Labels: Vendetta
Review by: Alex Deller
Though this one-man project ostensibly falls within doom’s murky sphere it manages to cut through a variety of subterranean genres with a cold blade, effectively providing a cross section of all things dour and gloomy. The first thing you’ll notice are the trudging atonal riffs and unearthly rasps, but closer inspection reveals wisps of industrial static, droning melancholy and vague traces of forgotten folk, suggesting that while a debt may well be owed to the likes of Burning Witch and Thergothon, the album’s creator is also more than au fait with the further-flung territory mapped out by the likes of Gnaw Their Tongues, Coil and Nadja. Whichever dim-lit path it’s treading “Funeral Rites For The Living” is skillful and engrossing, and it’s only the occasional dip in quality or judgement (see, for example, the faithful if puzzling Neil Young cover that closes the album) that prevents this release from labouring alongside the very best of them.