En Nihil - A Circle of Vultures
En Nihil shouldn't be a stranger in the world of death industrial (specifically in the United States). A quick intro for those who need it. En Nihil has been making angst-ridden ritualistic death-industrial since the mid-90s, on such cool labels as Pure, Eibon, Red Stream, and this one on Deathbed Tapes. This album is his 24th!
The album is called A Circle of Vultures, and the cover artwork perfectly represents the title. Inside we find a printed black white-labeled cassette, on the B-side it helpfully informs the listener that ´Program Repeats On Both Sides´. The booklet contains some info, it was recorded in 2022-2023 and was mastered by Thomas Garrison. This album is part 2 of the Greater Plagues Series, so I must go out and get the others (noted in my investment sketchbook). It´s a single-track album called A Circle of Vultures, over 37 minutes and 41 seconds long. Let's get on with it!
A hum of doomed monks in a ruined cathedral, ghosts of tortured souls moaning and floating in the air, eerie flickering noises here and there, high-pitched sounds intensify the presence of something... paranormal, and a ... stringed instrument in there (cello?). The sound quality is superb, as good as any of the classic Lustmord albums!
The track changes, when a looped machine hums a bass-heavy sound. Some clashing and thrashing of heavy gates getting closed, metallic chains rattled, and the whispering of voices from the cellar. Kind of a death-industrial/ambient version of In Slaughter Natives. Some excellent creepy raspy human voices gasp after the air, while some disturbing recording is there... sounds like... not sure, heart-beat or blood pulsating through the veins?
A heavy distorted bass creates a wall with horrific ambient textures running in the background. Marvelous grim, but so beautiful! A slow tension is building, just like waiting for the maggot to come while you wait paralyzed for them in the coffin. Think I can hear another sound here, someone sharpening a scythe? Or is it, gas escaping?
Additional thunderous roars from a furnace in hell, torturous slaps of whiplash-like sounds... and the beautifully textured pain-stricken voices of the dead... longing to exist again!
This all stops with a constant distorted tone, with an incredible (may I say sexy) pitched-looped rhythmic crunchy sound. Additional neo-classic dark-ambient element slowly creeps in, engulfing the listener like a carpet. Pure death industrial at its best!
It all becomes more and more... quiet. Slowly dying, with the vultures descending to your sun-baked body. This all stops! Distorted and warped radio sounds, and punishing waves of harsh death-industrial soundscapes hits the ears. Guess the afterlife isn´t all that great, we might just be in hell. Well, I do think we are!
From almost calm death-industrial ambient moments, we are now slowly descending into rhythmic harsh-noise territory. Desperate and chaotic, someone is obviously trying to crawl their way out of hell... or death. The harsh noise elements become more and more brutal and closer to HNW, giving the listener a longing for... release (not in a bad way!). But there is none, no release. But is there? Someone in the heavy noise, there is a sound... high pitched and angelic compared to the chaotic bass sounds. U only get a glimpse of it, and then it stops! Where has it gone...?!
A Circle of Vulture is a pure death-industrial masterpiece! Not only doing the pure thing but also incorporating ambient and harsh noise without sounding like a silly fusion thing. Love the contrast, one moment it´s pretty high-quality soundtrack-driven stuff and then it turns utterly grim and hard for the ears. Kind of a Ying and Yang experience if you ask me, I bloody love it... the whole bloody thing!
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