Dark Ambient Review: Colossus

Review By Casey Douglass

Depth is something that seems to be all too fleeting in recent times, with both the important issues, and the less important, mangled by the machines of rhetoric and sophistry. I can’t speak for anyone else, but it often brings me to the point of ceasing to give a fuck about any of it. When I’m feeling this way, rather than merely sticking my head in the proverbial sand, I switch off, and delve into a far deeper experience, losing myself in some rich dark ambient soundscapes. Atrium Carceri and Kammarheit’s Colossus is an album that’s more than suited for leaving “all of this” behind for awhile.

As is becoming a habit when I review a Cryo Chamber release, I feel that I want to spend some time on the album cover art, as they always set the mood so wonderfully. Here, a lone figure stands between two decaying structures, a small bright light on the end of their staff providing a meagre illumination of the dark cavernous space. What I like about this is how it brings to mind the way that, once we’re used to low light conditions, even the smallest glimmer of an LED can seem to light a whole bedroom. Well, it does mine at least. When you “quiet the noise of the every day” whether by turning away from the 24/7 news churn or literally shutting out the daylight, who knows what else you might discover. I also appreciate that the figure in the album art seems to be standing contentedly at rest, feet side by side, calmly experiencing the scene that surrounds them. I guess they strike me as a figure that is alone, but likely not at all lonely, and as someone who really doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

The Colossus album description gives us a number of ways that the notion of depth manifests in the album’s theme. It reveals that it is set deep underground, which for me, always brings to mind a kind of “sinking into the Earth” feeling. It aligns this with the notion of exploring forgotten civilizations, which does a wonderful job of unlocking the doorway of time, therefore conjuring ideas and dreams of long epochs stretching back into unknowable temporal dimensions. As with anything of a great age, things tend to degrade and decay, and the soundscapes reflect this in a kind of “found footage” way, with “dirty tape reels”, crackles, buzzing, and other signs of degradation.

Opening track Subpulse is a great example of the above. It begins with a low pulsing drone, and quiet rattles and crackles. A slow, multi-element beat begins to build, one that’s cosseted by choral vocals, and wet buzzings and flappings. The imagery that came to mind was of an ancient altar, one populated by a fossilized insectoid creature that’s slowly shedding the mineral deposits from its carapace, coming to twitching life. This is a track full of crackling echoes, soothing static and a kind of throbbing, wave-building atmosphere. It’s relaxing and yet energizing at the same time.

Title track Colossus is a different beast. It opens with an undulating drone, seemingly backed by a horn-like sound that I’d describe as similar to the lowing of cattle. A shimmering high tone emerges, the audio equivalent, for me, of “fairies flickering around an ancient statue in a dark place”. An occasional thumping beat sounds, and is joined by some male choral chanting. An echoing, tapping beat proper soon appears, with things in general turning more raspy and juddery after the midpoint. This track feels both shamanic and also sacral, yet the “cow lowing” sound seems to anchor it firmly into the earth. I enjoy how these elements sit in a soundscape that seems to balance the forces that it’s depicting, with everything hanging in a pleasingly tense space.

The next track, Interwoven, is another that serves up something slightly different. It starts with a muffled, watery drone, with a hint of a distant chant and high tone. There are notions of thunder, warm swells and glugging water. The lower tones feel church organ-like. The higher tones, string-like. At times, the soundscape seems to sigh and flow, and at others, there are what could be hints of chugging machinery or circular-saw-like metallic squeals. As the track progresses, things warp and twist and blare a little more. The imagery that came to mind for this track was the explorer in the album art coming across ancient technology, but tech that mirrors some of our own, showing that we aren’t nearly as different or as advanced as we might think that we are, both civilizations seemingly ‘interwoven’ in space and time.

Colossus is a dark ambient album that contains a softly throbbing, ancient darkness, one that doesn’t feel hostile or dangerous. If it is inhabited by a spirit, it might feel ancient, sad and forgotten, but it has no acidic bitterness towards events or the people involved. It just is and it just watches and waits. If you like your dark ambient music to warmly smother you with the weight of years and the echoes of antiquity, while plucking you from the modern world and setting your mental wanderings in the depths of the Earth, you should check out Colossus.

Visit the Colossus page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also check out the track Colossus below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Colossus

Album Artist: Atrium Carceri & Kammarheit

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 15 Feb 2022

Dark Ambient Review: Mortal Shell Soundtrack

Review by Casey Douglass

Mortal Shell is a new grim fantasy RPG from Cold Symmetry that I’ve seen garner many comparisons to the Dark Souls series of games. When you have a game world that is so dark, the soundtrack is an important element in keeping the atmosphere and the dread going. As it turns out, Mortal Shell is certainly not lacking in this respect, as dark ambient artist Atrium Carceri is on hand to provide the extra dose of darkness that the game needs.

A dominant theme of the Mortal Shell Soundtrack is the use of dark choirs to build the sense of doom. While I couldn’t make out any particular words, at times the vocals seemed dirge-like and resigned, as if the choir itself is watching the character move towards their doom. The other prominent element in certain of the tracks are the various drum beats that punctuate the soundscapes. I liked these a lot as they lend a sense of forward motion to things, maybe again hinting at someone shambling towards their doom.

There are other sounds that might grab the listeners attention too of course, some of them enjoyably tricky to pin down. Fallgrim contains a bell-like resonance, but one seemingly without trace of an actual bell. The Tower includes a horse-like clip-clopping that could also be water, and Under A Broken Sun has a rattling alarm-clock beat. These are all interesting sounds, whatever they truly are, and they sit very nicely in with the drones, static and other shimmering tones that various of the tracks contain.

Sanctum is one of my favourite tracks, its wind and sighs, knocking and cries melding together in an echoing space. It also contains a kind of ghostly shimmer effect, and nicely conjured the feeling of being in some deep underground vault, but one that’s by no means safe. Another track that I really enjoyed was Ritual At The End of Time. It opens with a kind of grinding gears type feeling, with a lurching beat. It also features a kind of organ-like tone, one I described in my notes as “church organ blended with fun-house/distorted mirrors at the circus”.

The Mortal Shell Soundtrack is a fitting slice of the game’s dark world. Many of the tracks are quite brief, due to its nature as a soundtrack, but there are a few that are of a longer duration, and I found myself gravitating towards these a little more. The dark fantasy aesthetic shines through in all of them however, and as someone who has yet to play the game, I could certainly appreciate the tracks without much knowledge of the game’s story-line or lore. If you’ve already played the game, I can only imagine that you'll gain even more enjoyment from them.

Visit the Mortal Shell Soundtrack page on Bandcamp for more information. You can visit the Mortal Shell website to learn more about the game itself too. Check out Sanctum below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Mortal Shell Soundtrack

Album Artist: Atrium Carceri

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 25 August, 2020

Dark Ambient Review: Black Stage of Night

Dark Ambient Review: Black Stage of Night

Review by Casey Douglass

The Victorian era always seems to be such a rich vein for media that likes to draw on the dark side of life. From the opium dens and the diseases that dogged the huddled masses, to the dabbling with the occult and emerging sciences, there are plenty of places to look for darkness. Black Stage of Night is a dark ambient album that hits a rich vein in this regard, and whether that vein is found by a sad soul in a mine with a pickaxe or by the prick of a needle, it doesn’t matter. Black Stage of Night is dark and twisted, and is a fantastic album.

Dark and twisted though it maybe, there is a gentle melancholia to many of the sounds and tones, from delicate piano notes and acoustic tones, to a hissing static and warping notes. It very much comes across as an album of the night, the time of the day when the shadows deepen and the world feels more closed in, the universe ending at the reflection in your window panes. It’s very easy to imagine a Victorian lady or gentleman standing vigil at a window, the light from their lantern hindering their view as they struggle to peer past their own reflection.

Chaos Unmade is my favourite track by quite some distance. It opens with a repeating rhythm that put me in mind of the arrangement you might find in some kind of warped country music. It wouldn't be a song about cattle wrangling or unrequited love though, this one would more likely be about a skeleton on a horse trying to capture errant ghosts in a misty, moonlit valley. A tone rises and falls with this repeating rhythm, later joined by a more trilling, whistling sound. Things quieten near the end of the track, with it ending with a staticy looping sound, maybe hinting that the skeleton horse-rider has disappeared over the hill.

The Great Order of Things is another track that stood out for me. It opens with a howl-like sound and a deep stuttering tone that pulses into life every now and then. An “Ahhh-like” vocal meets the howls as the track progresses, lending the track a church-like feeling. This track could be about another misty, moonlit valley, but this one has a dark church at its centre, with people huddled inside praying for the wraiths outside to go away. The howls become more cat-like in the last third of the track, which to me, made me think of someone on an opium high, sitting near a flickering fire and being woken from their reverie by the family cat wanting to go outside.

The other two tracks I’ll mention are the first and the last: Mind Turns to Night and Night Becomes Morning. They are great bookends for the other tracks as the first seems to deepen as it continues, while the latter lightens. This felt very fitting for two tracks that could be the soundtrack for the fading daylight at night’s approach and the lightening effect of the sun rising the next morning. Almost like an hypnotic induction and a “Wake up” call, they smooth the way from, and back to, reality.

Black Stage of Night is a ghostly dark ambient album, the cobwebs and coal-smoke of another age mingling with the mind that is looking back at the past. For me, brings up all manner of Victorian aesthetics, the one thing they all have in common being the way that they are tinged with the lust for things to be different to how they are, whether that be by dream or occult means, wishful thinking or prayer. Atrium Carceri and Cities Last Broadcast came together to make Black Stage of Night the welcoming, dark thing that it manages to be, and if it is based in the world of dreams, I’d be eager to see what the nightmares that come after may contain.

Visit the Black Stage of Night page on Bandcamp, and check out the track Mind Turns to Night below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Black Stage of Night

Album Artist: Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: October 22, 2019

Dark Music Review – Miles to Midnight

Dark Music Review – Miles to Midnight

Review Written By Casey Douglass

Miles to Midnight is a Dark Jazz Ambient album with a Lynchian Noir feel: A hotel trapped between two worlds and a detective with a traumatized past. God Body Disconnect's live jazz drums and cinematic wall-of-sound builds the foundation of the mysterious hotel. Cities Last Broadcast brings ghostly tape loops and melodies stuck in time. Atrium Carceri dusts off his old pianos and shatters reality with low bass rumbles and brings you into the other side of the hotel. For lovers of smokey soundtracks to unwritten movies.

The first line of the description above does an excellent job of summing up Miles to Midnight’s tone and aesthetic. I’m not a big fan of jazz, but I do like me some weird. Miles to Midnight is an album that creates images of long, art-deco styled corridors, with green lampshades and brass figurines holding them. It almost causes you to taste the dust in the ruby red carpet that has lost its lustre, and it brings about an unnerving feeling that the shadows in the corners of the room are, somehow, a little darker than they have any right to be.

The jazz drum element is a tremendous fit for the dark imagery the soundscapes create, its relaxed rhythm and brushed beats nestling very comfortably amongst the more eerie vocal effects and bassy rumbles. A Thousand Empty Rooms is a prime example of this. After a delicate start of a few plucked notes hanging in the soundscape, a slow beat begins, joined by piano notes that seem to fill out the high spaces in the composition. When they tinkle into the rafters, a birdsong like flurry joins them, creating a quirky space that seems to have a life of its own. For me, this track brought to mind the image of an extravagant chandelier hanging in an empty room, a sole candle flickering nearby, its flame reflecting in the chandelier’s myriad crystals. Relaxing and a little melancholy.

A few of the tracks are like this, but others are more threatening or strange. The Other Lobby is a prime example of this. It begins with the sound of voices and some kind of bustling activity. There are dings, and the impression of muzak, before undulating electro-bee vocals and a strange alarm like sound create a further feeling of whimsy. The track brought to mind someone watching an old episode of The Outer Limits on a black and white bunny-ear bearing TV, the soundtrack of the show crackling its way into the room just behind the lightness and darkness of the images on the screen. Or, looked at another way, it felt like finding the Museum of Curiosities at the fun fair when you were just looking for the toilet.

Yet other tracks are more threatening, such as Sorry Sir, You Are In The Wrong Room. A deep, bassy space full of rumbling, crackling, darting notes and muted piano. It creates a hanging atmosphere of menace. If The Other Lobby was mistakenly finding your way into the Museum of Curiosities, this track was more like stumbling into a room containing shadowy people planning their next crime.

Miles to Midnight is an incredible slice of dark music, its rhythms and soundscapes lulling and threatening, heavy and yet sometimes light at the same time. I know from the description that it is based on a strange noir hotel, but I also got the impression that it could be an excellent depiction of an insomniac getting through the night. The isolated and spectral locations just seemed to create that general feeling of being alone, which could be transposed into any number of settings. If any of what I’ve said intrigues you, check out Miles to Midnight via the stuff below, and if you do buy it, pop it on just as the last light of the sun vanishes over the horizon one evening.

Visit the Miles toMidnight page on Bandcamp here for more information, and be sure to check out A Thousand Empty Rooms below:

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

Album Title: Miles to Midnight

Artists: Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast, God Body Disconnect

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: Jan 09, 2018

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Dark Music Review – Archives I-II

Review Written By Casey Douglass

The Archives collection is a look into Atrium Carceri's archived audio files from the last 10 years.

This album was created using audio recorded during 2005-2015 and consists of B-sides, forgotten tapes, tracks that for one reason or the other did not make it onto one of the Atrium Carceri albums, or tracks that were in circulation but needed a remaster.

All material has since been re-edited, reworked, remastered and merged into two seamless tracks. The Scandinavian recordings of cold meets the post apocalyptic undertones of America as it was worked on in Oregon, USA out of the Cryo Chamber Studio, with material from both countries.

Archives I-II is a great introduction to Atrium Carceri for those that might not have heard any of the previous albums. It is also a great re-introduction for long-time listeners that have grown to appreciate Simon Heath’s multi-layered, high quality soundscapes. Archives I-II features many of the things that make Atrium Carceri, well, sound like Atrium Carceri. Field recordings, menacing drones, eerie clanks and rattles, as well as the odd ear-worming melody and inventive beat. Archives I-II serves up a veritable banquet in its two tracks, both in and around forty minutes in length.

It’s usually about this point in a review when I zero in on a few tracks I particularly liked, or talk about the images created in my mind by the dark sounds, but I don’t think long descriptions of extended tracks like these would make for very exciting reading. What I can say is that both tracks have a good variety of soundscapes and tones. As an example, track one gets started with a wind-like noise and some chimes, backed by hollow sounding notes and some staticy grain. There are some distorted tinkling sounds, clanks and rattles, the buzz and hum of radio interference, voices in conversation at a distance, drones, piano, reversed speech and gravelly footsteps, all within the first fifteen minutes! That isn’t even covering everything heard either.

Whether you’ll like the album or not will probably come down to how you feel about experiencing different soundscapes for shortish periods before things move on to the next. The soundscapes all flow very well into each other, the impressions created varying in light and dark, and always seemed to stay interesting. If you like a typical dark ambient track to create a space and evolve or populate it over the next x amount of time before moving on, you may find the variety and pace of Archives I-II a little too fast for your liking. Personally, I enjoyed this kind of “whistle stop” tour of some of the sounds and creations of Atrium Carceri, so it is with this in mind that I give Archives I-II 4.5/5, a worthy addition to any dark ambient library.

You can visit the Archives I-II page on Bandcamp at this link.

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

Album Title: Archives I-II

Artist: Atrium Carceri

Label : Cryo Chamber

Released: March 22, 2016

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Dark Music Review – Onyx

Review Written By Casey Douglass

3 veteran producers in the genre, Apocryphos, Kammarheit & Atrium Carceri, collaborate on this behemoth of an album. Each utilizing each others strengths to bring forth a dark and emotional ride through distant memories.

Onyx is a soundscape journey related to the reflection of dispirited memories and obscure sorrows felt by mankind. With the multitude of techniques used by each artist, it also reflects the rich history of the dark ambient genre and how it has progressed through the decades.

The signature analogue darkness of gargantuan caves of Kammarheit is combined with the sacral and emotional layering of Apocryphos and the rhythmical bass throbbing and isolated pianos of Atrium Carceri. This album was created by cross linking 3 studios in Oregon (US), Pennsylvania (US) and Umeå (Sweden). It took over 3800 lines of studio notes to finalize the album.

3800 lines of studio notes sounds like a heck of a lot of collaborating to me and it has certainly paid off with Onyx, a dark ambient album that is the perfect home for the atmospheric tracks nestling in its bosom. Each track fits in snugly with the others and all together, they serve to create an emotive and sinister soundscape that is a pleasure to listen to.

The Tracks

Immemorial – A muted rain-like sound is joined by a heartbeat-like beat and cold piano notes that give the impression of sound-waves resonating back to the listener from lichen-covered tombstones.

Ones Atop the Unknown – A repeating distant melody with reedy swells of sound and a reactive drone that seems to embrace and amplify the effect. It conjures a feeling of being stuck at midnight in a musty study as the embers in the fire place slowly wink out, darkness and the hot air mingling as the moon watches on through condensated window panes.

Night So Close to the Tongue – Another track that feels muggy and close, strings and chimes playing in a phantasmal room of mourning, creating a bitter feeling of melancholy.

A Lonely Strain – A dark echoing space populated with delicate notes that hang in the air against harsher vibrations and swells. Brings to mind what it might be like to watch a lone will o’ the wisp floating through a desolate cave network.

Aphotic – Eerie metallic resonances are joined by a fast paced repeating rhythm, a lot like a clock running far too fast. This lends the whole track a kinetic feeling of dark energy, the other aural elements, such as vocals and drones all underpinning things in a great sounding soundscape that expertly carries its own momentum.

Cavern of Igneous Flame – This is an aptly named track, the opening sounds giving a great impression of a flame-filled cavern, but with the added bonus of the possibility of some creature dwelling at the back, the impression of massive lungs breathing adding an ominous flavour to the soundscape.

Onyx – Delicate strings and a light drone create a mournful feeling before being joined by a pleasing beat that carries everything along. In places the track sounds like a hive of industrious bees before a melody change just after the midpoint where a few more notes come into play.

A Pale Sign Revealed – Rattling and vibrating notes dance with strings and higher tones in a slow-paced soundscape that haunts and escalates into another melancholy swirl of mist-like emotion. The gentle guitar melody is really rather nice too.

Avenoir – A similar track to the first, muted rain and cold piano notes providing a great shortish track to play out the end of the album, giving the ghosts previously conjured a nice soundtrack to walk home to.

Thoughts

It has taken me a long time to review Onyx, in no small part because my first exposures to the tracks often left me drifting off to sleep. That is in no way a criticism, I was feeling more unwell than usual and Onyx is a particularly mellow dark ambient creation. Staying awake, of course, gave me a far better understanding of what was going on.

As I have said in some of my track analysis, a good number of the tracks create claustrophobic, muggy feelings, placing the listener in a calm environment, but one that seems pregnant with possibility. I could definitely see myself listening to Onyx looking out through a frost-tinged window as night rolls in. It has that kind of cold beauty to it.

I give Onyx 4.5/5, the track composition and bitter soundscapes a great accompaniment for quiet introspection, or sleep in my case.

Visit the Onyx page on Bandcamp at this link for more information and check out one of the tracks below:

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

Album Title: Onyx

Album Artists: Simon Heath, Robert Kozletsky, Pär Boström

Label: Cryo Chamber

Artwork: Simon Heath, Pär Boström

Mastering: Simon Heath

Release Date : 8 September 2015

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Dark Music Review – Metropolis

Written By Casey Douglass

 

 

Locked out from the Illusion, this album takes place entirely in our former home. The darkened sky and gargantuan citadels line the horizon as the endless city, we once ruled as gods, stretches as far as the eye can see. Crossing the sea of the dead in search for a Beacon of Light that can lead the expedition to uncover the truth about the factions in control, what happened to the long lost architect and how to open a portal back into the colorful illusion the ignorant call home.

This 11 track Atrium Carceri album is closely connected to The Untold and sheds more light unto what goes on in the Atrium Carceri universe and the Metropois in particular. An industrial, dark, distorted and cinematic experience unlike any other with amazing attention to detail and subtle layering, this album begs for repeated listening to take it all in.

Well, with an album blurb like that, what more can I possibly say? Fans of Atrium Carceri will already be well aware of the kind of audio experience on offer and if you have yet to hear any of Atrium Carceri’s soundscapes, don’t worry, you are on the path to salvation, if you will only keep on reading (and actually go that extra step and visit the Metropolis link at the bottom of this review).

Metropolis is an album that features rich soundscapes that revel in bestowing on the listener scenes and impressions from other places and realms. This is the reason why I enjoy the dark ambient genre so much and Metropolis is a very good example of what I feel are the strengths of the genre. Of course, if you don’t like dark things, it won’t be for you, but if you do, read on.

The Tracks:

The Gargantuan Tower

An ominous drone with wind-like properties is joined by a flare of sound with subtle whisper-like elements, like ghosts attracted to the living or moths to a flame in the darkness. The sounds of footsteps accompanied by a spoken narrative sets the scene, with talk of being trapped for a long time. The track ends quietly, the soundscape cleansed for what comes next.

The Dark Mother

Gentle piano mingles with the sounds of rubble shifting and resonating tones and tinkling notes that shimmer in the air, painting pictures of dark architecture and abandoned spaces. When the beat joins, the piano distorts, the audio equivalent of a fairground mirror warping the person’s reflection, the beat itself a deeper tone that punches its way through the melodies around it, falling away now and then to reveal the sounds of movement in the darkness.

Across the Sea of the Dead

A muffled rumbling drone sits under the sound of dripping water and swamp noises, chirruping and croaking, the soundscape thick with the promise of stench and oppressively humid air. A wind noise does suggest itself but it feels more like a death rattle, hot and prolonged, like being in the belly of beast that is slowly fading away. The cry of a bird pierces the soundscape at about the half way point, the “wind” bellowing in reaction. Other notes only occur in the last 1/3 of the track, a journey from one shore to another the journey undertaken.

Black Needle

Sounds of movement and a pulsing sound are soon joined by a deeper tone and lighter melody. A drone joins and distorts. Sounds like a music box soon follow, the notes hanging eerily in the air before being joined by similar notes. To me, this track suggested someone searching a derelict place, looking for something but at the same time, hiding from the things looking for them.

Decrepit City

An almost fanfare-like note starts this track, sounds of furtive movement hidden by its echoing distortions. It sounds very much like the mockery of a national anthem, something that should be all pomp and glory but now resonating over a dead city, the sound as twisted as the skeletal remains of the black buildings it reflects from. Lighter chiming joins at the midpoint, maybe suggesting some faerie fire, Wil-O’-the-Wisp type pixie light come to cry over the dead.

Sacred Slab

A quite harsh drone rises and fades, a subdued beat and higher sounds adding to the mix. They take on a high pitched female singing voice, to me at least, like angels singing a long way away, before the drone quells them once more. The drone itself is like the rumbling of a spaceship taking off, crackling heat and joined by definite vocals along for the ride.

200 Days

Dripping water and spoken words about distant lands and not being saved are backed by a drone that is soon met with a deep tone that drags the mind down into the despair of the speaker. Harsher tones join it as it ends with a “plink”. The sound has a sharper edge as the track continues. Things die down with a slightly warmer drone near the end, melancholy vying with the dripping water for saturation.

Industrial District

A dual-tone begins this track with high-pitched and droning elements rubbing against each other. A pulsing low-pitched rhythm begins, higher notes playing like some kind of down-tuned alarm signal. If the listener is ever able to roam the dark streets of a steampunk city with rusting robots patrolling the cobbles and belching steam, this is the soundtrack that fits that scenario.

Heart of the Metropolis

A very deep drone that rises in pitch begins this track, a deep pulsing bass sound injecting a feeling of threat and claustrophobia to proceedings. Lighter notes do add some highlighting to the soundscape but this is a maudlin track that just seems to ooze between the ears. The latter part of the track features a sound like a crow slowly being strangled, but slowed down to less shrill levels.

The Cowled Seers

Clear notes sound in a lighter space, the odd eerie rumbling and whooshing of wind making things seem more whimsical than fearful. The wind sound undulates and is joined by lone piano chords, time slows and forces are corralled. The piano notes are joined by others later as a melody emerges, delicate and poignant.

The Machine

A low drone punctuated with metallic rattlings and deep booming noises. The sound is jarring and creaking, the almost clockwork-like squeaks suggesting the titular machine is coming to life, aware of the attention of the listener and not best pleased to say the least. Choral vocals add to this effect, like the rising of Lucifer or of some great creature. The music twists and a darker choir is seemingly joined by more bestial roars as things begin to shift. String notes join the soundscape as what sounds like the hiss of steam erupts from the dark machine, the music swelling around the expulsions.

Thoughts:

Metropolis is a textured album that brings so many of the thing I enjoy about Atrium Carceri’s work to the composition of the tracks; from the eldritch rumblings and drones to the ambient sounds that fill the soundscapes with life (or un-life). Particular tracks that I might label as favourites were Decrepit City and Industrial District, the first for its corrupted feeling of majesty, the second for its slight steampunk associations for me. I also particularly enjoyed Across the Sea of the Dead for the way it managed to merge the stifling atmosphere of a swamp-like scene with the chill of a ghostly journey.

I give Metropolis 4.5/5 as it has nearly all the elements I enjoy from dark ambient music, produced in a high quality and textured way that really transports me to places you just don’t find in any travel brochure.

Visit the Metropolis Bandcamp page here for more info.

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

Album Title: Metropolis

Artist: Atrium Carceri

Label: Cryo Chamber

Written, Produced, Artwork and Mastering by: Simon Heath

Released : 9 June 2015

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Dark Music Review – The Old City OST

Written By Casey Douglass

This 15 track soundtrack by Atrium Carceri was composed for the Narrative Philosophical game The Old City. Soothing string like atmospheres, distorted drones and brooding atmospheres carry the listeners throughout the album.

I always felt that many of Atrium Carceri’s tracks depicted what it might be like to wander through a strange city. Now, in the guise of The Old City OST, that impression has become concrete as it is the soundtrack for a game which features just such a city. Sadly, I have yet to play the game, but this soundtrack has been on my permanent rotation for a good few weeks now.

The album starts with “Intro / Menu” which is one of my favourite tracks. Distorted piano is backed by a soft drone. Haunting vocals really evoke such a feeling of melancholy that even re-listening to it while I type this has made my eyes prickle. Other emotive tracks are “Childhood I” and “Childhood II”, compositions that make great use of notes that mimic a slow music box, some notes lagging behind the others slightly, others in perfect harmony, with some quite epic vocals intoning around them in “Childhood II”.

Not all of the tracks are melancholy or so emotive however. Some sound more primal, like a force of nature. The 10+ minute track “Leviathan” is a rumbling string-infused piece that certainly hints at something large and unseen, yet possibly not hostile. The brief track “Underground” echoes with a thrumming movement and is a more jarring soundscape.

Other tracks create great rhythms that lace the gloomy backgrounds with melodies that get stuck in your mind. “Journey Home” is a great example of this, featuring a great 3-note hook that the rest of the soundscape can easily hang from.

There are no tracks that I disliked, they all have their own charm and unique take on the audio theme of the album. Some are longer, more subtle journeys, others are short interludes of grief or nostalgia, like the sun breaking through a sky scarred by the clouds of a nuclear winter. This is an album of murk that has a tenderness to it brought through by the clever use of piano and vocals. I can only hope that Atrium Carceri does more soundtrack work as this is a fantastic album for any dark ambient fan’s collection. With this in mind, I give The Old City OST 4.5/5 and heartily recommend it!

Visit The Old City OST Bandcamp page here for more info.

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

Album Title: The Old City OST

Artist: Atrium Carceri

Label: Cryo Chamber

Written, Produced and Mastered by: Simon Heath

Released : 3^rd March 2015

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Dark Review - Atrium Carceri - The Untold

Review of Atrium Carceri "The Untold"

By Casey Douglass

 

Atrium Carceri’s albums are my absolute favourite to kick back and relax to. I used to listen to so called “new age” music for that purpose, and while I did find it relaxing, the airy-fairy lightness was so saccharine, it made me feel at risk of becoming diabetic.

I first stumbled across Atrium Carceri on last.fm, having searched for some dark ambient stuff. One of the tracks immediately reminded me of the music from the Silent Hill film which I adored. I quickly bought his first three albums and the love affair began.

That doesn’t mean that I have taken to all of his albums. I bounced off some of them and really became attached to others like Phrenitis. I view that as a good thing. It shows that there is some variety to what he produces, rather than them all being the same.

The Untold is his latest release, and certainly follows in the same vein. Eerie footsteps mingle with deep white-sound rumbling. Vague voices speaking strange languages argue in the distance, but in the most unjarring way. The sounds of slithering and rustling as the music ebbs and flows, the odd piano sounds adding to the dark undertones of the unknown vistas conjured in the mind.

That is what I truly enjoy about his work. With his horror soundtracks, I have mentally journeyed through abandoned cities, across desolate landscapes, and ventured deep into the earth with something unseen and gurgling accompanying me. I have also fallen asleep, which might mark me as some kind of psychopath. I don’t know.

The Untold is well worth a purchase if you are already familiar with his work, or other dark ambient artists like Lustmord. If you haven’t heard anything in that genre, Atrium Carceri is the best place to start, in my humble opinion. I did.

Rating: 5/5

Atrium Carceri's Website can be found here.

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Pondering - Dark Music

I suppose you know you're a horror writer when you are able to relax and fall asleep to music that sounds like listening to a horror film with your eyes closed.

I can't remember how I found that kind of music, but I think I was flicking around on Last.fm and I came across the dark ambient genre and just loved it. (I have used links to last.fm purely because it was the way I found the bands originally, and seemed the easiest route for this piece. You can easily listen to samples of the tracks of each band if you scroll down the page to "Top Tracks")

I think my absolute fave is Atrium Carceri, the music is so bleak but I find it still strangely restful. He uses a lot of captured atmospheric sounds, like footsteps on gravel, chains clinking and various others that I can't always identify. He also uses speech in other languages, like you are overhearing a conversation but because you can't understand what they are saying, it just adds to the overall experience. I have dozed off on more than a few occasions, and upon waking thought "Wow, I must be warped!"

Another good listen is Lustmord, which again I feel is very dark, but he uses low frequency sound like deep rumblings and other effects to create a real feeling of foreboding and tension.
A couple of others that I regularly listen to are Vestigial and Terra Sancta, which again, are dark and brooding but just have their own take on the genre.

There doesn't seem to be any way to get dark ambient music on the high street in my experience, so if you do listen and find that you'd like to hear more, you will have to use an online music store to purchase them. Don't bother searching the shelves of a mainstream store, although you might strike it lucky.

Happy listening.