concreteweb - CD

Dandelion

Dirk — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:12:11 +0000

Artist:

Dandelion

Album Title:

Dandelion

Release Date:

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Label:

Centipede Abyss

Distribution:

Centipede Abyss

Review Type:

Once again, several members of the Centipede Abyss community join forces under a new constellation; this time under the moniker Dandelion. The band’s name comes from a genus of plants, the taraxacum, characterized by their multiple petals, mainly white, yellow or orange colored. But this isn’t an essay about the beauty of nature, but about the beauty of sonic delirium.

So, let’s come back to the band, not the plant, with the name Dandelion. It’s a combo consisting of the next pretty faces: drummer Jared Moran (Ar’lyxkq’wr, Ambulacrum, Clinical Depression, Vertebrae Fetish Totem, Ishimura etc.), guitar player Pan Inentropy (Ar’lyxkq’we, Act Of Entropy, Zvylpwkua, Ukakuja, Mouth Of Cedar), bassist Ben Vanweelden (Pillar Amongst Willows, Ambulacrum, Atmossomta), and vocalist / keyboardist Ni (Lux Sine Lumine, Act Of Entropy, Zvylpwkua, Ukakuja). The bands mentioned are all part of the Centipede Abyss club, a family of same-minded artists, as you probably know (or not, but then again, now you do).

So, this newest outfit recorded and officially released one album until now, untitled, or if you want to, titled as Dandelion. It’s a four-tracker that - what else did you expect - totally fits to the out-of-the-box-minded roster of the parent label (which is run, by the way, by member Ni). Once again it is a very limited release, at least the physical one, being a jewel-case CD printed in an edition of thirty copies (as usual: no reprint will ever happen). It does come with a four-page booklet, containing salient poetry inside (a troubled libretto of disgust, corruption, deprivation, hallucination and despair), and confronting (cover) artwork. The latter is based on the work Die Qualen Der Hölle (known as Torments Of Hell) by Carl Ludwig Beutler von Säckingen aka Pater Athanasius, who was a Swiss monk, as well as a painter, living in Germany in the 17^th century.

So, this is not a thesis on flowers (cf. the first paragraph) nor a treatise on apocalyptic late-medieval visual art, so let’s get over to the essence of this writing: the Music (or whatever) that defines Dandelion (the band) and Dandelion (the recording). All Is Of Fire, 4 Crowns On A Serpent, Forgive Me and Deified Death show us a perfected compound in between progressive and neurotic Avantgarde Grind, blackened Death-Doom, and fierce impro-laden Psycho Sludge. It mixes up hallucinoid, opposed-harmonious leads (reminiscent of several other projects these guys and girl are involved with), with droning and / or thwacking rhythm guitars, impressive shrieking basses (convincingly telling their own version of the story), very varied drums and percussions (with pernicious blast beats, thunderous drumrolls, soiled cymbal-rape and groovy patterns), and those distantly roaring, nefarious blackened voices that echo over the distant golden illumination of the night (this last part is secretly inspired by All Is Of Fire). It is fast, then again even faster, thereon shrinking into sluggish proportions. Sometimes it exhales an air of melodicism, soon after minimized towards complex perplexity (or is it perplex complexity?), structural mayhem versus deconstructive discipline…

Intense, destructive, overwhelming, confronting, detrimental and unforgiving; this first Dandelion effort represents the shining sapphire in the center of the debris…

Ivan Tibos.

Goatpsalm

Dirk — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:27:49 +0000

Artist:

Goatpsalm

Album Title:

Beneath

Release Date:

Friday, April 10, 2026

Label:

Aesthetic Death

Distribution:

Aesthetic Death

PR via Anubi Press

Review Type:

Can you imagine my excitement? Quite recently, Monsieur Stu from Aesthetic Death informed me about a new Goatpsalm release. Hurray! Seriously, it had been way too long, for this act’s latest official recording (Downstream) was released in 2016 – with exception of Ash, the (unique) work with side-project Horthodox (which I have not reviewed, apparently??? – I feel ashamed). This specific record was created over a period of many years, from 2017 to 2025, at different moments and different places.

Beneath was done by Horth (vocals, synths, bass, samples, as well as production, mix and mastering, and the artwork) and Vaarwel (four and six stringed guitars and voices, as well as ‘ethnic’ instruments), and assisted by drummer W.S. Once more the album got released via UK’s sweetest Aesthetic Death, both digitally as physically; the latter being a three-folded (or six-panel) digipack CD. The artwork is quite explicit (voodoo-ish or ritualistic might be acceptable descriptions), but it surely does fit to the conceptual and the aural content.

This newest album, Beneath, consists of five parts, having a total running time of thirty-five minutes and something. And once again, it is a new chapter, seen from sonic point, within this project’s impressive world of aural creativity. It does contain elements from the former albums (even-though all of them were different too, yet internally connected at the very same time), and brings new visions and ideas as well. The past reinterpreted into a new present, for Goatpsalm are Servants to nobody…

The album opens with a short introduction, called Veve Of Smoke And Rum (01:41). It’s a ceremonial piece, mingling a whole scala of archaic, shamanic-used instruments, such as bells and other percussions (gong, chimes), strings and flutes. It sounds sort of meditative, coming with a mysterious vibe; a ritual to open the portal to a next stage…

Next comes Heart Of Damballah Wedo (04:20), which starts with a didgeridoo tune for just a couple of seconds (seven seconds, exactly). Very soon after, things turn into psychedelic proportions, with an alienated approach of Doom. Low-tuned strings, weird keyboards, progressive drum patterns and dreadful voices paint an obscure, psychoid landscape, where Funeral Doom (Woods Of Belial), Symphonic Death Metal (Sinoath, early Phlebotomized) and Psycho-Grind (Saw Throat, O.L.D.) seem to fuse. Injected by hypnotic synths, unusual leads (Lo Flux Tube’ish, if you want to) and down-earthed four-string tuning, the result is as unaccustomed as it is ingenious.

Spit Soil (05:52) opens with an ominous string-line, slowly moving, sedative, expanding. After a (short) while, things evolve towards funereal, psychoid, abyssal Doom of the most sinister kind. Ultimately gruesome growls, inventive yet often lunatic leads, a monstrous string rhythm section, eerie synths and calamitously beneficent drums get canalized into a specimen of capricious yet worshipful magnitude.

Kalbas Whispers Of Death (06:02) is another example of out-of-the-box thinking. The track starts with a mesmeric rhythm on drum (djembe-like percussion instrument), accompanied by sticks, which will be the spine throughout the whole hymn. Step by step, other instruments and voices enter, slowly building up without any exaggeration, continuously driven by that initial rhythmic pattern. First come some synth-lines and flutes, and a really foreign string picking - quite plain in execution yet opulent in result - then whispered vocals, more percussions (shakers?), reverberating bass lines and possessed voices. Towards the end, an amalgam of thunderous and ethnic percussions, odd strings, evil-sounding grunts and haunting sound effects sort of create a ritualistic eruption.

The album ends with the lengthy piece Exequies, which is sort of ‘divided’ into several segments. With its duration of 17:11 minutes, this composition takes almost half of the total running time of Beneath. The first section brings pure yet ritualistic Funeral Doom, monumental in execution, asphyxiating in atmosphere, mysterious in nature. For some reason, it sometimes reminds me of the first efforts by Void Of Silence (mind the suffocative sphere akin to Criteria Ov 666) or aforementioned Woods Of Belial, including the blackened aspects, the ritual sphere, and the gloomy attitude. At 03:55, things turn towards rather progressive, Post-laden territories, with weird guitar breaks, jazzy drum patterns, ominous flutes, esoteric synths and groovy basses. This stranger intermezzo enlarges at first, getting little more intense and persuasive, but at about seven minutes, things morph into a dreamy universe of Dark Ambient (with unusual samples, like the sound of seagulls?); then into a delusional aural psychosis (mind the manipulated voices, the anesthetizing synth-line, and the structurally high-standard yet somehow disordered percussion beats), before fading away in a trancelike nebula of silence’s fairness.

Once more, Goatpsalm delivered a gargantuan piece of Sonic Supremacy, exploring diverse territories of aural dimness. Solemnly assembling elements from distinct yet kindred genres - from traditional ritualistic Folklore over Dark Ambient and Drone, via Psychedelic Doom to extreme Funeral Death Doom Metal. These guys did it again, and Beneath might be their most decorous album to date. I hope we do not have to wait another ‘too many years’ for the next chapter within this band’s discography…

Ivan Tibos.

Züüd

Dirk — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:58:36 +0000

Artist:

Züüd

Album Title:

KozmzoK

Release Date:

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Label:

Centipede Abyss

Distribution:

Centipede Abyss

Review Type:

Züüd is (or was? I’m not sure whether this project is still active???) an outfit by Portugal-born sweetie Nuno Laurenço, based in Brazil. Nuno is also known, as you do probable know, from acts like 0-Nun, Thermohaline (with Druon Antigon’s Lennart Janssen), A Walloping Curse, or the Centipede Abyss related orchestras Salqiu and Mouth Of Cedar (with Pan Merakli, Taylor Belanger and Jared Moran). Under the Züüd moniker, Nuno independently released the KozmzoK four-tracker in Spring 2019, but then all traces of existence did fade away into legendary oblivion…

Enter 2026, enter Centipede Abyss, enter madness. Since Nuno became part of this pleasantly insane community, the decision to re-release this underestimated material via Centipede Abyss was easily made. All together: hurray! No, seriously, this older material now sees a re-issue, although it is a strictly limited physical re-release, evidently. Only 25 (twenty-five indeed) copies were made, never to be re-printed again. A fine element is that the artwork is new, yet still maintaining the original concept of cosmic grandeur. For the sake of completeness: it’s a part of a picture by ESO/VPHAS+, i.e. a fragment of the (Southern) Milky Way, taken by a huge telescope in a Chile-based space observatory.

This said… KozmzoK has a total running time of twenty-nine minutes, carefully divided, as said before, into four chapters: the title track, Juudr Urfaud, Pyotr Drassnaut and Brazüüd Besdazz. I do not think the whole thing has been remastered, which results in a positive effect: a pure and honest sound, and okay, it’s rough, unpolished, primal and savage too, but it does strengthen the intolerant attitude. No compromise, just blackness. No concessions, pure madness. No rules or path, just bizarre nihilism!

As from the opening title song, one can experience a primitive execution, raw and harsh in execution, epic and victorious in atmosphere. It brings an essence of old schooled Black Metal, mixing elements from different sub-genres, resulting in a very own-faced approach. Rugged guitar ‘melodies’ interact with deep-tuned bass-lines, faster shapes-of-cruel-nature exist in perfected balance with harmonious fragments, brutal rhythms go hand in hand (or is it: claw in claw) with somehow elegant patterns, old style riffing hooks up with progressive structures, and ferocious mechanical blasts merge with spherical passages. Each piece out of four exceeds superficiality, normality or prediction, for the sonic encounter is, in a most exciting way, challenging yet hazardous.

The use of acoustic guitars (mind the traditional intro on Pyotr Drassnaut) and keyboards (and even an operatic introduction on Juudr Urfaud) - subtle in use yet undeniably important in result - as well as the vocal variety, the hypnotic leads, and the many tempo-changes, fortify the thrilling, vivid character of this recording. It’s like Salqiu in its most dissonant, utter-dynamic, industrial-laden, inimical and chaotic shape, if you want to; at least as complex and more ‘cosmic’ in its core.

I know that ‘hope’ is for the weak-hearted amongst us, but I trust in new material. I might be naïve, yet since this ‘older’ stuff gets re-released, it might be an omen for new material to come up soon?...

Ivan Tibos.

various artists - Ancestral Rites

Dirk — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:23:44 +0000

Artist:

various artists

Album Title:

Ancestral Rites

Release Date:

Friday, February 13, 2026

Label:

Ominous Sounds

Distribution:

Ominous Sounds

Review Type:

Ominous Sounds is a young label from Iberian soil, run by Hiemis chieftain Juan Carlos Toledo, and specialized in the more ritualistic niche of Dark Ambient material and related Music. Beside releases from ‘individual’ projects (Monotone Murk, Rune Clausen, Altum), the label also focuses on compiled releases, i.e. so-called ‘various artists’ albums, compilations with projects that sort of wander around in comparable dimensions of archaic ritualism. Rituals From Ancient Europe (February 2024) and Rituals From The Ancient World (February 2025) gathered some of the finest names from the international scene (think: Ens Imperfectissimum, Hiemis, Ashtoreth, Alphaxone, Vrna, The Black Monolith and many more).

Ancestral Rites is the third part; this time collecting seven great artists / projects from our beloved planet. Once again, the theme is based on ancient rituals, practices, ceremonies, rites and magic crafted by our ancestors. The transmission and prosecution of this knowledge characterized cultures and civilizations all over Mater Terra, often connected to Nature, the elements, and everything that connects the physical world with the spiritual universe. Ancestral magic plays an important role in the culture and identity of many communities, providing a sense of connection to their roots and traditions. The essence of (ancient) magic can be seen as a series of techniques that allow one to modify or improve reality, cure illnesses, or restore order [or] a complex system for understanding reality. [phrases in italic are quotes that I stole from the label]

The seven acts gathered as Ancestral Rites offer their definition of ancient magic rituals through aural canalization, exclusively created for / contributed to this album. It’s a strictly limited release (a six-panel digipack CD printed in an edition of only fifty copies, if I am not mistaken) with remarkable visual art: a mysterious figure kneeling before the ruin of a mighty tower in a desolate landscape, covered in a black-and-white color palette. …totally fitting to the concept, evidently… The very same goes for the inner visuals, with colorless drawings of mysterious nature, and including liner notes about ancient rites and magic.

The album opens with Aninka (05:34) by [ówt krì], an outfit by Kenneth Kovasin from Suomi, the Land of a Thousand Lakes. It starts in a shamanistic manner, with both harmonious vocals and throat singing, meditative noise-waves, eerie sound effects (samples included) and additional percussions. Also strings join, while the vocal lines evolve into a rather scarifying format. Accompanied by different sampled sounds, semi-acoustics and haunting synth lines, this sermon grows into a psyche-twisting, evocative piece. Aninka is energy, it is the canalization of spiritual strength and ritualistic erudition.

Gydja is a New Zealand based outfit by Abby Helasdottir, who’s also known a famous visual artist for so many albums within the Dark Ambient genre (and everything related, from Electronic Music over Industrial to Metal). Gydja contribute with Frá Jötna Rúnum (06:02), initially mixing different vocals (whispers and sighs), alienated noises and doomed synth-lines; an abundant scala of droning and industrial sounds, waves, beats and textures - echoing, abyssal, ghostly, militant and gloomy. It is like the auditive translation of mystic signs, of ancient knowledge’s design for earth’s existence.

Second Howl by Croatia’s TeHÔM lasts for six minutes and starts in a shamanic way as well: eerie and enigmatically pugnacious tunes mingled with evocative elements (multiple vocal lines involved). Step by step things turn darker, with long-stretched drones and hints of ceremonial sound-scaping, but the overall atmosphere remains dense, oppressing, desolate and naked in a sense of aural purity. A voice of Nature, the speech of hidden buoyancy…

Next comes Ukraine’s Ugasanie with Vargin’s Exile (06:59), a characteristic work of profound droning and bleak ambience. Here too, the ‘leading harmonies’, for what it’s worth, are injected by different well-thought and subtly-interwoven touches, like spectral tunes, industrial details, and bizarre, sometimes fractured, field-recorded elements (like a crying kid?). The addition of that deep narrating voice adds a level of cinematic obscurity.

Handalien (Brazil), Ancestor Flame is a lengthy piece (08:43), covered in an almost asphyxiating air. Alluding towards Ambient Noise Wall, this creation delves deep into the voids of both onerous sphere-sculpting and esoteric splendor. With reverberating calmth, this sonic embodiment of icy clouds hovers and levitates in its proper shades, uncompromising, dazing, reflective.

Unexpected Arrival Of The Primordial Entity (06:59) by Illinois-based outfit insectarium (Joel Hinkle) contributes with a harsher piece, balancing in between grim, arduous Dark Industrial finesse and murky flows of blackened Ambient. With Lovecraftian elegance, electronic noises and frigid rhythmics enrich the rough-edged and mechanoid approach. Uncompromising, harsh, merciless, unforeseen…

Ancestral Rites ends with Ancestral Elixir, an epic by Spain’s (Dani) Kloob. This track (06:59) stands for purest hypnosis, for levitation and introspection. It is a long-form piece, monotonous in nature but rich in content. The long-wave harmony is veiled in a nebula of haunting, obtrusive and secret additional sounds, a trespassing through dimensions of the Inner Eye, generated by an immaterial potion of Old Wisdom. A walling concept of ambient drone-sculpting and prudent vigor somehow…

I am impatiently waiting for February 2027, hehe…

Ivan Tibos.

ElectronicDeathBlackDogs

Dirk — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:11:04 +0000

Artist:

ElectronicDeathBlackDogs

Album Title:

Cthonia

Release Date:

Friday, December 12, 2025

Label:

Dark Odyssey Records

Distribution:

Dark Odyssey Records

Review Type:

Short introduction… ElectronicDeathBlackDogs, aka Electronic Death Black Dogs, are a productive project from Scotland, UK, run by Roddy Graham. Once again, Roddy wrote and performed everything himself, and he took care of the production too. The mastering duties were done by the label, Ontario-based Dark Odyssey Records, and so is the artwork; the latter being an ominous female figure at an apocalyptic background, a vision of burning filth, desire, ruination and celebration (yes, all in once!) fronted by a darkened silhouette.

This entity represents Hecate, or Hekate, an ancient, sometimes tripled-bodied goddess (from Greek mythology) who got, and still gets, associated with witchcraft, the balance of light and darkness (as well as Life and Death, a trespassing that requires guidance by Hekate, being a Holder of the Key), crossroads (an important metaphysical approach, referring to opportunities and choices, as far as I am concerned, and connected to the aforementioned Life-Death equilibrium), the Moon and the Anima Mundi. Fire (torches) was a symbol inseparably related to her divine existence, hence the cover artistry.

Cthonia, referring to the spiritual guidance of the Underworld, is a forty-seven-minutes soundtrack though the Netherworlds where Hecate, as Chthonian entity, resides. It ‘follows the listener into the dim glow of her lantern, where reality thins and the familiar dissolves’. The album is an emphasizing invocation, a reflective representation of a descent into these worlds, dimensions, areas, beyond and beneath our surface, behind portals that purport no escape, no return, no redemption. All eight chapters narrate about the stories behind these gates, about souls being confronted with that symbolic crossroad, an option for choice, which path to continue. It’s there where Hekate awaits the wandering spirit…

Short but succinct delineation… This soundtrack, divided into eight individual yet cohesively related chapters, defines the aforementioned post-existential descent into the realms where the shape of shadows elongates, in aural form. It means that Cthonia is the score of that journey into darkness, oblivion, void. As from Gateway, one gets overwhelmed by a deep, oppressive sonic experience. Eerie and ghastly drones, industrial statures and hypnotic waves-of-sound morph into, and towards, an uncomfortable, uncertain encounter. Percussive samples, seemingly haunted voices, and both monochrome and reverberating tunes cover this anti-harmonious structures with a sense of discomfort, unease, anxiety and agony; of awe and reverence too. Like permanently expanding, then again withering sound-sculpting, this album continuously focuses on this almost asphyxiating sensation, through an exorbitant equilibrium of bleak Dark Ambient and Industrial-injected Drone. The abyss-risen ‘melodies’ are penetrated with these many subtle sound-injections, sometimes mechanical and hybrid in nature, then again done with drum beats or field-recorded elements, semi-orchestral passages or enthralling mysterious escapes. It results in a mostly Lovecraftian atmosphere, if you want to, that identifies this dystopic and evoking work.

As said, this obscure octaptych consists of cohesive compositions, yet all of them have their very own character. It fortifies the captivating capacity of each single section, resulting in a(nother) remarkable listening event.

(PS: a review on The Bornless One will follow soon[er or later])

Ivan Tibos.

Brotherhood Of Sleep

Dirk — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:40:15 +0000

Artist:

Brotherhood Of Sleep

Album Title:

Enter The Nuummite Cosmos

Release Date:

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Label:

Zazen Sounds

Distribution:

Zazen Sounds

Review Type:

Almost two years ago (at this moment of posting), Brotherhood Of Sleep released their first album, Devotional Hymns To A Brilliant Flaming Sun (via the mighty Dutch label Winter-Light). I was enormously impressed by the result, which I labeled in my personal files as ‘obscure and hypnotic Deep Trance / Ceremonial Drone / Dark Ritual Ambient’ (I can’t help it that my autistic alter-ego adores making lists of different things, hehe). Earlier this year, this project came up with the sophomore album, called Enter The Nuummite Cosmos. As for the aural content and the release itself, I will come back to this immediately. And Beyond The Nuummite Cosmos has been released just a couple of days ago, but that’s something I will come back too soon.

First a word about this outfit itself. It is a pretty new channel by Bart Piette, especially known from the magnificent act Dead Man’s Hill (amongst some others, like Experiments in Darkness or The Earth King). This side-project was born as a reflection of, and I will quote the bio, ‘the Astral Temple that feeds on the massive energy of a Violet Sun, whose rays continually activate the crystals and skulls in the Temple and keep them in their highest, most powerful energetic state’. The sonic creations under this moniker, therefor, must be seen as a reflection of the powers and energies that dwell around in this mystic temple, and by extension as a spiritual, somewhat introspective and symbolic expression of inner strength, knowledge and revelation.

Which easily brings me to the title of this album: Enter The Nuummite Cosmos. A ‘nuummite’ is a kind of dark-colored rock, especially to be found in some areas in Greenland (hence the name, derived from Nuuk language). The ones found on this island often come with a golden or even blue crystalline pattern. This kind of metamorphic stone is often attributed to spiritual experiences, as a portal towards the Inner Eye, and in expansion towards the whole universe. Used as amulet, as pendant, or as relic, this stone refers to philosophical, religious, ritualistic, meditative and transcendental purposes. Also medical powers are attributed to nuummite stones, but it is not my goal to mock superstition, for in a metaphorical way (and with the so-called placebo-effect) the spiritual importance of objects and elements, powers of nature, etc., are of undeniable importance for both mensa and corpus.

In the case of this Brotherhood Of Sleep album, the ‘nuummite’, cf. the former paragraph, and the ‘temple’, like described in the second paragraph, come together. It’s about that Astral Temple, with a gigantic nuummite-crystalized wall. That wall is like a portal towards reflection, with reflection being a dimension were the spirit (of those who trespass this gateway) integrates with space, with the endless All, in order to become the Eye of the Storm.

Once more, the devotional hymns (got it?) are very lengthy, from over eight to thirteen minutes. The first noise-experience is the lengthiest, for Opening - Radiation Of A 1000 Violet Suns clocks 13:01 minutes. And as from the start, one’s being gets transported towards a universe of unphysical, undefinable purity. Deep mantric chants and eerie drones arise from the abyss; a depth where powers of Nature, from the beginning of Time, were formed. After four minutes, the turbulence of creation mounts from the purity of Origin, when mesmeric soundwaves, gloomy percussions, transcendental sound effects, and spectral ambiences, towards an intoxicating Inner Journey. An amalgam of ritualistic voices, mystical melody-lines and additional (percussional) elements transports one into, or towards, a passage of insight and (ancient) knowledge.

Energetic Metamorphism (11:10) [metamorphism is, when talking about rocks and stones, the transformation from a prototype, the so-called protolith, into a new type of structure) starts with esoteric chants too, though of a more devout core, and veiled in a mist of ominous, portentous harmonies. Despite an occult nucleus, one feels an energy behind, or beneath, the surface. This ‘song’ includes hints of Dark Industrial and Ceremonial Trance Music, connecting to the mystic Void represented by this aural ceremony.

Black Mumia too lasts for 11:10 minutes (a coincidence) and initially presents a rather militant approach. Martial drum patterns, epic harmonies, a combative drive and uncanny structures initially fuel the energetic advent. A gloomy, almost meditative, etheric and illuminative intermezzo follows, yet slowly everything evolves towards another scarifying, almost asphyxiating level of Doom Ambient, with these ghastly sounds, fateful beats and cursed noise-waves.

Also Aligning With The Nuummite Cosmos lasts for exactly 11:10 minutes (still thinking about a coincidental occurrence?) and offers a Lovecraftian attitude as well with these dismal drones and frightening texture. It’s like a trespassing of unworldly, astral dimensions. After about one third, everything seems to evolve into a dimension of spiritual guidance through ancient tradition. I mean, things slowly yet remarkably morph into a rather Nordic Folk oriented approach, with shamanistic drums and chants, intoxicating soundscapes and, eventually, mind-twisting textures. The devotional voices and spectral synths result in an illusory experience.

The album ends with Blessed Are The Anointed Human Vessels (08:27), at the outset holding out the deepest, most claustrophobic genus of bleakness / blackness / nothingness. Monotonous yet decadent patterns, reverberating effects and repetitive sounds at first paint a mostly desolate, isolated yet pure landscape. After a while, things evolve into proportions of arcanum and concealment, with somehow ethnic percussions, sedative sound-floats and enigmatic melodies.

This second Brotherhood Of Sleep record is released on CD (a four-panel carton-board edition) via Zazen Sounds, which is not completely strange, since Dead Man’s Hill’s latest offering, Born From The Black Caudron, saw the light (and the many shadows around that light) via the very same Greek label in early 2025. The cover artwork (created by Vision Black) is the absolute visual definition of this album’s aural artistry: a turning wheel (not exactly a sunwheel) in an astral environment; a cosmic circle surrounded by distant stars and white nebulae, done through a marvelous color pattern.

PS: there is a new Brotherhood Of Sleep release called Beyond The Nuummite Cosmos, released very recently via Dark Odyssey Records (digital + jewel-case compact-disc with two-panel insert), in case of interest… It is evident that a review will follow soon(er or later).

Ivan Tibos.

This Morn'Omina

Dirk — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:00:20 +0000

Artist:

This Morn'Omina

Album Title:

Insha

Release Date:

Monday, February 23, 2026

Label:

Distribution:

Review Type:

Quite an unknown (read: underestimated) project, the Belgian act This Morn’Omina will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary later this year. Modestly productive since the end of last century, This Morn’Omina now returns with Insha, a fifty-minutes aural ceremony consisting of eight chapters. This time it’s a ‘major’ release, I mean, it will be available via two ‘bigger’ labels within the scene, i.e. Cyclic Law and Zazen Sounds (both have been working together a couple of times lately; think about Brotherhood Of Sleep or Undirheimar).

Anyway, the physical release is a six-panel digipack CD, printed in an edition of 300 copies. It comes with intriguing, mysterious artwork + design by Jacqui Moon: a hot-red lava flow alike stream in front of a black background. Simple and minimalist at first, yet quite in-depth and enigmatic in essence. It is the first full-length in about five years (cf. 2021’s The Roots Of Sarawasi) and follows shortly after the EP Omm Of Life (released in early 2025).

On Insha, the still-young core member Mika Goedrijk gets ‘assisted’ by no one else but Nam-Khar’s Konchong Gyaltsen. The word ‘insha’ is Arabic and means something like ‘willpower’, often used in a religious / ceremonial or philosophical / metaphysical context, though ‘origin’ or ‘creation’ too refer to it. Once more, this specific recording trans-morphs from the former efforts, delving into new dimensions of aural ritualism, and seeking inspiration in the earlier works as well. The recording is ‘the intent to be an invocation and observation of how sound operates as a transformative tool’ or ‘a sonic extermination of how intention becomes reality’. Insha implodes into the origins, and at the same time it expands towards unexplored auditive dimensions.

The short introduction, Heralds (03:24), offers an in-depth picture of what this album will sound like. This piece is like an amalgam of details from Electronic Music, Dark Ambient, Ritual and Deep Techno, first gloomy and dreamy, then transforming into eerie proportions with doomed beats, wretched voices and ghostly harmonies. Tephra (07:04) initially sinks into transcendental atmospheres, mesmeric, introspective and murky, yet soon it transforms into a sonic universe of fascinating sound-sculpting, with immersive drones, psychedelic dubs, intoxicating percussions and spectral soundscapes. It’s a mental manifest, an arriving and disappearing of noise and thought (another proof that both these elements are undeniable connected), dwelling in an orbit of both intermission and diversion. Also 7Sekhem floats in a kind-minded ocean of psychedelic, experimental and solemn dimensions, with a brighter, more zen-like and more energetic attitude. The electronic beats, post-industrialized textures and droning dubs create a modernistic effect, yet still the archaic origin of a, well, shamanic heart gets maintained (cf. the dynamic percussions and drums, the haunting synth-lines and the spheric vocals). Maňjuśrī (07:09) shows refined delicacy and methodic organization, injecting aspects from Oriental Folk, Ritual Electro, exotic Gothic and voluptuous Doom Ambient. Also Nalanda (07:06) and Excodus (04:27) flirt with this abundant opulence of sound-shaping, be it with a richer palette of eclectically electrified, industrial and psychoid elements; Nalanda, traveling deep into a preternatural universe of auscultating noise-(e)scaping, like a constant heartbeat and respiration; and Excodus being hypnotizing, summoning, yet also seductive. Sannyasin (05:19) sort of reverts towards the initial ceremonial-tribal concept, adding hints of Ritual Dark Drone Ambient and Martial Nordic Folk. The album ends with the delicate, esoteric composition Body Of Light (08:08), which starts with celestial arrangements and spoken words, eldritch tune-effects, rumbling pulses and deeply engineered drones. Eventually, it evolves towards a post-cosmic, almost levitating and trancelike experience, where analgesic harmonies and reverberating, echoing rhythms amalgamate into a continuously developing organism.

Insha is an experience, an encounter with the Self, and with the Unconsciousness. It’s an album that grows, impressive from the very beginning, yet totally revealing when one finally approaches the apotheosis. It’s an aural experiment that asks for, and needs, endurance, bravery, and open-mindedness. It’s a monument of fascination, revelation, motion, and illusion.

Ivan Tibos.

Pillar Amongst Willows

Dirk — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:13:40 +0000

Artist:

Pillar Amongst Willows

Album Title:

Kindred Odyssey

Release Date:

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Label:

Centipede Abyss

Distribution:

Centipede Abyss

Review Type:

I just noticed – and that’s a pity – that I did not write down my thoughts on the self-titled debut by Pillar Amongst Willows, which was released in very early 2025 via Centipede Abyss. But I’ll make it right up by reviewing the second release by this one-man project, called Kindred Odyssey, which got released as well via the Centipede Abyss label more or less one year after that nameless debut album.

Pillar Amongst Willows (what a fine moniker it is!) is a new outfit by Ohio-residing multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Benjamin Vanweelden. His name might ring a bell if you’re trusted with acts like, for example, Lowered Head, Ceremonic Buryment, Vessel Of Balon, Axiom Chaos, Venomous Echoes or some others. Ben wrote all music and lyrics, and performs all instruments and vocals for this sophomore full-length. The result was eventually mixed and mastered by Stephen Knapp, involved with e.g. Cerulean or Sleep Paralysis, in case of interest.

Anyway, Kindred Odyssey gets released once again via UK’s mostly open-minded Extreme Metal label Centipede Abyss, as mentioned above. And in the vein of this label, this specific release, at least the physical version, is extremely limited too. Pressed in an edition of 26 (twenty-six) copies only (!), it indeed is a rare casus. And just for completeness: the artwork is a fragment of a work by Peter Paul Rubens, one of the most notorious Flemish Baroque painters in the 16^th / 17^th century. It’s a fragment from his master work The Fall of the Damned.

Once again, this effort consists of lengthy compositions. This time, the three tracks clock more than thirty-five minutes, with two pieces out of three lasting for more than thirteen minutes. Opener Clock Of Resolution (13:07) actually starts in a melancholic Dark Ambient oriented vain, before turning into some proggy experience, with jazzy and groovy elements, then followed by neo-symphonic orchestrations. Yet suddenly, after almost three minutes, things expand towards bombastic proportions, when thundering drums, intense blackened screams and melodious yet gloomy strings invade the orchestral foreplay. There’s so much to experience: sudden blasting drum eruptions, (semi) acoustic intermezzi (sometimes with a folksy touch), unpredictable discordant textures, progressive rhythm-structures, astral outbursts, hypnotic leads, catchy Avantgarde fragments, cinematic chapters, Jazz-influenced bass-lines… Adorable is the interplay of both leading and supportive guitars, pounding basses, fiery solo-work, the grim throat, subtly used keyboards, enormously variative drums and percussions, melancholic acoustics; an amalgam of details, yet carefully combined into a lucid one-directional alignment. Toll Of Dissolution (08:37) too opens with an acoustic preface, catchy and harmonious, and soon transforming into another eccentric sonic document of progressive excellence. Mind these capricious Jazz-laden drum patterns (with some truly monumental effusions) or the curious and contrarian snare-manipulation. When the brutal heaviness takes over, the equilibrium of elegant melodicism and seemingly atonal construction skill overwhelms; when another fragment of advanced and onward craftsmanship follows, organically despite its complexity, all that remains is surprise, astonishment, awe… There’s so much to experience, so many intricate components that come in contrast, but above all in symbiotic intercommunion. The title track (13:40) opens in a purest sense of meditative fairness with a sad-romantic atmosphere, setting the tone for a captivating epos / ethos. Built up with epic, semi-depressed, menacing and inconsonant segments, prudently yet accurately balanced, and characterized by multiple changes in tempo, structure, sphere and heaviness -cohesive despite the contrasts- the result is remarkable. Atmospheric Black Metal, darkened Sludge, Progressive Doom, integer Post Rock; this outcome is of an ingenious level, for the coherence represents an organic testimony.

Nothing more to add… A recommendation for every open-minded worshipper of sonic trial…

Ivan Tibos.

Lux Sine Lumine

Dirk — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 20:13:12 +0000

Artist:

Lux Sine Lumine

Album Title:

Release Date:

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Label:

Centipede Abyss

Distribution:

Centipede Abyss

Review Type:

Lux Sine Lumine, which is Latin for ‘light without light’, is a project by Eri Nthentropy aka Yydraah aka Ni (or just Nathalie, haha), the directing entity behind the unique Centipede Abyss community and partner of Pan Inentropy. She’s active in acts like Zvylpwkua, Act Of Entropy or Ukakuja (all Centipede Abyss combos) as well, for your (extremely important) information.

Under the Lux Sine Lumine banner, there was a first untitled release in 2023, shortly after followed by II. And now we do have 3, which is, indeed, the third LSL recording. For some unexplainable reason I have never reviewed that second one - for the first one, I did write down my meaningful thoughts; link below - but I’ll make it all up by giving some time and energy on this grandiose third effort.

It’s a monumental result once again, consisting of two extended lullabies with the sweet titles Lux Sine Lumine and II, being once again a step further towards the immeasurable abyss behind that secret portal. I am the concluding… Harbinger of the void, congregation of the infinite grave… There are no shadows writhing here, no breath of rotting creation remains… Only monochrome monoliths that gleam glimpses of unlit and desecrated unnamed spaces…

Ivan Tibos.

Amaethon

Dirk — Sun, 31 May 2026 19:27:53 +0000

Artist:

Amaethon

Album Title:

Exclusion Zone

Release Date:

Monday, May 19, 2025

Label:

Symbol Of Domination Productions

The End Of Time Records

Dungeon Squid Productions

Distribution:

Symbol Of Domination Productions

Satanath Records

Poisoned Furrows Records

The End Of Time Records

Review Type:

Amaethon is the Austin, Texas based solo-outfit by Jake Wayman, who’s part of the current Calcraft line-up as well (amongst some other great names, as former member, like Nahaya, Vesperian Shadow or Wolvenguard). With this new outfit, he did release two albums in the meantime. The debut, Exclusion Zone, was (quasi) totally written, recorded and performed by Jake himself. The mastering, for your information, was done at the Bonespill Recordings studio (by Bryan Eckermann), and part of the vocals were engineered et the Dead Room Studio with guidance by Clifton Miles.

This first album was released about a year ago in an ever-lasting partnership of Symbol Of Domination Prod. and The End Of Time Records (May 19^th 2025). It’s a jewel-box compact disc, limited to 500 copies. Little later (July 15^th 2025), Dungeon Squid Productions re-issued the material on cassette format, by the way. It does come with rather unusual cover artwork (i.e. the color palette and the drawing style), but it does surely fit to the neo-apocalyptic, psychological and fictional concept. It’s courtesy of Moonroot Art’s Vojtech Doubek.

Exclusion Zone is inspired by the 1972 novel Roadside Picknick (written by the Strugatsky brothers), and Stalker, that legendary motion picture by Tarkovsky from 1979. The album lasts for almost forty-eight minutes and is divided into six coherent chapters, clocking in between about six and a half minutes to nine and a half minutes. It brings a very melodic, technical and timeless form of Black Metal with a lot to experience. A first thing is the structure of the album. Atmospheric parts interfere with modernistic, somewhat Post-oriented ones; up-tempo excerpts come in balance with some decelerated moments, and several speed-up pieces; nostalgic, rhythmic patterns come in balance with explicit straight-forward chapters; eerie riffs and obscure harmonies are interspersed by catchier fragments of contemporary production. Sometimes there’s even a hint of mechanoid extremity, like certain passages in Dark Places To Wander, a track with a rich palette of approaches (Atmospheric / Post and everything in between).

The album is strongly guitar-oriented. The tremolo or main leads sort of carry the whole adventure, injected with sharp solo-work, progressive textures (mind some excerpts in the instrumental masterpiece Red Forest Anomaly, for example) and some dueling riffs. Also the high-pitched, rusty, barb-wired vocals stay strongly at the foreground. But hey, do not underestimate the whole background section, for rhythms and bass guitars, drums / percussions, and the few synths and acoustic strings, are of undeniable importance. Without the tight drum patterns and rumbling beats, the highly supportive six- and four-strings, and all other additions (some fine samples included, like in the aforementioned Red Forest Anomaly), the ‘front office’ (i.e. the main vocals and guitar leads and melodies) wouldn’t be so prominently interesting.

Besides, the album does come with a grandiose production. The sound is powerful, solid, dense, and actually clean too, covering the whole in a modern package. I do like a certain rawness in sound, but then again I do not think it is a necessity when talking about a Post-oriented result. As long as the production isn’t pathetically brisk or sugary, this kind of productional decency is most welcome.

Recommended if you can also appreciate Agalloch, Wolves In The Throne Room, Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, Winterfylleth, Falls Of Rauros and this kind of limits-surpassing acts…

For the sake of completeness… In the first paragraph, I mentioned two albums under the Amaethon moniker. In early 2026, The Eternal Famine did follow Exclusion Zone, digitally released via Owlripper Recordings, followed by a physical edition via Dungeon Squid Productions and Poisoned Furrows (the latter being the label by Jake himself). This for your important completeness…

Ivan Tibos.