Dark Ambient Review: Davidian

Dark Ambient Review: Davidian

Review by Casey Douglass

Davidian is a dark ambient album from Council of Nine, and it’s an album that is themed around the twisted and corrupt things that come from the way cults and mass followings can rob humanity of, well, its humanity. The album art above is pretty stark in its imagery, a silhouette watching a church or temple burning in the distance. Sadly, it was one of only a few images that Davidian gave me.

To qualify that last sentence... one of the things that I most look for in the dark ambient that I listen to is the way that it can kick-start my imagination, the soundscapes prodding and hinting at images and scenes. Davidian is at the smoother end of the scale of dark ambient, and while relaxing, and containing a maudlin melancholy at times, it didn’t really enrapture my mind.

To be sure, there are some nice textures and touches. The first couple of tracks contain sounds that seem to hint nicely at some kind of buzzing hive-mind type activities. Revelator seems to embody a kind of electronic-surveillance-type aesthetic, and to also evoke a sunlight-through-dusty-windows-shining-on-a-dead-body feeling. Day 51 also has tones that made me think of a desert hallucination, but one taking place in the middle of the night. Certain notes and melodies seem to repeat through different tracks, tying them together into a cohesive whole, which is also something that I can appreciate.

I didn’t dislike Davidian, I just think that at this particular time, it probably isn’t for me. Maybe in the future I’ll come back to it and feel differently, but if I was going to listen to a Council of Nine album right now, I’d probably go back to the excellent Trinity as that was an album that really did grab me. Davidian is an album of tender tones and contemplative struggle, I’d just have liked it to have a harder bite.

Visit the Davidian page on Bandcamp, and check out the track Day 51 below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Davidian

Album Artist: Council of Nine

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: August 13, 2019

Dark Music Review – Trinity

Dark Music Review – Trinity

Review Written By Casey Douglass

Council of Nine returns with his third album on Cryo Chamber. Trinity is a touching, personal and enlightening album from Maximillian Olivier. In a genre where most keep their personal life to themselves, Maximillian opens his heart for all to see. "This is my catharsis. The many stages of grief and the acceptance of loss, deeply personal, unforgiving, cold and painful. This is the story of the greatest loss I have suffered, the death of my mother. This marks the end of a chapter and the closure I was desperately seeking." Blending atmospheric sound layering with a harmonic palette it drifts between dark and light. Walls of sound collide with echoing strums, drones wash over endless shores.

Trinity is a dark ambient album that created quite a flow of mental scenes for me, even before I’d read the album blurb above (I often leave that until after forming my initial impressions). I must admit that the images it helped create do kind of fit with what Maximillian might have been experiencing as he went through the loss of his mother, although I’m sure, in a paler, less raw way than the things he felt in reality. As a consequence, I’ll write the narrative that seemed to impress itself upon me along with the descriptions of each track.

527: Dripping water and chiming bells join with snatches of melody. Other watery sounds rise up, giving the impression of someone waiting under a stone bridge, waiting for an empty passing boat to be near enough to jump inside, to ride away from an abandoned town. Slithering slurping sounds join with a distorted rumbling, much like the noises some massive creature might make as they laboriously dragged something along the bridge over head.

Memory: Piano notes set up the core of this track, both providing the melody and the gravity with deeper multiple tones. Wispy echoes hint at settling dust and rubble, a high pitched whine sits atop everything, much like that heard when entering a state of shell-shock, when something has rocked your world. The boat drifts along the lazy river, the familiar but empty town nestling on each bank, hollow and filling with murk. A bell chimes after the midpoint of the track, the soundscape beginning to become the audio equivalent of a hall of distorted mirrors.

Bargaining: A drone builds with rumbling and swellings of fuzz and gloom, before the track lightens a little. The boat is entering open countryside now, the lone occupant having to turn away from the sight of people crawling on their hands and knees, trying to slither into the water, into the current to be whisked away. Vocal-like sounds waft through the air, and metal chimes sound near the end, the last bending upward, much like someone’s inflection might if asking a question.

January 3rd: A female voice distorts and recedes. Muted notes and a light drone grows. The last signs of civilization have vanished now, only nature on both sides of the river. The figure drifts in the silence. A voice is heard again, distant and impossible to understand. A deeper tone emerges near the midpoint, a throbbing echo that quietens and soothes. A small chime sounds at a slow interval, the river water parts, the boat plunges down into the darkness below.

I No Longer Hear You: Everything sounds like it has been muffled in silk. The boat travels through an underwater cavern system, the screeching metallic creak of a gate opening ahead unleashing air currents that set myriad candle-flames sitting in impossible places a fluttering. A digeridoo-like thrum echoes, a loud bang or report is heard. A deep tone grows and vibrates, a “tut” noise setting up a rhythm that might just be the slow ticking secondhand of the travellers watch. The track ends with the squeal of metal again, the sound of water dripping, and what might be classed as an insectoid-purring noise.

Silent Dawn: Clattering metal opens this track, dripping water and an echo-filled space its canvas. It happens a few more times as the track progresses, piano notes and a flowing soundscape building up to the dawn spoken of in the track title. In this case however, it happens underground, as the boat glides along a raised canal, skirting the edge of a massive internal space, the pulsing glow of hot magma filling the darkness as the boat continues its journey.

Trinity: An echoing rattle launches the track before gentle piano notes emerge to hang in the peaceful air. The boat shoots through crystal caverns now, joined by an airy effect hinting at lungs being able to breath again. The glowing core at the centre of the largest space claims the boat, embraces it and sucks it inside. Distant bird song floats down from an elaborate fissure in the ceiling, wisps of light rising up and out into the vast blue sky above.

I’m betting those images aren’t the ones that Maximillian had in his head when he created Trinity, but I hope you’ll agree with me that the themes and tone seem to line up pretty well: the sense of loss, the holding of the breath and the search for some kind of peace. For that is what Trinity provides, a peaceful and melancholic journey through soundscapes infused with delicate tones and smooth experiences. Yes, there is the odd slightly jarring effect, but these simply heighten the peace that comes after. Trinity takes the listener into the raw part of the human experience, but makes it as beautiful and comforting as it possibly can be, yet it doesn't water the sadness down to make it easier to stomach. Trinity is a dark ambient album that I can see myself revisiting again and again.

Visit the Trinity page on Bandcamp here for more information, and be sure to check out track 527 below:

I was given a free copy of this album to review.

Album Title: Trinity

Artist: Council of Nine

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: July 11, 2017

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Dark Music Review - Locus Arcadia

Dark Music Review – Locus Arcadia

Review Written By Casey Douglass

This album takes us on a voyage across the stars to the Locus Arcadia Space Station as it follows a lone protagonists questions into what happened after loss of contact.

"I can barely hear them now, their thin reverberating voices quickly fizz in and out. The crackling sounds of half garbled transmissions dance erratically in my ears, desperately trying to break through a crunching wall of distortion. My last connection to home is quickly disintegrating. The only thing I could muster from the broken transmissions was that there used to be a prison on this station and also some kind of archaic cyborg research facility. As I struggle to hold back the closing walls of helmet induced claustrophobia, I soon fear everything will be buried underneath a smothering film of my own sticky breath. I hate the feeling of being trapped in this glass prison. My attention shifts, and I begin to notice just how cold it's become. It's dropped 30 degrees since my initial inspection; the meter now reads -87 Fahrenheit. Ahead of me awaits a mammoth of a station. A rust colored metallic structure with hundreds of slits like eyes peering out into open space. I slowly slide a vigilant gaze along its seemingly endless perimeter, and in complete awe of its massiveness the reality of what awaits me firmly sets hold. A fine pointed sting of uneasiness slowly climbs through my sternum and into my throat. Now just twelve meters from the entrance, my steps turn deliberately cautious. I hesitantly raise and press my boots into the ground, compressing the tiny granules beneath me. The closer I get, the quieter it all becomes, and the more alone I begin to feel. As the distance between us diminishes, the anticipation grows feverishly tall like the dozens of rectangular glass lookouts adorning the otherwise dilapidated station. The main entry hatch now within arms reach, I punch in the code: 7-5-1-3. The door opens..."

How’s that for an album blurb? If that doesn’t set the tone for the feelings and visions that Locus Arcadia provides the listener, I don’t know what will. A collaboration between dark ambient artists Randal Collier-Ford, Flowers for Bodysnatchers, Council of Nine and God Body Disconnect, Locus Arcadia is a bleak dose of sci-fi infused dark ambient that stifles and frees in equal measure.

I must admit that my favourite moments contained in the four longish (about 15 mins) tracks often were the ones that featured the sound effects associated with the text above. These might take the form of beeping controls, the clanking of airlocks opening, or more intimate sounds such as the breathing or heartbeat of the exploring astronaut. This is where some of the stifling claustrophobia comes from, the closeness of someone breathing inside a helmet as strange sounds loom in the distance.

A couple of the tracks stood out for me above the others though, and these were Black Echo of Morgues and Memory, and Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia. Black Echo of Morgues and Memory starts with a muted rumbling and see-sawing strings that build into the kind of sound that wouldn’t be amiss as a horror flick builds tension, alerting the listener to an incoming threat that they are unaware of creeping up on them. Metallic thumps and chimes boom and clang, soon to be joined by swelling horn-like sounds that put me instantly in mind of the Alien films’ scores. This is always an instant win with me. Also featuring in this track are other sounds like juddering static-like interference, rattling hulls and a little later, wet “blips” that seemed to channel a motion tracker, for me at least.

Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia starts with the calm breathing of the astronaut inside a helmet, with button beeps, mechanical clamps and hisses of air giving plenty of audio cues as to what is happening. Once inside whatever it is, a drone moves in with quick beeps and rushes of air. A female voice whispers as a pulsing machinery sound begins to rise. There are footsteps, metal clanks and distorted radio chatter. A little later, things progress to a quieter soundscape that features an echoey, low grade fuzzy static that pulses and more than a little puts me in mind of insect wings. Later still, something is triggered and a warning alarm begins to sound. Something opens and an avalanche of sound rushes out. Something then closes, hinting at the entry of the astronaut into that other space. The listener hears the heartbeat of the astronaut slowly become still and the soundscape eases into a calmer, lighter feeling until the end.

Quite a listening experience. I enjoyed the other two tracks as well, but the two mentioned above just really grabbed me and had more for me to latch onto as being particularly interesting for me.

Locus Arcadia is an alluring dose of sci-fi flavoured dark ambient sound, and does a very good job of transporting the listener into some interesting places. If you find yourself hankering after some sci-fi inspired feelings, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you check it out. I give Locus Arcadia 4/5.

Visit the Locus Arcadia page on Bandcamp here for more information and check out the video for Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia below:

I was given a free copy of this album to review.

Album Title: Locus Arcadia

Artists: Randal Collier-Ford, Flowers for Bodysnatchers, Council of Nine, God Body Disconnect

Label : Cryo Chamber

Released: July 12, 2016

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Dark Music Review – Diagnosis

 

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

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Dark Music Review – Dakhma

Written By Casey Douglass

Council of Nine (California, USA) debuts with a carefully crafted and masterfully produced album that carries the listener to a place of ancient history, through death into the void beyond. Previously known for his celebrated work on the Tomb of Empires split album, he shows here what he can do when given free range to encapsulate the listener on a full album. The bowed reverberation echoes across time and space while the holy sub frequencies of the universe are used to great effect to create a textural backdrop to isolation.

Council of Nine created one of my favourite dark ambient tracks of recent times: Chimes of the Unfortunate on the Tomb Of Empires album (you can read my review here). Seeing a whole album come from him in the guise of Dakhma made me hope that I would find some more tracks to pin my praise to. While none seem to match the lighter tone of Chimes of the Unfortunate, what he has produced in Dakhma is a darker, more insidious album, one that shakes the listeners sensibilities in its own gently rumbling way.

My descriptions of the tracks below incorporate a continuous narrative that suggested itself to me as I listened, taking into account the track titles and the images created by the music in my mind.

The Tracks

The Magi – A very quiet start gently guides the listener into an expansive drone punctuated with smaller and more delicate sounds and reverberations. The title and soundscape conjured images of an abandoned temple, shadows the only thing to lace its walls. In the centre, an elderly robed figure is knelt, liver-spotted hands weaving traceries of light in the air, the dust motes floating down from the ceiling the only other movement as the atmosphere thickens.

Tower of Silence – A sound that conjures the nature of wind swells with a harsher fluctuating tone that fizzes and undulates with speed variations and movement. Some of it sounds like thunder slowed and sped up. Haunting piano competes with the atmosphere. The figure from before has completed their occult working and now the structure around them trembles in contemplation.

Sacrifice – A shuffling marching sound seeps into the ear, a drone growing in strength with hints of higher tones and reverberation nestling quietly at its back. Then everything grows with an echoing melody flirting with a larger drone, like pent up forces about to be unleashed. The distortions and higher pitched tones create an oppressive soundscape that rumbles and looms, consistent yet fluid at the same time. The figure collapses in a heap, a trickle of blood slinking from the edge of their open mouth and slowly pooling on the dusty stone floor beneath their cheek. All becomes quieter before loud disturbances erupt near the end of the track. Something is coming.

Nasu – Piano and a dopplering beat are soon met by a rumbling drone, hints of whisper and threat permeating the space in-between. Its like the ‘shhh’ equivalent of ‘psst’, for want of a better description. Whistling joins just after the midpoint, an eerie sound that mingles uncomfortably with the soundscape. The robed figure is voiding, their juices and essence giving the stone floor the first shine it was had for many an age.

The Ossuary – This track enjoys a more electronic sound, the piano from the last track joining with a tinkling sparking sound that shrouds itself in a soft drone. The stained grey stone flakes from the walls around the figure, the glowing ethereal façade of crystal shining through from beneath. The whole temple shudders and jerks itself free of its previous form, the sole remains of the figure consisting of a skull and bones. This track has a sadness to it, like the tang of a life wasted.

Circle of the Sun – A looming dripping track that echoes with pent up whispers and shifting forces. As the volume grows, everything around the skull and bones becomes hazy, darkness seeping through and blurring the outlines, tiny sparks of gold dancing along the edges that are still visible. The air rumbles with a steady drone, an electro-string note arcing like the call of some strange beast. Chanting follows, the vocals fading into the droning abyss that is slowly claiming everything.

My Opinion

Dakhma is certainly a dark album, the soundscapes it creates all seem to drip with unseen forces and hints of sadness. The instances where the sound is wound up and down in tempo (I’m thinking of ‘Tower of Silence’ here), is an effect I personally very rarely, if ever, hear in dark ambient music. It brings to mind an image of a sinister DJ entertaining the legions of hell.

Dakhma is a smooth album, one that can be relaxed to, your mind left to wander, but it’s also an album that rewards the attentive listener with its various layers of sound.

I give Dakhma 4.5/5 and I hope to see more come from Council of Nine as soon as possible.

Have a look at the Dakhma page here on Bandcamp to find out more.

I was given a free copy of the album to review.

Album Title: Dakhma

Artist: Council of Nine

Label: Cryo Chamber

Written and Produced: Maximillian Olivier

Artwork and Mastering - Simon Heath

Released : 28th April 2015

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Dark Review - Tomb of Empires

Tomb of Empires Review

Written By Casey Douglass

 

I always feel that reviewing dark ambient albums often reveals more about the psyche of the reviewer than the actual content of the music. I also find it a great creative exercise in stretching the vocabulary and conveying the imagery that often comes unbidden and makes a lasting impression. This is also the reason why dark ambient music is often in the background whilst I create my own worlds.

As a consequence, this review of Tomb of Empires, a 4 split release featuring different 4 different artists in the dark ambient scene and released by Cryochamber, is almost a journal of my impressions and feelings as I encountered each track for the first time. You will almost certainly have different images appear in your mind and other sensations and feelings in your body.

“We welcome some new faces to the label with this 4 split release between some of the more mysterious and sacred sounds of the dark ambient scene. With the chaotic sounds of former CMI artist Foundation Hope, the mysterious enlightenment of Alphaxone, the distortion drone heavy Coph`antae Tryr to the fresh and inviting bass rumbles of Council of Nine, this is one dark journey of soundscapes delving deep into humanities history.”

I will look at each track in turn:

Chimes of the Unfortunate - Council of Nine :

This track starts with a deep and foreboding sound that made me prepare for it to get deeper and deeper. A short while in, it gains some lovely higher pitched sounds that turn the whole thing around and makes it feel light and airy with, for me at least, a sense of sadness in the background.

Mysterious – Alphaxone :

Starting with a deep resonance that mingles with other lighter melodies and noises, Mysterious gives the impression of a derelict space, yet not a hostile one. There are rumblings and muted noises and at one point a rapid tinkling noise that conjures images of greenery or fauna struggling to survive in some ruins.

Comprehended - Coph`antae Tryr :

A rising fanfare looms nearer with this track, a catchy hook that entwines with other instruments to peel away the structure of your eardrum and pierce your mind. It hints at majesty that has faded and vanished into the past where only a few might still remember it even existed. Think ancient artwork painted onto walls smothered with ivy and doused in darkness.

Near to Nothing - Alphaxone :

Echoing architecture punctuated with the impression of movement and strange life.

Nothing to Near - Coph`antae Tryr :

Nothing to Near features some gentle audio hiccuping that serves to jar you into the awareness that you might not have been paying full attention. Its deep beginnings growing and intermingling with other sounds as the medley builds and peters out.

The Kind - Foundation Hope :

This is quite a boomy and jarring track, when compared to the others at least. It seems full of discord and as it progresses takes on a sound like a swarm of demonic bees intoning names you can’t fully imagine or comprehend.

The Beacon - Foundation Hope :

This track seems to be one of the more simple on the album. By simple, I mean it seems to have fewer layers of sound than the others, or it is just how it appears to me. It also features a wonderful whistling segment which conjured the image of a lone survivor whistling whilst walking through a decimated city in an attempt to connect with others, or just to let him or herself know that they are still there, still human.

Blood Lit Skies - Council of Nine :

The album ends with the longest track of the bunch at just over 12 minutes. It has a light and airy thrumming quality and in one place seems to depict the sound of wind and rain, to my ears at least. It is a fantastic and gentle end to the journey through the other soundscapes that this album conjures, a way to come back to the real world with a soft landing rather than a full combat roll.

Thoughts :

Tomb of Empires as a whole is a very smooth ambient album, from my own viewpoint at least. It doesn't feature the harsher aspects that some other dark ambient creations contain but is still great at conjuring hefty mental impressions. It arouses a background feeling of sadness and gloom but with areas of light and air, much like sunlight shining into the darkness of a tomb through some aperture in the ceiling.

This leads me on to the cover image which I have to say is one of the most well-picked I have seen in some time, even to the extent that it coloured what images were likely to arise in my mind as I listened to the album.

I give Tomb of Empires 4/5. As I said above, it takes you on a relatively peaceful journey and evokes periods of oppressiveness and airiness with equal ease, for which it is to be commended. The reason it didn't get a 5 is just down to my own personal taste when it comes to my dark ambient listening. I enjoy more oppressive soundscapes where you feel that you only come up for air after long intervals. This, compared to the ones that inculcate that feeling, was a bit tamer in those regards. Still an excellent listen though, and probably a great starting point for someone who might be less familiar with the sounds of the dark ambient genre.

Visit here and here for more information and purchasing options.

I was given a free copy for review.

Album Title : Tomb of Empires

Artists: Foundation Hope / Council of Nine / Alphaxone / Coph`antae Tryr

Mastering and Artwork: Simon Heath

Label: Cryochamber

Released: 28^th October 2014.

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