The Abyss Of Purification is a work by four projects, each of them contributing with one (lengthy) aural ceremony. It is not their first collaboration, for they did gather forces two years earlier (I mean, before this specific release, at the end of August 2022), under the banner of The Abyss Of Illumination. It’s evident that all respectful and humble appreciation goes to the label, i.e. the Noctivagant family, and the acts involved.
Following that path of ‘somber illumination through death’ that started two and a half years ago, this collection of ‘sonic rituals of necromantic essence’ recently saw its second revelation, called The Abyss Of Purification. It’s a well-chosen title, for ‘purification’ refers to rebirth, introspection, contemplation, replenishment and insight, as well as remorse, penance and indemnity. …yet then again, all this must be seen from a superior vision, to my opinion… Within the ritual temple of this label’s collective, all collaborating projects organically follow this transcendental road to illumination and purification.
This ‘split’ is available digitally, as well as on CD; the latter is quite limited in number of copies (being hand-numbered, by the way), being a so-called ‘wallet’ digipack compact disc with obscure yet intriguing visual artwork. For those who congregate in Chaos…
As said, The Abyss Of Purification gathers the same collaborators as The Abyss Of Illumination: Occult Odyssey, Sublimatio Mortis, Ens Imperfectissimum and Undirheimar. Each project contributes with a lengthy hymn, all delving deep into the spheres of profound and mystic ritualism, which define spiritual (and physical?) cleansing. All of them have their own sonic approach, yet the cohesive strength that surrounds these acts’ dismal necroglossolalia cannot be broken.
This album opens with Purificatio Et Introitus In Circulo Magico (16:15) by the Mexico-based combo Occult Odyssey. Their translation of dark magic ‘to achieve gnosis, evocation and invocation’ gets clearly translated though this haunting composition. It starts meditative and secretive (adorable are all those fine-tuned percussions), yet soon things get overwhelmed by all-devouring, heavy-weighted drones and eerily purging synth-lines. The deeply obscure rituals get injected by invocative voices, sounding both sermonizing as throaty, adding an intoxicating level of enlightened mystique and darkened magic. Purificatio Et Introitus In Circulo Magico exhales an hypnotic ethos, which continuously unfurls and expands. At almost ten minutes, then again, things overturn into a rather ceremonial excerpt, driven by elicit chants, ritualistic percussions and spectral keyboards. It unfolds, slowly yet unavoidable, towards semi-sacrilegious bleakness.
Next comes Canada-based outfit Sublimatio Mortis (expect a review on Transubstantiatio, released via Cyclic Law, soon) with De Profundis Vibrationis (18:00), exploring ‘into the subtle pathways of the subconscious’. Ghastly soundwaves and macabre drones float by, covering the whole in some claustrophobic fog. Slowly things develop, adding gruesome voices, nefarious militant drum patterns, and asphyxiating electronics, initiating a touch of industrialized belligerence. Leisurely yet almost magnetically, things do crawl forward, enlarging the sacrificial murk that enfolds this gloomy and arcane symphony.
Ens Imperfectissimum (a side-project of Occult Odyssey’s Der Cadáver), existing to create ‘uncomfortable and transgressive atmospheres’, contribute with Advocation Of The Dead Of Purification (16:08). Here too, the interaction of dreary soundscapes and uncanny noises, of both evil and evocative voices, and of ritualistic percussions, gets canalized into a process of thoroughgoing exploration of one’s Inner Eye. The esoteric sonics are drenched into an inadmissible orbit of alienated, isolationist and vibrant waves. Additional field-recorded sounds, evoking voices (mind the blackened screams as from the second half of this epic!) and anaesthetizing synth-based manipulations fortify the aural discomfort, creating a sphere of smothering morbidity and blackened industrialization.
Finally, Canadian outfit Undirheimar offers the composition His Breath Like Fire (15:29), representing this project’s ‘Thursian Shamanic Ritual Ambient’. Peccable and necromantic (throat-like) singing (with malicious whispering as adjuvant undertone) and almost undefinably dreary sound-sculpting merge into a profundity of abyssal torpor. In a mostly subtle manner, these diverse yet somewhat importunate voices and the bizarre sound-effects (with chimes and other weird percussions) create a morbific delirium of occult majesty. Like a mesmeric trip through some lightless void, the semi-simplicity is almost seductive in its purity and spirituality.
This collaborative work, The Abyss Of Purification, tenders more than one hour of scrumptious horror of the blackest and bleakest kind.
https://noctivagantcollective.bandcamp.com/album/the-abyss-of-purification
https://occultodyssey.bandcamp.com/album/the-abyss-of-purification-2
https://ensimperfectissimum.bandcamp.com/album/the-abyss-of-purification
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiYY6DMHTM