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

 

Dark Ambient Review: City of Tethers

Review by Casey Douglass

City of Tethers is an ambient and glitch-based experimental album from guitarist and sound artist Corrado Maria De Santis. The album description says that it was inspired by part of Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities, which makes mention of a city hanging over an abyss, with a net the only thing stopping it from falling in. What I found really interesting is that the people who live in the city know that the net will break one day, but that this makes their life less uncertain than the lives of people who live in other, less precarious cities.

Upon reading this, I found myself quite enchanted with the concept. Is it really better to live with a looming threat that is pretty certain, than to live in some kind of miasma of intangible yet almost infinite fears or concerns? Is it possible to be at peace on the edge of ruin? Do you appreciate life more? Does everyone who lives there feel this way or are there plenty who envy the citizens in the next city, the ones who don’t have a vertigo inducing view from their bedroom windows?

To be fair, the album description also relates how the theme of City of Tethers is all about the tensions between the systems that we rely on in our daily lives, how they affect the environment etc. but I don’t mind admitting that I mainly stuck to the “Holy shit, a city over an abyss!” point of view. There’s depth here if you want it, pun partially intended. Just be thankful it wasn’t a double entendre! Anyway, onto the music itself…

The opening track, City of Tethers, begins with a low drone that has a hiss at the fringes. Wavering tones appear and hover, a low distorted heartbeat-like pulsing underpinning things. Gentle, flakey distortions bring falling pebbles and soil to mind, with echoing rattlings, a distant shimmer, and ahh-like vocal effects joining the soundscape. For me, the overall mood and feeling of this track was of the last rallying trumpet call of a civilization that is about to be lost.

The next track, Entangled Uncertainties, opens with echoing muted mechanical trundling sounds. Electronic tones sway into the soundscape and there is another hint of those ahh-like vocals. The tones seem to align at times and to pull each other along. They feel melancholy. Organ-like notes and crackles emerge as the track’s halfway point nears. There is also a slow, deep breath-like hiss that flows and ebbs at the edges. This track, particularly once the organ-like notes began, had a worshipful, grateful feeling, like the last ever service in a church that would be gone the next day.

The Ravine is up next, a track that gets going with a chiming, pulsing space, backed by a low, wavering drone. There are more falling pebble type sounds, and vibrating flares of deep tone. There is a pervasive juddery feeling, and more of the gentle vocal-like sounds. This track resonates and rings with feelings of vertigo and of being haunted. This is further reinforced later when some of the sounds seem to take on the aspect of the shrieking of a flock of carrion birds; but the sound is soft and not harsh.

Dusk’s Embrace is the penultimate track, and after a very quiet start, it soon spins up into some wind-like static, pulsing semi-rough tones and a low drone. There is distortion like clipped rain drops too, and a warm fuzziness to things. Higher tones appear, strong and taught with a tension that seems to embody the struggle between light and dark. The whole track for me, felt like a bated breath, but also of peace and an ending. I also felt that as the track continued, the higher tone appears to weaken as night seems to win out against the daylight.

Finally, there is Floatin’ on the Edge, the longest track on the album at just over thirteen minutes. The track begins with scuffing knocking echoes and woody vibrations. There is a growing drone that slowly throbs with potential energy, like something poised for action. Gentle tones describe a leisurely simple melody that seems sad and somehow final. The tones pulse and mirror each other with hints of discord and struggling, with higher pitched tones then appearing to make the space seem busier. As the track plays out, it gains a teetering tension, and it feels like it gathers a kind of “busy beehive” type air. In the final quarter, there are odd tinkling and metallic clinking sounds, with low bassy judders and buffeting sounds. Maybe the city is about to fall…

City of Tethers is an album that adeptly embodies its theme of a precarious city dangling over untold depths. As I said in my opening paragraphs, I find the concept very beguiling and I’m happy to say that the music fits those mental associations wonderfully. The music is sad and uplifting, and also fraught with the dichotomies between light and dark, existence and destruction, and peace and fear. If you enjoy drone-based distortions and juddering textured soundscapes entwined with a concept that just begs for more than idle pondering, you should check out City of Tethers on Bandcamp when you get the time.

I was given a review copy of this album

Album Title: City of Tethers

Album Artist: Corrado Maria De Santis

Label: Owl Totem Recordings, Distributed by Fonodroom

Released: 26 November, 2024

 

Dark Ambient Review: Theater of the Mind Volume II: Cthulhu

Review by Casey Douglass

The human imagination is one of our greatest assets, and one of our biggest curses. We can mentally simulate and solve problems in ways which keep us safe; only lifting a finger once we’ve settled on a path to take. We can also be overrun by our fears and cognitive distortions, trying to solve problems that don’t exist, or that are just a symptom of our mental processes. Tormented or triumphant however, we can also use our imaginations to escape into other worlds and times, enjoying the spectacle of some cosmic horror, or the awe of seeing another world. Mindspawn’s Theater of the Mind Volume II: Cthulhu provides a dark ambient Lovecraftian soundtrack to deepen those experiences.

The album presents a number of eldritch vignettes, from the reality-shifting experience of drifting in an opium den, to hot and painful sex with a primordial dark god. Each track is named as such and the descriptions of each provide the listener with plenty of anchor and jumping off points for their imagination to roam from. I was particularly pleased to see the Plateau of Leng get a mention in the description of Rituals of Goatswood, as each time I hear that locale referenced in anything Lovecraftian, I experience a pleasing mental shudder at the name, and I’m not even sure why. It just creeps me out!

The opening track is Liao Cabaret, a hazy yet quirky piercing of the veil. A low throbbing hum, bubbling bass and tinny whines are joined by electro-static whirls, warbling spectral tones, and a coy drone that strengthens and then leaves you questioning if it was there at all. A buzzing thing does a number of flybys from ear to ear, snagging your attention in time for faint piano melodies to insinuate themselves at a distance. As the track progresses, there are bell-like tolls, scratchy scuffs and swells of gritty thick static that sit with a guttural low tone. This track really does suggest the listener is blissing out in some kind of opium den, with thick wafts of mind-altering smoke masking a macabre stage show that seems to hang just out of reach.

Peter Cushing as the Investigator is track number two, and for me, it brought to mind images of someone pouring over arcane papers while sitting at a lamplit desk. The piano-like notes have a warbling twang about them, and everything seems to revolve with languid echoes and a whirling shimmering. There are swells of low tone, distortion, and whisper-like scuffing sounds that I think were mostly responsible for my paperwork-themed imaginary description.

Rituals of Goatswood is up next and is one of my favourite tracks. It features a low throbbing quality and a drone overlaid with a chiming resonance that seems to create a shimmering spiritual space. Gentle chiming notes seem to be tapped in the middle distance, and a whirring metallic tone judders as the drone and static grow in force. Around the midpoint the track takes on a pulsing quality, and the thing as a whole left me with mental images from the woodland scene in the classic horror film The Devil Rides Out. A fun yet sinister track that hints at ominous forces turning their dark intentions towards our reality.

Another of my favourite tracks is Ghorl Nirgral, a swampy, echoing space that hints at the abyss. The soundscape is full of deep echoes and what seem like guttural voices and croakings. Low prolonged pulses of drone vie with a higher wavering electronic tone. There are furtive scuffling sounds, and later, the soundscape takes on a kind of vocal humming aspect, creating a peaceful or meditative impression. This track led me to think about the entrance to the abyss that sits under the Mountains of Madness in Lovecraft’s tale. Deep, dark and wet, with strange creatures marking the listener’s passage through ancient cavernous structures.

The penultimate track is The Mating of Idh-yaa, the hot and painful sex I mentioned above. The track description reveals the Mighty Mother, smoldering skin, and loins pouring forth the darkest of matter. The audio landscape itself is a highly textured rasping blare of sound, beat and tone, with rushing wind and insect-like rattling. It pulses and whirls with horn-like tones, with energy building and disappearing before ending in an “ooh-like” resonance that hits the aching void.

The final track is Black Sun of Sorath, which for me, was a sci-fi tinged cosmic horror-informed tableau. A low vibrating tone starts with a high whine behind it. An electronic, screechy whistling tone sets the sci-fi vibe, a juddery call to the uncanny nature of coming face to face with a cosmic horror. There is a low moan-like sound, a mechanical drone that roams from ear to ear, and pulsing fuzzy notes. Strange things seem to flit past your awareness, and in the second half of the track agitated yayayayaya bouncy whistling tones join the increasingly busy soundscape, hinting at a culmination of dark energies reaching their trippy zenith.

Theater of the Mind Volume II: Cthulhu is a dark and loving Lovecraftian creation that pays great homage to the cosmic horrors that Lovecraft describes. The tracks have a pleasing variety in texture and sound, but they all manage to evoke that unsettling otherness that keeps fans of Lovecraftian horror coming back for more. If you enjoy Lovecraftian horror and dark ambient music, I think that you should check out Theater of the Mind Volume II: Cthulhu on Bandcamp now..

I was given a copy of this album for review purposes.

Album Title: Theater of the Mind Volume II: Cthulhu

Album Artist: Mindspawn

Vocal Contributions and Cover Photography: Glenda Benevides 

Released: 22 Sept 2024

Dark Ambient Review: Awakening

Review by Casey Douglass

Who we are is an ever changing continuum of narrative, memory and biological impulses, and a few other things to boot. Anyone who has dabbled with meditation for longer than a few sessions soon learns to see that the self is an always moving target. Nevertheless, in most of the ways that allow us to function in the world, we have a pretty firm hold on our identity. How horrific then, to wake up as a self in a body that is not your own. This is the theme of Crypthios’s latest album: Awakening, released by Cryo Chamber at the start of October.


As with all tasty horror, things get even worse however. Not only does the subject of this album awake in a stranger's body, but they realise that they have died, they are in a laboratory, and once free from that, that they’re dwelling in a city that is also a prison. If you are familiar with the phrase “turtles all the way down”, this is “horror all the way down” in a pleasing and unnerving oil-slick filled slide into the bowels of dystopia. It isn’t all gloom and hopelessness however, there are oases of peace and beauty even in the most grim of settings.


The opening track Awakening, warbles and buzzes the album into life. Small scratches and echoes blend with electronic tones that poke and prod into the mental unease and disconnection of a rude awakening for the character. An airy drone and throb emerges as the track progresses, the inference of numb incomprehension vying with the amazement of being alive at all. A jaunty melody and beat kicks in before the end, almost hinting at things not being as bad as they seem, but this all ends in a chirruping glare of sound that soon dispels such notions.


The tracks that follow all have names that hint at what the album protagonist is viewing, and here, I’ll go into a handful of my favourites. Above The Skyscrapers begins with what seem like hints of bird song and growing, swaying tones. The birdsong takes on the mantle of burbling beeps as rattling dragging noises emerge in the soundscape. A scratchy beat and pulsing rhythm arise, and as a whole, I had the impression of all of the frogs in a swamp suddenly finding their rhythm and crooning together. That’s not to say that this track seemed swampy, but more to describe the fun quirkiness I found in the mental vista that opened up.


West Wall is another track that stood out for me. There are what sounds like wind noises, creaking, and distant clatters and scrapes. Juddery tones like machinery spinning up and down echo and vibrate in cycles, and a low, cat-like purring sound nestles against the droning notes. For me, this track felt melancholy, and depicted a cold night in a harsh city, where pouring rain and architecture have conspired to leave one tiny scrap of street sheltered from the elements… and there’s a big pile of vomit there, only visible by the two-tone neon light cycling across the street.


Energy Flow is the last track that I’ll mention by name. It begins with a low drone and muted scraping. A high tone insinuates itself and swells into chiming notes. There is a warbly quality to the space, and also a peaceful crystalline purity to the tones. A strong wavering electronic tone rises and falls after gasping injections, taking on a siren-like quality at times. Around the halfway point, the soundscape feels like a kettle coming off the boil. There are creaks and movements under a sustained light warble that made me think of an arthritic robot mumbling to itself as it searched for something. The track quietens towards the end, bassy notes hum and nestle with buzzing droning tones, before ending with some tinny rapid beats.


Awakening is a fun, bleak dark ambient album, one that wraps the cold horror of the protagonist with the warm embrace of the fleeting pleasures of life. While the theme is very dark, as a whole, I didn’t find the album particularly so. There is a lightness, a jauntiness at times, and for me, it strongly brought to mind my experiences playing the cat-based robot dystopia game Stray. Bleak, sometimes ominous or slightly jarring, but also cosy, neon-infused and light-hearted at times. If you enjoy your dark ambient with a technological, futuristic and dystopic feel, you’d do well to check out Awakening on Bandcamp.


Also, if you enjoy knowing if a dark ambient album is good for relaxation, I’d have to say that, for me, Awakening has a little too much drama and quirkiness to be enjoyed in this way.



I was given a review copy of this album.


Album Title: Awakening

Album Artist: Crypthios

Label: Cryo Chamber 

Released: 1 October 2024

My New Dark Ambient Album Trying is Out Now

I've been struggling with my health, both mental and physical, for years. I decided to create a dark ambient album around this theme and I released it the other day under my Reality Scruncher music project. You can find Trying on Bandcamp and you can check it out by clicking on the embed below.

Dark Ambient Review: Mørketsland

Review By Casey Douglass

The technological progress of the modern world is amazing, but it can also feel oh so feeble. Our days are filled with the tedious “Marimba” of iPhones and the steady beep-beep of drip-fed pseudo approval from strangers. When held up against the heady, tangible world that the Vikings lived in, the present day appears to be little more than the cellophane wrapper on some tasty roasted boar meat that’s about to be offered to the Nordic gods. Mørketsland is a dark ambient album from ProtoU & Oljus, one that tears through the cellophane with its teeth.

Mørketsland contains echoing ritual drum beats, deep drones and eerie spirit-laced echoes that seem to bounce around a harsh, weather-swept landscape. Wind howls and swells, rain patters and drips, and distant thunder rumbles ominously in a pleasing, distant way. Every track of Mørketsland is a darkness-bathed, drum-fuelled homage to the Vikings, with the rites and chants being enacted by the voices almost certainly finding their way to the gods that they hope are listening.

I think that Spirits of the Water is probably my favourite of the seven tracks on the album. It begins with a low, slightly vibrating drone. A bell-like chime agitates the soundscape and a low chant begins. A slow echoing drumbeat is there also, and some strange little bird-like tweets. What sounds like distant thunder cracks in the distance, a ghostly vocal insinuating itself shortly after. Later, there are impressions of wind and waves, strange intonations, and as the drumbeat intensifies, a very deep vibrating tone. For me, this track felt like it was depicting a longboat out on open water, a moonlit fog enshrouding everything except the immediate blackness of the waves.

Wall of Thorns (ft Ager Sonus) is another track that really got my attention. It opens with low echoing drumbeats in a howling airy soundscape, the scratchy pattering of rain filling the ears with threat. There are rustles and creaks, and these are soon joined by a plucked melody and morose pipe notes. The soundscape slowly ratchets up into increasingly booming drum beats and ever busier howls, cries and swells of wind. The plucked melody, taken with the other elements of the track, gave me Witcher 3 or Game of Thrones flashbacks, which is a fun thing to return to.

All of the tracks of Mørketsland transport the listener into dark primal soundscapes, the kind of space in which the ritual drumbeats lend a trance-like energy to the swirling chaos and hardness of the landscapes hinted at. If you like your dark ambient to give you the impression of sitting in the firelight while the ever darkening shadows beyond its limits press every inwards, you might want to check out this album.

Visit the Mørketsland page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also check out the Spirits of the Water video below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Mørketsland

Album Artist: ProtoU & Oljus

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: May 2, 2023

Dark Ambient Review: Anima Mundi

Review By Casey Douglass

Interconnectedness is a concept that can provide a great sense of spiritual peace. On the flip side, it can also lead to thoughts about how the worst or most undesirable elements of life are also closer than you might think. BRTHRM’s Anima Mundi is a three track dark ambient EP (among other styles) that brings the mystery of life and nature into energetic, musical form.

I think that the first track, Enchanted Grove, is probably my favourite. It opens with the sounds of dripping water and a low drone, with wooden knockings and breathy sighs soon joining. There are creaks and scrapes that give the impression of movement, and high swelling notes and shimmers that float over everything. There is also a peaceful “ahh” like vocal that seems to wrap everything in wonder.

What I really enjoyed about the first track however, is around the midpoint, there are beeps, radio squeals, and electronic melodies that I feel turn things a little “technology meets nature”. For me, this track felt like a deactivated android lying dormant in a rainforest glade, but something triggers its booting routine and it stands and stares in wonder at the life flooding around it.

The second track, Immortal Legacy, felt more like watching a tiny creature emerging from mud. It begins with a low shuddering beat and a rattling vibration. There is a roaming hissing static and a tone that sharpens into a razor edge. The sound of a ticking clock nestles against this high tone, before an 8-bit video-game buzz and melody joins proceedings. A great whirring begins, taking on the aspect of an air-raid siren punctuated with distant machine-gun fire. Before you know it, a warm melody begins, giving everything a “day out in Candy Land” feel.

The soundscape then buzzes like an insect-hive, and it was at about this point that I had the mental image of evolution, and some struggling organism trying to survive and overcome the obstacles of life. Why my mind went to something emerging from mud I don’t really know, but for me, this track would sit well with the images that are frequently used when talking about the evolution of man, from an ape walking on all fours, to standing upright, to walking along wearing a hat and carrying a briefcase. There is a sadness and a quirkiness to the sense of overcoming, but it’s a fun track overall.

The final track is Divine Offering, and this one features a chant-filled dark space that brings to mind some secluded temple hidden in the mountains, with monks sending their prayers up to whatever force they think is listening. It’s a deep, restive track, with a variety of tones and rhythms that come to play in its droning soundscape.

Anima Mundi is an album that takes the listener on a tour that includes both big picture feelings, such as thousands of years passing, and also the smaller concerns of one individual organism struggling in the mud. The darkness that it sometimes contains is more than balanced out by the uplifting nature of the melodies around it. If you enjoy your ambient/dark ambient music when it’s nearer this balancing point of light and dark, I think that you might want to check out Anima Mundi.

Visit the Anima Mundi page on Bandcamp for more information.

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Anima Mundi

Album Artist: BRTHRM

Released: May 5, 2023

Dark Ambient Review: Internal Winter

Review By Casey Douglass

There’s a pleasing irony in listening to music titled Internal Winter when the sun is shining brightly outside and the air is humid and heavy. Not only does it contrast in the most obvious of ways, but the meaning deepens when you consider how our internal landscapes can be so at odds with the external world. Examples of this might be someone contemplating suicide while smiling in the midst of their own birthday party, or someone else sitting alone on an isolated bench at the coast, happier than they’ve been for months as they watch the grey storm roll in.

G. M. Slater and Rojinski’s Internal Winter is a dark ambient album themed around “five journeys through inner demons, conflict, and turmoil” and is the perfect accompaniment for those moods when the difference between the internal and external is so great that you just want to laugh or cry in astonishment. It’s a dark and ominous album that’s full of thick, brooding soundscapes, with a wind-blasted droning and chiming aesthetic.

I think that the first track, A Blanket of Shadows, is my favourite. It opens with the sound of a gale and what sounds like echoing footsteps. There are wooden creakings and rustlings, punctuated by the occasional shrill whistle of the wind finding small cracks to howl through. Low tones and drones begin to sound at intervals amidst the crackling static of what might be snow on frosted windows. A faint chiming drone sparkles higher in the air, lending a notion of some light to what feels like a dark and decaying scene. The track grows more aggressive as time passes, with various of the tones and wind noises ramping up to create the precarious feeling of a tipping point being flirted with. I would say that the album artwork of the decrepit snow-covered house was designed for this track.

Tunnel of Disillusions is another track that stood out to me, as when I listened to it, I noted down that it felt like a hellish trip to Narnia. It begins with a reverberating chime and soft choral feeling, but soon deepens to create the sensation of being enveloped by a cacophony of whispers and voices. It feels claustrophobic and dark, with sharp-edged tones cutting the air. The insect-like vibrations sit alongside bell-like tolling, and things just seem to go down and down and down. Around the midpoint, things open out again, and I felt like I’d emerged from the tunnel mentioned in the track title. It feels a little like emerging into the farm of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, in tone at least. The heartbeat like rhythm and door slamming beat certainly rub nicely against the ahh-like drone floating above them.

Internal Winter is a fun journey into the shifting miseries of the human psyche. All of the tracks felt atmospheric and gritty, with enough elements of softness to prevent them from feeling a little too unrelenting. I felt that the higher drones and chimes lend a notion of looking for help from some higher power, while the lower elements do well to keep the listener mired in the mud and the murk. If you like your dark ambient heavy and questing, you’d do well to check out Internal Winter.

Visit the Internal Winter page on Bandcamp for more information.

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Internal Winter

Album Artist: Slater & Rojinski

Released: March 24, 2023

 Dark Ambient Album: The Abyss Hunts The Noisiest Prey

I just released another album under my Reality Scruncher music project. It's called The Abyss Hunts The Noisiest Prey and is themed around a ritual that destroys the realities in which it is performed. I aimed for the music to reflect that notion, so each track is the audio impression of the event.

Dark Ambient Review: Lost Loops Collection

Review By Casey Douglass

Mount Shrine was a dark ambient artist who was known for his soothing rainy dreamy droning creations. Sadly, Cesar passed away from Covid in the Spring of 2021, a fact that still makes me feel sad. Lost Loops Collection is a compilation of all of his currently known underground albums, EPs and singles, and was put out by the Cryo Chamber label earlier this year.

If you’ve yet to listen to Mount Shrine, I’ve always felt that the best way to describe his music is as a cosy “sitting by a rain speckled window, hearing the muted sounds of the surrounding environment” type experience. The sounds of the raindrops hits the ear like soft static, and the distant sounds of thunder, nature or civilization, are far enough away to feel safe yet interesting. Lulling might be another word that could aptly be thrown into the mix. Lost Loops Collection is FULL of this sentiment, with four hours of relaxing cosiness.

That being said, I'll be a bit perverse and say that my favourite track is something a little bit different: Grey Witch. This track is a dark, brooding track, one that feels ripe with occult energies and malignant presences. It opens with howling wind and low, smooth swells of drone. A vibratory edge swells and roams, with juddering pulses creating a kind of pressure wave feeling. There is a crumping, rasping atmosphere, and a general feeling of awakened evil seeping through a woodland at night. This is probably the darkest that I’ve heard Mount Shrine delve, and I love it.

Ghostly is another ominous track, but one that is lighter than Grey Witch. It opens with popping crackling static and swells of drone. What sounds like cars passing on a rain-drenched street splashes by as the pattering of rain on a glass window pane crystallises. Higher tones seem to roam from ear to ear as the track continues, with odd scraping sounds grabbing the attention at times. For me, this track brought to mind a haunted room overlooking a normal busy street, the objects being nudged by the poltergeist moving around unobserved by the modern world.

Staying with the theme of the otherworldly nestling against the normal world, the final track that I wanted to mention also fits this mould. The After Glow begins with a soothing downpour accompanied by thunder and an ethereal drone. As the track progresses, the drips and drops of rain begin to sound like they are hitting something metallic, and there is the sound of distant cars passing, wrapped up or muffled in the wind and rain. What this track suggested to me was a landed UFO squatting near a fairly busy road, but masked from view by a thin woodland. I don’t know why my mind went to this imagery but there is something in the music that hinted at the fortean again with me.

The tracks contained on Lost Loops Collection are all well worth listening to, and they all embody Mount Shrine’s way of creating beautiful soundscapes. If you enjoy relaxing rain and soothing atmospheres, you really can’t go wrong with four hours of Mount Shrine. Visit the link to Bandcamp below for more info. You might also like to read my interview with Cesar if you’d like to learn a little more about him. 

Visit the Lost Loops Collection page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also check out the Ghostly track below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Lost Loops Collection

Album Artist: Mount Shrine

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: May 30, 2023

 Dark Ambient Album: Ennui And Terror In The Void

I just released my fifth dark ambient album under my Reality Scruncher music project: Ennui And Terror In The Void. It's a dark ambient / space ambient album that sees a return to the horrors of deepest space. The album is also set in a suitably bleak future, which is par for the course with me lol.

If you like your dark ambient droning, minimalistic and sinister, you can check it out on Bandcamp. You can also currently pick up free Bandcamp codes for my album on GetMusic.com.