Released
1996
Label
Cold Spring
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
87 Gloucester Ave
Delapre, Northampton
NN4 9PT, England
Visit
Last Edit/Update
12 juli, 1998
Archon Satani
THE FINAL COMPLETION
(Limited Picture 10": 500 Copies)
Track Listing
Side A
Sanctified Pins Or Nails
Side B
:Love One Another:
These dats the musical imaginations of Tomas Petterson and Mikael
Stavöstrand live on in Ordo Equilibrio and Inanna,
but before that there was Archon Satani. In the beginning of the 90s this
Swedish duo released a series of darkly atmospheric albums of great beauty and mystique on
such labels as Dark Vinyl and Cold Meat Industry, before
parting ways in 1993 to pursue their separate paths in music and life. The Final
Completion (released in conjunction with the full-length CD The Righteous Way To
Completion) is the swan song of Archon Satani -- "And the
eagle...flew for the last time," as the etchings on the record states. Cold
Spring is responsible for this ultimate testament, and has made it a beautiful
10" picture disc, with images of archaic stone carved death heads gracing the
surfaces of the vinyl.
Each side of The Final
Completion is one extended instrumental composition of foreboding atmospheres with
ritualistic overtones. Side A -- "Sanctified Pins Or Nails" -- is a more
percussion oriented piece, with deep, rolling drums of a warm and hollow texture
thundering against a backdrop of softly grating and rushing sounds. The impression created
is of an ancient rite taking place inside some long forgotten temple; the sounds thereof
echoing down through empty stone corridors. The drums persist with hypnotic intensity
throughout most of the piece, dieing down only at the end, and leaving in its wake a
nocturnal humming that hovers briefly in the vacuum left by the drums, before it too
fades.
"Love One Another" on
Side B opens with a very subtle and distant droning that is penetrated at intervals by the
sound as of a leaking furnace. The distant front of ambiance gradually manifests itself as
a heavy ominous cloud that is shook by rumbling tremors and the scattered impacts of
drums. Out of this dense fabric of sound emerges a rhythmic presence reminiscent of a
train speeding endlessly over railroad tracks. This pulsing stream of sound runs through
the remainder of the piece, and transports it to its final destination.
Only 500 numbered copies of this
seminal release were pressed, ensuring that this record -- like the music and images
imprinted on it -- soon will be a much sought after relic...
