Blood Tower - S/T
Yes yes, I know!... Why the heck is I reviewing an older release, with a cassette which has been sold out from the label?! I should have followed up on the various dungeon synth releases back then, or simply just reviewing the bloody cassette when I bought it. But what the heck, it´s still out there on Bandcamp and the cassette can be located in some murky dungeon cellar. Good and cult-like releases are a good reason to review them, not just saying ´Nahh, we only review new stuff´... Fxxx that, I am doing this review cause I feel like it. So let´s go!.
The self-titled release from 2016, is the very first/debut from this Nebraska, Omaha-based dungeon-synth. We´re not dealing with dragons and knights here, but more about murky things hiding in the shadows. Ever read horror comics like Eerie or Creepy?. Especially those with a witch-burning and medieval-gothic setting. Kind of places where ghouls are sniffing out their next meal at the local cemetery, where hags are gathering for a black mass... To boil it down to one soup, a place where dark folk-lore would keep people inside their houses at night!. The first tracks let you sit alone inside a morgue, with a thing... No doubt about it that the sheet covering the thing is moving!... Slow and slithering sounds crawls closer and closer. It reminds me of MR James´s classic ghost tale ´Whistle and I´ll Come For You My Lad!´, listen to this track while reading the last page of the story and you´ll know what I mean. A slow, haunting, creepy and monotonous ghost tune with additional white-noise in the background. Or see the movie (Below!) Excellent horror flick!
Next track Nocturnal Mountain has that epic proto-martial Conan-meets-the-occult feel to it, sounds like a minimal version early Endvra. The sounds and the tunes do it nicely, so why add more to it? Third track Returning to the Kingdom of Ashes, a desolate and bleak majestic atmospheric piece of shock. Seeing a once loved and thriving city/kingdom which has been burned down to a crisp. Forth track Foul Black Poisons, being inside some secret room where poisons are being brewed. By witches, assassins, evil henchmen? A nicely depressive and sinking doom´ish piece. The mood gets a little lighter with the next track called Alkoholik (yes with a K!), even jolly. Although the "merry" tune gives the listener the feeling that whoever is consuming the alkoholik, might need a break. A clumsy (but charming) example of drunken man's dungeon synth! Love Song of a Weeping Ghoul returns to that slightly epic and gothic-horror setting, perfect for watching the black+white silent version of Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Seventh track Beautiful Witches snares you with a spell of mystical and ritualistic tunes of seduction. And the very last track Taverns of the Phantasmal Stout gives the listener a break with a "normal" stout-beer.
WHAT IS NOT THERE TO LIKE?!. Blood Tower prooves the less-is-more effect being a good thing, and that minimalism can create a specific atmospheric/theme of focus. In this case, the black-white horror flicks and moldy gothic-horror vintage comics. I love it, and I am sure that you will love it as well!.
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