Dark Ambient Review: My House Is Full of Faces

Review by Casey Douglass

Sometimes, it’s the most innocuous things that we focus on. Maybe you notice the sound of a blackbird singing in the garden while you are vomiting into the toilet, or maybe someone is insulting you and all you can notice is the dried skin on the side of their nose. It feels surreal, to me anyway. Mutestare’s My House is Full of Faces is a dark, ambient experimental album that, pleasingly, left me feeling the same way.

Mutestare describes the album in his email to me: “It fits into the broadness of the ambient genre but never really settles into it: There's electroacoustic, noise, modern classical and electro influences throughout. The tone is generally surreal and emotionally, it's got something to do with memory, intimacy, sexuality, regret, and the feeling of being bound to a situation that's inescapable. It runs through the path of darkness and recovery and light.” I have to admit that the mention of feeling stuck in a situation is what really spoke to me, as I often feel quite futile about my own life.

Broadly, upon listening to the album, I found a pleasing blend of tones and drones, from plucked guitar strings to fuzzy vibrating low tones, with plenty of warping and echoing for good measure. Certain of the tracks also included field-recorded sounds that helped give the soundscapes a feeling of depth and distance, whether snippets of bird song seemingly caught through an open window, or the more visceral and central use of the sounds of crowds and applause. What all of the tracks seem to share is a dose of the surreal, and it was fun to ponder what was actually happening during each one.

One of my favourite tracks is the opening track Golden Furniture in a Fading Room. It features guitar notes and other twisting and warping tones. There is a squeaky floorboard aesthetic too, with various beeps and crackles creating a charged but heavy atmosphere. Towards the end of the track, there are snatches of voice and birdsong, along with echoing footsteps. This track really did bring to mind the atmosphere in a room, with snatches of outside life wafting in through the open window.

Predicament is also a track that stood out as, once again, it seemed to deftly embody the track title. A low growing drone gets things started, with higher tones becoming apparent at the edges. A faint jitter and whisper-like vibration dances around plucked notes, creating an airy but dark feeling. There are echoes and a metallic clink, and a sudden buffeting feeling. Things get screechy and distorted, like a storm is brewing, and after a while, a male and female voice can be heard. For me, this track felt like two people who live together having a big row, and the anger and calm that ebbs and flows as a consequence. This track seems to contain a whole host of feelings and moods, and this adds a tension that feels like a maelstrom of peace and frenzy.

Another track that I really liked was Faces. It begins with horn-like tones. These are soon joined by the sounds of clapping and whistles. This track feels like the curtain call at the end of some kind of show, but one in which a hint of dark discord begins to grow. After the midpoint of the track, the notes begin to distort into a kind of self parody. There is a topsy-turvy feeling, a low metallic vibration, and a harsher high pitched tone that chimes and warps and makes everything seem to waver. To me, this track had a number of moods, from the way that our self critic berates us when we make mistakes, to the folly of trying to gain approval from other people and how quickly it can be taken away for no reason. The track ends with a pounding beat that merges with the following track, which I will talk about next.

Feels the Same in the Crimson Room creates the soundscape of sitting in a nightclub, the babble of voices, music and the tinkling of glasses. There is a slight warpy feeling and things halt around sudden laughter. There is a distorted mic thump and a feeling of isolation and anxiety that feels similar to the previous track Faces. This track felt like trying to get away from your mental demons by going out and meeting people, only to find, as always, that you can’t get away from yourself or your shitty mental health. I enjoyed the way that this track was a total departure from the others in the way of being a beaty, dancy affair, but one corrupted by a darkness that still keeps it in line with the general tone of the album. A pleasant surprise.

The final track that I wanted to mention was Imp. Twisting, tinny electronic tones rise and fall, soon joined by piano-like notes that feature a bit of a lumping “spang” at the fringes. A high buzz joins a while later, with a higher tone sitting above everything. For me, this was a track of creeping shadows, of sitting in a dark room with the door opened a crack and a narrow dart of light highlighting the bare floorboards. Later, there are scuffing motions and warbling, twisty plucked notes. A flute-like tone also joins the fun. This track felt like a peaceful exploration of numbness, of that nothing feeling where you and the world both feel like nothing, and all there is, is the light cast on the bare wooden floorboards.

My House Is Full of Faces is a dark ambient album that does a fine job of creating moods that sit at the more subtle end of the spectrum. While it might be easier to give audible voice to more clear-cut and extreme emotions, this album nestles languidly in the grey areas, seemingly presenting those moments of pre or post-emotional numbness and despair that are easy to miss when more overt feelings of doom dominate. If you enjoy music that explores feelings of stagnation, ennui and disconnection, you might like to check out My House Is Full of Faces on Bandcamp.

 

I was given a review copy of this album

Album Title: My House Is Full of Faces

Album Artist: Mutestare

Released: 23 March 2025

Dark Ambient Review: Pit Fiend

 Dark Ambient Review: Pit Fiend

Review by Casey Douglass

I’m always interested when dark ambient music situates its concept in Hell. Whether it's a brooding rumbling hellscape or a wider theme of good versus evil, there’s just something primal and ominous about music that bathes itself in brimstone and murk. Insectarium’s Pit Fiend released a week ago, and is an album that tells a Hell-backed tale of pride and ruin.

Pit Fiend follows the story of a mighty paladin, one who is very successful in eradicating evil in the land. That is, mostly successful. There was one encounter that saw him bested by a pit fiend, and as time passed, this loss ate away at him, making him foolish and prideful. One day, he decides that only he can beat this creature, and so against all advice, he braves the infernal realms to snuff out the evil at its source. There, he is tripped up by over-estimations of his own power, and lets just say that he meets a mucky, yet eternal end.

The Paladin’s Journey opens proceedings, its low, echocardiogram-like beats echoing in space. A small chime and a metallic resonance sound, and are shortly joined by lone male chanting. The track feels meditative in this phase, and gave me the impression of dust motes catching the sunlight in some kind of stone temple. It’s also pleasing how the lighter elements in the track make a fine balance for the ominous deep beat. Low string-like notes appear off to the right, and as the midpoint nears, piped-notes suddenly set the soundscape agitating. Things gain a rough and pleasing texture, with a raspy quality. After the midpoint, the track quietens into a susurrating static space. It felt windy with low buzzing notes and eddies of power swirling. Sharper grinding tones zither and abrade the air, but there are some peaceful tones that nestle beneath the perturbations. As the end of the track nears, things quieten to a chant-based space once more, but with the added difference that, at times, there seems like a second voice mirroring the first. It occurred to me that it could be some kind of spirit or demon making a mockery of whichever ritual is being performed. This is a great track, full of texture and atmosphere.

Pit Fiend is the next track, and it's a very different beast. It opens with blaring horns and trumpets, and is a clashing jittery jiving space, one that is carried along by a rattling beat. It settles down into snippet of choral chanting, with low plucked notes, echoes and gentle gong reverberations. A juddery swirl builds and dies. Tinny high pitched notes begin to buzz. The coral chant returns and around the midpoint, things quieten to beats and wavering insectoid horns. The second half of the track feels like a squelchy scratchy gurgling thing, gnat-like horns and vibrations creating a soundscape that feels like an angered-up bee-hive, or the festering wriggling of maggots on a corpse. You can almost smell the stench of demonic rot.

Track three is Unearthed Arcana, and I think it’s my favourite track on the album. It begins with muted clinking echoes in a breath-laced space. This track also feels insectoid and hive-like, a background buzz and rumble making the listener feel like they are surrounded by millions of creatures. Whisper-like scratches and chitters begin, a deep single beat their companion at times. A growing drone begins, with more beat-like rasps and squealing electronic tones sitting in the high places. There is a trundling droplet kind of feeling off to the right of the soundscape. The space that this track creates feels pregnant and brooding. As the track continues, there are hints of voices amidst the buzz. A delicate high tone begins to insinuate itself, a little like a fairy flying through the abyss. Geiger counter-like clicks rattle and echo, and the drone, beat and vibrations of the soundscape envelop the listener in a steam engine whistle-like pressure of arcane energy.

Crooked Messiah is up next. It starts with a low watery echo and beat. There is a growing low drone, one that is sandwiched between companion tones a little higher and lower than itself. There is a chant effect and swells of large numbers of singers singing choral music. The soundscape feels large yet corrupted, maybe a dark cathedral with blood red clouds roiling in the arches of the impossibly high roof. There is a slow single beat and a repeating clopping sound. There are scuffling snatches of music in the right ear. Things begin to warp more, a little like an old vinyl record slowly melting in infernal heat. They also feel like they get stuck, yet they unstick a little later when a variety of drumbeats begin to sound. This is a fun track, a sinister hymn to a bleak religion, and the snatches of choral voices create a fine feeling of a dark voyeuristic space.

Sharpening The Vorpal Blade is another track that I’d say is one of my favourites. It features a growing string-like quivering tone, with hints of other notes at the periphery. The drone takes on a voice-like aspect, muddying the waters as to whether you are listening to chanting or a purely synthetic tone. There are rushes and hisses of air that bring to mind the pumping of bellows. A metallic grinding tone appears shortly after. Things then quieten to a relaxed drumbeat accompanied by a pure piped-tone. The second half of the track escalates things further, and features breathy clicks and echoes, swells of chant-like vocals, and even more instances of rasping metallic scrapings and sharpenings. This track is aptly named as the soundscape really does seem to depict many of the sounds that might come with the sharpening of a blade.

Sermon on The Mount is a vibrating, reedy track that hints of wind and whirring. There are also tones that add some sparkling and whining, giving the soundscape a mechanical feeling. A wah-wah-ing beat sets the soundscape pulsing, and high, light tones dance at the edges of things. A whistling tone emerges and lower vibrating notes. A low, distorted broadcast-style voice begins, intoning words about sacrifice, God and desire. This sermon continues until the end of the track. 

The 10 of Swords is the penultimate track, one that gets started with a juddery tone that is accompanied by hollow, vibrating notes that whistle and grind into echoes. There is a low beat at times and also a variety of knocking and some chanting. As the midpoint approaches, a low droning note vibrates the soundscape, a shimmering metallic jitter its companion. For me, this track felt a little like Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space mixed with the calls of some deep sea leviathan, which is quite a mixture!

It Came To An End is aptly, the last track of the album. It opens with a lighter yet sad feeling, a mid range drone mixing with wispy higher notes, echoes and a shimmering feeling. There is a knocking metallic rhythm and a little later, low sweeping string notes that add to the melancholy feeling. Some of the tones seem to gain a raspier edge after the halfway point, and others intensify, but the track does stay largely peaceful for the duration. It is very much the kind of music which you’d watch behind the scrolling credits at the end of a good horror film, and a fine track to round off the album.

Pit Fiend is an atmospheric journey into the depths of Hell, with each track painting some lovely vivid impressions of various locations along the way. As I mentioned above, Unearthed Arcana and Sharpening The Vorpal Blade were two tracks that I felt really excelled at this, but there were certainly others that deftly created a wonderful impression of ominous events; Crooked Messiah for example. If you like your dark ambient music to be Hell-themed, deep, and to take you on a journey through dark spaces, you’d do well to check out Pit Fiend on Bandcamp.

I was given a review copy of this album

Album Title: Pit Fiend

Album Artist: Insectarium

Label: Befalling Silence Productions

Released: 25th Feb 2025