Genre: Drone/ Doom
Track Listing:
01 Prayer Sodden Holes / Tears Strike the Mile High Gong / Creeping Barrage
It sounds sort of stupid, especially considering the often cringe inducing "open minded" statements that come from the drone scene/community, but I'd definitely consider myself a drone purist, a drone elitist, whatever you want to call it. I've listened to all of Sunn O)))'s experimental pieces once at the most; give me Grimmrobe demos, give me Like Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere, give me anything but latte-sipping morons (looking at you, SoMA) that try to turn what is the finest caveman style genre out there into fine art. The last thing I'm looking for when I'm keen for some low tuned, super slow hypnosis is some experimental ambient with low pitched hungarian vocals, or laptop glitch, or a brass section etc etc etc. None of that shit, give me something like this album.
Black Boned Angel understand what drone is about; no vocals, very simple drums, heaps of feedback and massive guitar riffs that repeat over and over until your eardrums are all loose and bleeding from the vigorous bass-rape. Things are established well enough in "Prayer Sodden Holes"- little in the way of subtleties; an intro establishes tension, a massive drumbeat comes in, and then a huge downtuned riff explodes, and repeats for quite a while. Eventually some feedback comes in and layers itself for a fair time. That's it, that's all there is. "But where are the gregorian-inspired vocals? Where is the merzbow collaboration?" You may ask, and it's with great pleasure that I can tell you there's none of it to be seen here. No japanese dudes with laptops, no eastern european sound-designers. Just a few new zealanders with some very, very loud instruments.
Things do take a definite mellow turn in the second movement but that's great too; the fellows in BBA just collaborated with Nadja and it's obvious that hanging with Aidan and co. must've had some influence on them. Huge guitar notes soaring forlornly into the stratosphere over and over again, while some synths provide a minimal and perfect backdrop. It's majestic but yet really depressing and apocalyptic; I liken it to watching the nuclear missiles fly out from their bunkers as humanity's final sunset goes down in the distance. Really great, while still effectively keeping the atmosphere of doom, death and war - certainly something as long and drawn out as the WW1 battle of Verdun makes a very fitting concept to base a drone album on.
Black Boned Angel have kept things extremely simple here, and it's to their credit that they did. It's all very long and droney, sure, and it certainly won't set your world on fire unless if you're a massive drone fan, as this is almost as pure a distillation of drone doom as you can get. It's truly glorious, though, and the massive ending of the final track- the war choirs, the chords, the sounds of battle sound like Bolt Thrower covering Sunn O)))- is a really fitting ending. Not good if you want to impress hipster chicks with your knowledge of 20th century classical, perhaps, but perfect if you're out for some massive, thick-as-molasses drone doom that presses all the right buttons.
