Dark Music Review – Diagnosis
Review Written By Casey Douglass
Council of Nine returns to Cryo Chamber with his second full length album. Deep, psychological, personal and complex. This is a dark ambient release in the style Council of Nine is known for with a healthy dose of both beauty and sadness.Dark drones asking questions from the opposite side of the chaise lounge.
The Tracks
Rite of Passage - A
light, ‘chimey’ sound opens up into swells of drone and
electronic distorted, robotic-like notes. Echoes and vibrating notes
grow, are held, and fade as harsher tones tease the listener.
Memories Are Fading
Away – A low wind noise is met by a flurry of beep-like notes and
airy sighing and chanting. A drone emerges that begins to hold sway,
howling and vibrations twisting what started as a light and quirky
track into something that feels far darker. Less memories fading and
more they are being eaten by something in the dark. There are soft
piano notes and other lighter tones, hints of bird song and the like,
that make it seem a little like light and dark are tussling, but that the
underlying darkness stays the course.
Sedation – A
deep-rising start, cavernous and bubbling but with strange
distortions that make things seem heavier. A steady drone begins,
seeming to hide a huffing noise that roams from ear to ear. It takes
on the aspect of a voice as the track continues, giving me the
impression of a mind trying to talk to itself, to talk itself out of
its confusion. The tone changes toward the midpoint, another note and
a rattling percussion blending into things. Higher sounds emerge in
the last third, elevating and providing great contrast with the
deeper chant-like effects.
I Can See The Fear In
Your Eyes – Guttural muttering and a sparkly drone begin this
track, bassier elements swimming in as it progresses. A low chant
sounds beneath things, electronic beeps and tones punctuating the
soundscape before things go more quietly reflective, dipping back
into drone and chant once more. An echoing space later opens up, high
notes and more delicate melodies creating an almost star-filled
space, like being deep underground and finding some kind of
phosphorescent glowing creatures pebble-dashed across a cavern
ceiling.
Void of Regret – A
bleak start with pulsing sounds and slowly rising resonances being
joined by a muted beat and eerie female vocals. Snatches of
whispering and an evolving drone complete the effect, creating a very
dark place. A repeating melody rumbulates through the soundscape,
adding a great, high-note tinged lining to things.
Riddled With Guilt –
A rumbling-ringing tone is soon joined by a UFO-like energy
fluctuation and resonance that creates an energetic and engaging
soundscape. What sounds like chanting joins, at times also
accompanied by whistling that almost hurts the ears, like an
old-style kettle waiting to be taken off the flames as it whistles to
signal its boiling state. Water rippling effects and a quieter,
dripping space begin around the midpoint of the track. Maybe the
guilt hinted at in the title has burned itself out leaving a hollow
space behind.
Fragments of Myself –
A very quiet start builds to a chant-infused space, the rumbling
drone behind everything soon over-layed with the odd swell of flute
and piano, along with other electronic sounds and echoes. This track
has a great temple or prayer-like atmosphere, but things distort and
rumble with a darker energy that hints at the power below things as
much as that above. A quieter midpoint and contemplative tone is soon
overwritten by a harsher drone before things quieten again, the
chants of a monk joined by swells of echoing string. This track
certainly revels in the loud and the quiet.
Thoughts
Diagnosis
is a fine dark ambient album, one that treats the listener to, on the
whole, mainly gentle soundscapes that are richly detailed with ebbing
and flowing notes and echoes. Saying that, it was an album that
didn’t leave much of an impression on me, and I can’t really work
out why. I’m inclined to put it down to whatever else was going on
with me at the time. The standout track for me was the chant-laden I
Can See The Fear In Your Eyes; the dark undertones of possible
abyssal meditation appealing to me.
Diagnosis
is a competent album that I feel stingy giving 3.5/5.
I just seemed to move through it. It is well worth checking out
though so feel free to visit the Diagnosis page
on Bandcamp at this link for more information.
You can listen to I Can
See The Fear In Your Eyes below too:
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: Diagnosis
Album Artist: Council
of Nine
Label: Cryo Chamber
Artwork and Mastering:
Simon Heath
Release Date : December
1, 2015
