Genre: Neo-Classical / Neo-Folk

This is a collaboration by :Golgatha: and Dawn And Dusk Entwined

Tracklist:

01 Fertility Rights
02 The Messiah
03 Magdalen
04 A Seeker Divine
05 Perceval
06 Crusade
07 What The Thunder Said
08 The Death Of Dagobert II
09 Heretic Prayer
10 The Caves Of Montsegur
11 The Cross Of Lorraine
12 Ruins In The Waste Land
13 Spheres



The Holy Grail – it’s hard to think of another object or idea which has haunted the dreams and desires of men more fervently throughout the ages, other than maybe the Philosopher’s Stone. From the crusaders of the Middle Ages to Heinrich Himmler’s SS in the 20th century, from the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach to Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code, the Grail has become the quintessential, proverbial object of desire to which all other objects of desire are compared. Wars have been fought for its possession, many people have devoted their lives to hunting for it, and it has inspired literature, music and art by Tennyson, Wagner, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and TS Eliot among many others. Yet no-one is even sure what the Grail actually is.

The Holy Grail is usually conceived of as being the cup or dish used by Christ at the Last Supper, but over the centuries this tradition has become intertwined and conflated with other ideas and mythologies. For instance, the Grail is also sometimes considered to have been used to catch the blood of Christ from the wound in his side inflicted by the spear of Longinus at the Crucifixion, and in various occult and hermetic traditions, the grail/chalice and spear/lance symbolise the female and male sexual organs. The Grail is an integral part of Arthurian mythology and medieval romances, and it also has connections to pre-Christian Celtic traditions concerning a magical cauldron of inspiration.

The title of this album, Sang Graal, involves a play on words which has historically inspired much speculation. The term ‘san graal’ is from Old French, meaning ‘Holy Grail’, but ‘sang réal’ means ‘royal blood’, and yet another way of considering the Grail is as not a physical vessel at all, but instead as a symbolic representation of the mystery of the alleged bloodline of Christ, which can supposedly be traced through the Merovingian dynasty of France, a theory which has most famously been advanced in recent years by the 1980s bestseller Holy Blood, Holy Grail and Dan Brown’s fictional thriller The Da Vinci Code.

Sang Graal is a collaboration (a “symbiotic collaboration”, no less) between the German neo-classical project :Golgatha: and the French martial industrial project Dawn and Dusk Entwined. Ambitiously conceived and executed over a two-year period from 2006 to 2008, both bands worked on all the tracks together, using a wide range of acoustic instrumentation, including guitar, viola, bass, flute, piano, dulcimer, drums and percussion, in addition to keyboards and three different vocalists, namely :Golgatha:’s founder Christoph Donarski, Dawn And Dusk Entwined’s David Sabre and Sorakey, who also contributed vocals to the last :Golgatha: release, last year’s widely- acclaimed Tales Of Transgression And Sacrifice.

‘Fertility Rights’ opens the album with a delicate plucked folk melody (shades of ‘Scarborough Fair’) laid over a background of numinous chanting, leading into a more grandiose orchestral overture. ‘The Messiah’ continues in bombastic vein, with strident percussion underpinning mellifluous male vocals something like those of Arcana’s Peter Bjärgö. This song is based on a poem by Leonard Cohen: “Oh, send out the raven ahead of the dove…”

In ‘Magdalen’, sombre bowed viola is combined with intimate, whispered female vocals – there’s a strongly cinematic feel to this track, though if these vocals are in fact sampled from a film, I don’t recognise it. The following track, ‘A Seeker Divine’, is one of the album’s highlights, with viola, choral vocals and heavy drums accompanying a recitation of many of the same themes touched on in the introductory paragraphs of this review: “From The Waste Land to the Land of Plenty… from Jerusalem to Camelot… all seekers were searching in vain.”

‘Perceval’ is based around Sorakey’s floating, wordless vocals, and is reminiscent of bands like Dead Can Dance and Ataraxia. ‘Crusade’ is much more vigorous and urgent, driven by martial drum rolls and a fast folk violin melody, with atmospheric battle sound effects in the background. ‘What The Thunder Said’ is in a more ritual ambient vein, with discordant horn blasts, low, threatening brass accents, hypnotically repetitive drums and remote intoned vocals producing a truly Wagnerian atmosphere of impending apocalypse and inviting comparison to acts like Horologium, 6Comm or Ain Soph.

’The Death Of Dagobert II’ (a title which references the Merovingian dynasty), is more low-key dark ambient, with background drones, reverberating beats and cinematic choral vocals, but ’Heretic Prayer’ sees a return to the eerie occult atmosphere of ‘What The Thunder Said’, with a chanted recitation of a Latin prayer, rippling dulcimer and echoing chimes evoking film soundtracks such as The Omen and The Exorcist. ’The Caves Of Montsegur’ (one of the innumerable reputed hiding places of the Grail) opens with austere, desolate flute, moving into an introspective composition of orchestral strings. I was again reminded of film soundtrack music here, specifically the theme of Cape Fear. The track develops with intense martial drums and massed vocals, before subsiding back into cinematic ambient.

’The Cross Of Lorraine’, named after the famous emblem of the Merovingians, the Free French during World War II, and latterly, Boyd Rice, overlays a brutal, minimalist drumbeat, with spectral vocals and clamourous metallic chimes. ’Ruins In The Waste Land’ is a subdued, brooding orchestral piece, something like the opening track ‘Fertility Rights’, and without being a great expert on classical music, it does seem to me as though there’s a discernible influence from Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring here. The lengthy closing track ’Spheres’ moves into astral realms, with spine-tingling orchestral strings, ethereal female vocals and ambient atmospherics evoking celestial wonder, as well as a brief reprise of the medieval folk melody of ‘Fertility Rights’.

:Golgatha: and Dawn And Dusk Entwined may not have found the actual Grail itself, but in Grail mythology they have certainly found a fertile wellspring of inspiration for this wonderful collaboration. Concept albums tend to be hit-and-miss affairs, but Sang Graal is an effortlessly superior work of art, and a successful blending of the distinctive styles of the two projects concerned. Everything I’ve heard so far from :Golgatha: has been excellent, and they do seem to have a knack for concept albums – 2006’s Seven Pillars album, based on the life of Lawrence of Arabia, was also a great success. And Dawn And Dusk Entwined’s more martial sound complements the sound of the German project well. The grandiose manner of Sang Graal’s execution aptly reflects the high-concept nature of its subject matter. It’s an epic album dealing with epic themes, and it’s highly recommended for all fans of martial industrial, neo-classical and dark ambient styles, and also, of course, all those fascinated by Grail mythology, the Knights Templar, the Merovingian dynasty and other related mysteries. Cold Meat Industry is one of the most prestigious labels in the industrial scene, and this album from two of their current leading lights provides a convincing argument for the label’s elite status. As the Knights Templar used to say, “In hoc signo vinces” – “In this sign you will conquer.”

Sang Graal comes in a six-panel digipack sleeve with a striking cover photo of thorns by Birthe Klementowski, who has done artwork for previous :Golgatha: releases, and a photo of the famous Cathar stronghold at Montsegur by David Sabre of Dawn And Dusk Entwined.