Genre: Ritual / Drone / Folk

01 Intro / Beginning At Center Of The Chaos / Azathoth And Flute
02 Song To The Great Black Fox
03 Ways Of Slaughter
04 Abdul Alhazred's Anxiety

Bird From The Abyss is a one man act from Finland. In his own words, J.M Aaltonen calls himself a one man anti-band. His music lies somewhere between drone doom and folk, with easy relations made with psych music, ambient, etc. Aaltonen's own preference is 'Ritual Music', so lets go with that. I is, as apparent from the title, Bird From The Abyss' very first release. With only four tracks, which span 13 minutes, you are presented with a DIY homemade pitch black CDr and a sturdy slipcase with a very frontcover.

The first track comes in as a soothing deep drone, laden with some vocal works, flute and distortion. It ends way too early, after not even two minutes, and rather abrupt. I certainly wouldn't mind if this track went on for at least ten times this length. Then, on the the 'Song To The Great Black Fox'. This is a more acoustic piece, still with a drone in the background, but the main parts here are the guitars and the ghostly vocals that are fading in and out. Again a nice tune, and again way too short; just over the two minute mark this time.

'Ways Of Slaughter' then is devoid of a drone, but gets a bit of an eastern feeling to it due to added chimes. While seemingly acoustic at first, at one third into the song, it becomes a bit rougher with percussion and a raging electronic guitar. After this rougher part, the track calms down again and melodically fades away over time. Very nicely done. Then the last track, 'Abdul Alhazred's Anxiety'. The person referred to in the title is a character from H.P. Lovecraft, one of Bird Of The Abyss many influences. The somewhat eastern sound is continued in this track, which consists mainly of a bass guitar and percussive sounds. Sometimes a guitar joins in for a little melodic oriental tune, but it's the deep bass that drives the track.

At first it might take a while to get used to Bird Of The Abyss, but after playing it a few times you'll grow to enjoy it more and more. Even though this release is sold out – it was limited to only 100 copies – you can download it in whatever format you like (mp3, flac, ogg, etc) from http://birdfromtheabyss.bandcamp.com/album/i  . On his bandcamp address, you'll also find a link to a webrelease of his; Electric Forest. This is a hard droning track of almost 10 minutes in length. Furthermore, on the Bird From The Abyss website you'll find two links to video's he created. If you can enjoy all of this, pick up his next release, II, for only $4.50 from Starlight Temple Society.