Dark Music Review – Crumbling Cities Echoing Their Terror
Review Written By Casey Douglass
Crumbling Cities
Echoing Their Terror is a compilation of cinematic dark ambient
artist Noctilucant’s previously unreleased songs, spanning the time
period Oct 2015 to Dec 2016. I previously reviewed Noctilucant’s
Oblivion To You All, and was impressed with the bleak “world
gone wrong” vibe it created. As you can see from the title,
Crumbing Cities Echoing Their Terror looks like it will
continue to probe the spires of broken brick and steel, even if
solely in an attempt to bear witness to the horror of what could come
if we don’t wise up.
The first track, You
Can Hear The Cry Of The Planet, achieves a somber tone by
incorporating a number of enjoyable devices. The first is a sonorous
funeral bell-like chime that shakes the soundscape in a “pay
attention” kind of way. The second is that some elements of the
track seem to take on the aspect of a cry, the titular cry maybe.
Each sounded different to me, one a bit like a bird shriek, the next
more like a steam train whistle. Whatever each “cry” really is,
it is no less effective in the not knowing.
Next up is Down by the
Docks (Alternative Version). This is a brief track, but one filled
with the sounds of dripping water, wind and voices. Swells of a
radio-like interference impinge at times, and it tails off with an
unnerving dose of feminine humming. I really liked this track and was
a little sad that it was so quickly over.
A Solemn Night is
another great track, partly because I was quite pleased with the
mental impressions it gave me. It sounded a bit like a scene that
film and TV watchers have seen used many times: a person sleeping in
an easy chair, the lounge dark, save for the flickering light of a TV
in the corner. My most recent reference is the scene in The
Babadook, where the Babadook appears in whichever film the main character is
dopily watching. This was the impression I got from this track, some
horror slowly seeping into the scene on the television while the
occupant of the room dozes on oblivious. The latter part of the track
changes to a lighter tone, and this gave me the idea of something
beginning to materialize in the room itself. What, I don’t know.
Letting Go Of All Hope
is up next, another track that produced some striking images for me.
I imagined aliens visiting the ruined Earth, hovering in their
spacecraft (hinted at by the drone and oscillating high tones) before deciding that it isn’t really worth their trouble to
land, and scarpering. The latter part of the track seemed a little
emptier, more quiet, and this kind of felt like the pain of absence,
or even the letting go of hope. A great track.
The final track that
I’m going to mention by name is Beholding The Murk, a deep bassy
track that rumbles into life with what sounds like a vibrating
engine. This is soon joined by higher tones and more interference-like effects that swell and then vanish. If ever a track was an
accompaniment to walking through a cloud of dust or a thick clinging
fog, this is it. It even features the sound of someone breathing
through a gas mask just after the halfway point.
Crumbling Cities
Echoing Their Terror is a satisfying listen if you want to spend some
time in the murky world of post-apocalyptic urban life. All of the
tracks create a melancholy and stifling sense of waste, and some counterpoint this with the higher tones and airy sounds of life still
continuing, in whatever form that may be.
Visit the Crumbling
Cities Echoing Their Terror page on Bandcamp here for more
information.
I was given a free
copy of this album to review.
Album Title:
Crumbling Cities Echoing Their Terror
Artist:
Noctilucant
Released:
May 25, 2017