself) was done at the legendary The Cage studio with Martin Bowes (think: Trepaneringsritualen, Khost, TenHornedBeast, Emme Ya, Bestia Astrum and many more CSR alumni).
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/neon-gods-own-your-darkness
https://coldspring.co.uk/csr294cd
https://coldspring.co.uk/csr294lp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0N24MCwtY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmRBKD-TkZA