torsdag den 23. juni 2022

 Empty Chalice + Cactus Dildo - S/T



A new release from Industrial Ölocaust Recordings, a split CD-R with dark-ambient/ritual act Empty Chalice, and a new and unknown painfully called Cactus Dildo (ouch!). Now I do know Empty Chalice (since I have reviewed the act a couple of times before), but as mentioned before I didn´t know anything about Cactus Dildo. I tried looking it up on Discogs, and it turns out that the sole member of Cactus Dildo is one of the members of the pioneering dungeon-synth act called Sagenhaft. They made a dungeon-synth release way back in 1996. Anyways, this is a split release having 2 tracks from Empty Chalice and 4 tracks with Cactus Dildo. A limited cool-looking black and white jewel case. The release is also out on cassette!

There are also some notes in the album from each act on here, here are the notes by Empty Chalice:

Assembled, registered, and mixed in March/April 2020. Concept born from the peace ad power of intuition of Transcendental Meditation. When our false perception is corrected, misery ends also. 

The first track on the album is called Schisma. A Schisma is... something for you to look up on Wikipedia, something about musical notes and math. The track enters a mediative dark-ambient zone in the underworld. Caught somewhere between heaven or hell maybe. Deep ominous multilayered drones and hidden synths in there... maybe? Heavy space ambient (in a way) imagining the few space-ship-traveling scenes from Lynch´s Dune film here. There are a few irritating clicks in the sound, which I don´t think were intentional. A great dark-ambient track nonetheless. 

The next track (also with Empty Chalice) is called The Field. An awesome and great-sounding Raison D´être´ish track. Slightly melodic, heavenly epicness, moody melancholia. Still some unintentional clicks at the beginning of the track. Later on... the shimmering sound of metallic crystals and more of that angelic melancholia. 


The third track on the split starts with Cactus Dildo. The notes by Cactus Dildo being quite interesting, read : 

Music found on moldy tapes in the abandoned house of an old pervert.

This third track is called A Mattress Of Dead Fetus. Clearly a more industrial-noise act. Heavily distorted and slowed-down sound of drums and bass, with some string instruments in there (guitars or piano?). Some psychedelic and distorted vocals on top of that. Some of this might be some of that music mentioned earlier!. Love the ending, someone laughing... and the laughing just sounds disgusting for some reason. There is a noticeable wet clicking sound in the laughing throat.  

The fourth track is called Daisy (She Was Just A Little Girl). Old school pre-death-industrial moods get you back to early Lille Roger (pre Brighter Death Now), with the swirling industrial psychedelic noise dragging the listener further down. A nasty great track without a doubt, more of this!

The fifth track is called Diary Of An Old Pervert. Moaning sensual voices with a sleazy drum and bass pattern to back it up. Cool sounding post-rockish sound-textures with some distorted whispering vocals seducing the listener. Distorted whispering vocals, brilliant. You can get tired of those vocalists always shouting their lungs out when someone hits the distortion button! Almost a kind of, sleazy striptease thing going on in here. Brilliant track with a lot of new ideas. 

The sixth (bonus track) Moldy VHS. A psychedelic Wunderbaum of pleasant aural-depravities. Altered and layered spoken words, distorted guitar loops... and then it suddenly in silence! There are still... 10 minutes more. Waiting...Waiting... Total silence. Nothing more. 

An album presenting two acts which doesn't have much in common. But, I do love the contrast nonetheless! The first one finds peace in meditation, and the other finds peace in stalking around in a house that belonged to an old pervert... fair enough! Love the contrast, makes the listener think... why? The tracks with Empty Chalice are great but could be greater if the clicks weren´t there. Cactus Dildo sounds better than the band name (believe me!). Lovely and seductive sound of sleazy industrial strip-tease music, more of that, please!


Label (official):

Band (Empty Chalice):

Band (Cactus Dildo):