Law - The Black Lodge
It's not a new release as such, but it is certainly worthy of a review on Kalteldur. Law is an experimental dark-ambient/industrial act from the US that started back in 1994. The main member is Mitchell Altum, and in the beginning, it was a duo with Marissa Lafferty. Law has released 6 albums, and Black Lodge is the last album from this project. A solo work by Mitchell Altum.
Released in 2001 on the French label Nuit Et Brouillard, the physical CD album is limited to 500 copies. Nice cover design as well. A glossy fold-out sleeve, which comes out as a sort of cross. Lovely mystical photos as well, which perfectly fit the title of the album. a 9 tracker over 70 minutes long.
The first track is called Unreachable Core. Sounds like... someone trying to catch their breath in a gas mask. Combined with mystical and archaic machine sounds in the distance. A heavy drone invades the space like a heavy fog and distorted and rumbling industrial sounds subtle raising the otherworldly tension. Great ambient elements further hypnotize the listener, kind of like a surreal Archon Satani, my ears are already open!
The second track Always Forward, Never Back. A flanged looped sample, and eerie undertones of soundtrack creepiness behind it. Interesting kind of ritualistic melody/element in there, like if someone using a keyboard as a drum kit. A vocal-driven religious chanting gets in, it does remind me of Diablo 1... one of the tunes when you are wandering through the subterranean dungeons. Could also be from Herzog´s Nosferatu, not sure. But it sounds INCREDIBLE great! It all ends with a flesh-churning distorted ambient tone, just drilling into your ear.
The third track The Strong Is Strongest When Alone has a kind of... power-electronics element to it? Kind of power-electronics/death-ambient style in the same vein as Anenzephalia. Merciless and brutal, but also with a soothing atmospheric depth to it. With even some spoken-word vocals to it. Halfway through a frantic and rhythmic sound is added, only giving the listener the feeling of running from something in a dark forest. The whole track has that kind of sinking abysmal feeling, the more you struggle the more you sink.
The fourth track Power And Overpower. Offering a heavily distorted spoken word. Something about the laws of nature, lamb, and wolves... prey and hunter stuff. A churning death-industrial BDN´s Pain In Progress mood/sound gets in, with some really surreal soundscapes in the background. These soundscapes get more and more heavy, and eventually, they will suck the listener straight into it. Some really terrifying screaming human voices in there as well.
The fifth track The Mind Overcomes Fear, The Body Overcomes Pain. Gets into a sort of slow martial-industrial mood/aesthetic. A looped piece of classical music or opera? It does have that early Laibach element to it, especially with how the manipulated vocal sounds.
Total Immersion is the sixth track on the album. Back again with flanged looped sounds, sounds which represent a certain kind of dread for cosmic horror... and bombs/drums sounding in the distance. All this ends after (almost) 2 minutes, and then we are drifting... completely weightless through space. The intriguing sound of... an acoustic guitar? Don´t run away, the melody from this guitar has that kind of Swans touch to it... and the sound effects on it make it sound... undescribable. The rest of the track is a long voyage into the center of a black hole.
We have 22 minutes left, and every second of it is great. It´s not the kind of classic death-industrial/dark-ambient album that u get into the first time around to it. I didn´t get it after the first 3-4 times, but the album kept on making me more curious... so I ended up listening to it like 10 times. Very atmospheric and very abstract as well. No doubt about it... this is a truly underrated masterpiece! The sound is so abysmal and incredibly dark! I wonder if the album title is from Twin Peaks? But I'm also in the depth of Lovecraftian cosmic horror as well!
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