OUT NOW via Nuclear War Now! Productions...
ILL OMEN : Æ.Thy.Rift : MMXV - MMXVI
'Pale Death beats equally at the poor man's gate and at the palaces of kings.'
Bandcamp: http://illomenvoid.bandcamp.com/album/thy-rift
All Instruments/Voice/Recording/Mixing: IV
Mastering: BR (Temple Nightside / Grave Upheaval)
Cover: Yag Mort
Order email: voidcommune (at) hotmail (dot) com
Black metal has long been a vehicle of choice for an individual to
express oneself independently and solitarily, albeit with differing
degrees of success depending on the quality of the artist’s songwriting
ability and musicianship. When these two attributes are of a higher
caliber, a one-man entity completely devoid of the potential need to
compromise his vision with those of a group of collaborators can
flourish. Perhaps it is for this very reason that IV, the lone member
of Ill Omen, has again succeeded in creating some of the most resonant
black metal of recent times with “Æ.Thy.Rift,” the band’s third
full-length album and its fourth release on Nuclear War Now!
Productions. As with Ill Omen’s previous output, “Æ.Thy.Rift”
exudes an organic continuity within each song and across all tracks on
the album, which is an outcome often not realized when multiple
songwriters and musicians are employed. This consistency is achieved by
the implementation throughout of dual bass guitar layers (one clean and
one distorted), notably skeletal percussion, the churning, choir-like
atmosphere of tremolo-picked guitars, and a blend of chanted, whispered,
and traditional black metal vocals. The singularity of this release is
further cemented by the lack of distinction in track titles, a
characteristic which serves to present the album as a sum of inseparable
parts. In other words, and especially given the ritual-like quality of
the record in its entirety, it is safe to interpret each track as a
necessary component of a collective opus whose individual pieces were
not created with the ability to sustain themselves independently of the
work as a whole. What most readily sets this particular release apart
from previous Ill Omen recordings is a more dedicated adherence to
slower, more doom-oriented tempos, which are very well suited to this
ceremonial variety of black metal. The listener may very well be left
with the impression that this is the soundtrack in the mind of a
disease-ridden being on its deathbed, at times feeling an almost
celestial bliss at peace with the impending end of suffering, but at
other times tormented by the physical and spiritual decay that will
inevitably lead to its ruin.
- C. Conrad
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ILL OMEN : Æ.Thy.Rift : Recording sessions
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ILL OMEN 'Enthroning the Bonds of Abhorrence' Cassettes
Available within Australia. Order email: voidcommune (at) hotmail (dot) com