ALBUM REVIEW: The Sun’s Journey Through The Night- Worldless


 

Whilst perhaps not as highly regarded for the genre as the likes of Norway, the United Kingdom does have a formidable pedigree for producing Black Metal, whether that being down to recognisable names such as Cradle Of Filth up to a current and brilliant crop including the likes of Underdark and Dawn Ray’d. Adding to these ranks are the enigmatic The Sun’s Journey Through The Night, led by vividly masked architect No One (and now joined by equally mysterious Corvus, Deimos, and Lune) and quickly growing a formidable reputation following three, contrasting, full-length albums encompassing raw Black Metal and a full ambient release, plus several smaller releases and demos, leading up to this, their fourth full-length and most realised and adventurous work to date.

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New Music Premiere: Emit – Earthwork Misthill


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Ghost Cult is proud to present, in cooperation with Earsplit PR, a much sought after, yet heard too little track: ‘Earthwork Misthill’ from venerable British black metal experimentalists Emit. The consistently evil Crucial Blast Records is putting out the official re-release of Spectre Music of Antiquary, which has been long out of print, yet living in the memory and mythology of obsessed fans. This album is essential for those who delve into the bleak, ambient past of black metal, thick with atmospherics. This release was so limited and rare in its initial pressing that this re-issue will see the music seep into the psyche of fervent fans for the first time ever, in many cases. ‘Earthwork Misthill’ is creepy as hell, but like all of Emit’s output, never feels contrived.

Listen to ‘Earthwork Misthill’


Official Press Release:

This October, American purveyors of the extreme musical underworld Crucial Blast Records will officially re-release Spectre Music Of An Antiquary, the sought out-of-print 2012 album from UK ambient/black/noise metal entity, EMIT.

A full-length collection of murky ambiance, deranged ‘80s-style synthesizer-driven, ritualistic black drift, and stranger sound forays into black noise, Spectre Music Of An Antiquary was first released as an extremely limited cassette on Glorious North, marking the first new material from EMIT in over five years. This British outfit has been creating their unique brand of experimental blackened delirium since the late 1990s, branching out of a low-fi UK black metal band called Ante Cryst. With EMIT, the members began to explore a creepy, synth-heavy sound that was unmistakably descended from black metal but supremely more deformed, combining harsh electronic noise, horror-movie soundtrack atmospherics, droning keyboards, wrecked and fractured black metal guitars, and bizarre vocals that would often push the collective’s music into a strange realm of hallucinatory, ghastly psychedelia.

Though on Spectre Music Of An Antiquary, EMIT’s sound has morphed into something that more resembles some mutated, primitive ‘80s darkwave being completely taken over by malevolent spirits, with eerie electronic drones and distant moaning vocals often taking over; very different from past recordings, though no less weird or phantasmagoric. And as with other offerings, Spectre is concerned more with the occult lore and hidden history of the British Isles than Satanism or goat worship or any of the other over-used black metal tropes, which all serves to enhance the wraith like vibe of these songs.

A must-hear for anyone into the murky surrealistic blackness of artists like Reverorum Ib Malacht (a band that has shared members with Emit in the past), Yoga, Occultation, Uno Actu, Utarm, and Dapnom, Spectre Music Of An Antiquary will see official re-release via Crucial Blast on both digital download and digipak featuring evocative, all-new artwork on October 28th, 2014.

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Emit is too kvlt for Facebook

Buy the Album from Crucial Blast Records here:

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Empire Auriga – Ascending The Solarthrone


empireuriga album review

I’ve written about the somewhat abusive relationship between Black Metal and Dark Ambient before – on the one hand a perfect marriage of aesthetics, on the other an awkward combination of dynamics. Metal is about stuff “happening”, runs the argument against – beats blast, riffs grind, stuff is undeniably occurring in an active and confrontational way; Ambient music, conversely, is deliberately passive and restrained. Nothing happens, to put it crudely, generally on purpose.

Michigan three-piece Empire Auriga’s contribution to this debate is to muddy the waters further, playing an equal-parts hybrid of Black Metal and Dark Ambient in which nothing happens, yet manages to do with a sense of drama. Majestically slow guitars and synths trace out barren, sparsely instrumented abstract shapes, around which echoing vocals and flickering static call out like transmissions from a long-dead star.

One of the first things to notice about Ascending The Solarthrone (Moribund Records) is how beautiful it sounds – the guitars in particular are unbearably fragile and ethereal, calling to mind crystalline structures drifting endlessly in the gulfs between stars. Their sound is pitched perfectly for the atmosphere they’re conjuring, and there are moments of genuine hypnotic beauty. Maintaining a sense of drama and engagement with such deliberately passive music is no easy task, however, and unfortunately they don’t entirely pull it off – over the course of these eight tracks your attention will wander, and for everyone moment that draws you in to its fragile sparsity, there are another two that will just float into the background.

Overall, Ascending The Solarthrone is one of those frustrating albums that’s so close to brilliance, but not entirely there yet. The tone and aesthetics are perfect, it’s bold and distinctive and they’re very much forging their own direction, but ultimately it comes down to a question of style against substance – at present they have bags of the former but not quite enough of the latter. Their masterpiece lies in their future, I think, but until they get there this is an engaging if not entirely satisfying taste of their potential.

7/10

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RICHIE H-R