Released
1998
Label
Spectre
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
PO Box 88
2020 Antwerpen 2
Belgium
Visit
Last Edit/Update
03 oktober, 1998
Various Artists
(Spectre)
THE BOOK OV SHADOWZ
Track Listing
This Side
Dagda Mor -- The Voice Of War
Stratum Terror -- Worms
Söldnergeist -- Hidden Powers Of Nature
Ah Cama-Sotz -- Opfer: Till Death Do Us Part
Other Side
Megaptera -- Frozen Corpse
Predominance -- Cathedral Of Light
Inade -- Tat Twam Asi Pt. II
Tortura -- Resistance Is Futile
The small Belgian label Spectre displays a passion of fetishistic
proportions for vinyl, and harsh, death bent electronic music. The Book Ov Shadowz
thus features contributions by eight of Europe's leading projects in the fields of dark
and necrophilic soundscapes; it is appropriately pressed on black vinyl, and comes in a
monochromatic cover, with a fold-out insert to which each of the involved artists have
submitted a small segment of artwork. The album is in all respects an impressive
compilation, which seizes the listener in a mortal stranglehold from the very first, and
does not relent until the dying gasps of Tortura's "Resistance Is
Futile." Only 500 copies have been released, ascertaining that this will soon be an
eagerly sought after record.
Opening "This Side" on a
powerful, elitist note is the seclusive German project Dagda Mor,
with a piece entitled "The Voice Of War." Slow, throbbing pulses of
forbidding electronic sound flows through the entirety of this strange cross between hymn
and lament, while soaring signals sweep across the sound picture -- the aural embodiments
of searchlights and flares. A tortured, echoing voice emerges at certain points to deliver
the coda of the piece: "Rune of war, Rune of honour, The lightbeacon in our eyes,
Rune of loyalty, Rune of victory, Our sacrifice."
Stratum Terror --
one of the numerous manifestations of Swedish Peter Anderson's musical
imagination -- follows, with the harshest track of the compilation. "Worms" is a
maelstrom of screeching, grinding interference and distorted voice; a piece many times
fiercer than even the most malignant tracks on the recent full-length CD Pain
Implantations.
Sustained dark electronic drones
serve as the underlying carpet of sound for Söldnergeist's "Hidden
Powers Of Nature." Across this monotone, disconcerting presence, flicker a barrage of
sampled statements on the mysteries of natural phenomena. Many of these samples are
strongly obscured, yet words and snippets are comprehensible here and there, conjuring up
an impression of wonder and horror at the latent mystery and destructiveness of the
natural world.
Ah Cama-Sotz
closes "this side," with one of this Belgian project's most awesome creations to
date. The sound is stormy, grand and rich with details. Deep pulsating rhythms struggle to
break through the dense layer of soughing synthetics, but instead the chaos becomes more
and more intense, guided by some illusive sense of harmony.
The "other side" finds Megaptera
delivering a ghastly track called "Frozen Corpse." The piece could almost be
termed a distillate of Megaptera's sound; aside from a few scattered
impacts towards the end, the piece is absent of this Swedish project's characteristic
punishing poundings. In its place stands a continuous, grating stream of blowtorch
ambiance, only briefly interrupted by decayed vocal sounds and the caustic exclamations of
machinery -- a track certain to send shivers down even the most rigid spine.
A slow, staccato beat keeps the
next track by Predominance moving at a stately pace. The sound of this
German act is enormous, dominated by heavy synthetic themes that lift the foreboding,
incantational voice of the vocalist to the very rafters of the Cathedral of light.
Inade is one of
the preeminent proponents of the dark electronic music that has emerged in this decade,
and on their contribution to this compilation, they once more take their music in a new
direction. "Tat Twam Asi Pt. II" emanates with a strong ceremonial or tribal
presence -- a very mysterious piece that translates primordial rituals into modern day
electronic atmospheres.
Tortura closes The
Book Ov Shadowz with a final blistering wash of synthetic ambiance, and intense
shattering rhythms as of an engine misfiring. Manic voice samples and radio presence is
audible throughout, and a moribund voice emerges repeatedly out of the field of charged
electronics with brief obscured statements.
Resistance to this great
compilation is indeed futile...