Pensées Nocturnes - Vacuum

Year: 2009
Genre: Ambient/Depressive Black Metal

Pensées Nocturnes' debut album is one of many ideas, each taking two steps forward and one step backwards. The classical bits are very well done, incorporated unconventionally into the music as stagnant bits of emotion, breathing deeply and exhaling throughout. The albums bleeding melodies exude sorrow; weep down upon the entirety of the album like melting icicles atop a tin roof. Depressive black metal is seen as a genre that's stagnating, as more and more bands throw their material into a cannibalized genre, innovation is in dire need. Bands like Pensées Nocturnes affirm that this stagnation isn't as static as it seems, that renovation and innovation aren't as distant as we believe. Because even distance is relative, even hope is subjective, because the vaccination of existence is endowed within albums like these. They inoculate each and every listener with despair and futility, slowly breaching through insecurities and dreams, past the drivel and nonsensical fragments of meaningless emotions and thoughts. As you begin to reflect and ponder, reminisce and conceive, you realize existence has already passed you by. And now you are here. Now you are here. Now you are here.

Menace Ruine - The Die is Cast

Year: 2008
Genre: Drone Doom

Montreal’s Menace Ruine have crafted a remarkably original and powerful work of art with The Die is Cast, an experimental drone album featuring haunting female vocals and cacophonous blasts of distortion. The duo, known only as Genevieve and Serpent de La Moth, play slow, ritualistic riffs and layered synthesizer waves to produce ominous and organic walls of sound. n the same spine-chilling fashion as The Angelic Process, the effect is both terrifying and transcendent, where rich melodies lay hidden under crushing noise and reverb. Incorporating sonic elements from black metal to doom, these compositions are intensely psychedelic and not for the weak of heart. The guitars buzz like infernal insects while the occasional percussive blast hammers forward with primal urgency. The crystalline voice of Genevieve provides an air of mystery over the recording, with soft, cryptic phrases gracing the surface of these dense songs. Her performance is reminiscent of choral or Medieval traditions, invigorating the spiritual energy of their complex compositions. With all these compositions blending together seamlessly, the meditative potential of this record shines through. Where other drone bands would risk sounding repetitive, abrasive or self-indulgent, Menace Ruine sound natural, focused and inspired. Their music encompass a wide array of incredible feelings, both frightening and elating, as if they have demons and angels whispering in their ears. This is an emotional triumph.

Skadi - Eliwager

Year: 2006
Genre: Ritual Dark Ambient

Skadi is an interesting mixture of various dark ambient soundscapes. The project is attractive in its diversified parts. Similarities to projects like Sephiroth respectively Ulf Söderberg, Triarii or Vinterriket can be noticed, without being another copy of them. Opposing to many monotonous dark ambient projects, which only well disposed listener will be able to differ one track from another, Skadi appears as a catchy project by its rhythmic and melodical elements with Tune Wedgie character. Eliwagar is the soundtrack for the forthcoming cold wintertimes.

This is Past - Alice in Uglyland

Year: 2008
Genre: Psychedelic Black Metal

"You came to me like the winds. Like a bicycle with no wheels. Like a bicycle with no wheels. How can I use a bicycle with no wheels? How can I use a bicycle with no wheels? You came to me like a gift. You came to me like a gift. You came to me like the wind. You came to me like the wind. How can I use a bicycle with no legs? How can I use a bicycle with no legs? How can I use the sky's with no wings? How can I use the sky with it's wings? This gift is like the wind. This gift is like the wind. Like a bell with no sound. Like a bell with no sound. You came to me. You came to me. You came to me. You came to me. You came to me. You came to me. Like a gift from an unknown person. Like a gift from an unknown person. Like a gift from all the heavens! Like all a gift from the heavens! Like a sky with no clouds. Like a sky with no clouds. I get blinded by this absolute clarity! I get blinded by this absolute clarity! This gift is like a breathing sound I can not hear! This gift is like a breathing sound I can not hear! This gift is like the winds. This gift is like the winds. A gift I can not see but it is all around me! A gift I can not see but it is all around me! Like a bicycle with no wheels! Like a bicycle with no wheels! How can I use a bicycle with no wheels? How can I use a bicycle with no wheels? This is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. This is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. It reminds me of death, but death is only a part of your glorious gift! It reminds me of death, but death is only a part of your glorious gift! It reminds me of my dreams, but dreaming is only a small part of this beauty. It reminds me of my dreams, but dreaming is only a small part of this beauty. Like a bicycle with no wheels. Like a bicycle with no wheels. Like a birth with no sound. Like a birth with no sound. So useless and unreal! So unreal and useless! Now all seems clear through my confusion. Now all seems clear through my confusion. Did you come to me? Did you come to me? Or did I come to you? Or did I come to you? I have finally forgotten. I have finally forgotten."
-TiP

Arcaïde - Cyclic Sound From the Form

Year: 2008
Genre: Psychedelic Dark Ambient

Benjamin Cecilio aka Arcaïde is a French composer who has already released a few albums. With this new ambient opus on Divine Comedy he explores disturbing ambient fields full of horror noises and haunting atmospheres. Like being lost in a sonic labyrinth full of cold and desperate music fields. Being inspired by different forms of surrealistic, abstract, dark psychedelic and dada art, Arcaïde explores the realms of the surreal and unknown. The compositions are filled with a huge number of sounds and different layers of ambient structures. The main feeling emerging from this process is a kind of horror soundtrack. Cyclic Sound From the Form sounds like a day in hell. A few vocals are haunting like ghosts through the corridors of mystery. It’s a fascinating experience for all lovers of cold sweat!