Dronny Darko :: Godless Land (Cryo Chamber)

What is the difference between abandoned and forsaken? Dark tension, pounding under sustained horror and tension. This goes on forever. We are tourists here, and can go at any time. Peering into the darkness, we linger.

Peering into the darkness, we linger

The air is thick with the scent of damp earth and decay, a reminder that my fellow humans are no longer the dominant force here. I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of the enemies. I hear the silence, purchased only by the creaks and groans of structures surrendering to nature’s onslaught. To be forsaken by God means God will turn the forsaken one over to enemies, often to kill and destroy. God repeatedly did this to His people to judge them because of their sin.

What is the difference between abandoned and forsaken? Dark tension, pounding under sustained horror and tension. This goes on forever. We are tourists here, and can go at any time. Peering into the darkness, we linger.

To forsake another is to leave them entirely, usually in a moment of need. Punishment smells bad in this wet steaming hot place. We are marching in to roam around and raid in search of things to steal, “Enter the Godless Lands” (3:33). Here at the edge, the border, the frontier, I am entering cautiously, into decadence and emptiness where the absence of God haunts the scene.

Heavy tension from the start ::

There is heavy tension from the start, drones fashioned out of pure horror, now subtle and quiet. There is so much time here, “Valley of the Morbid” (4:02) evokes how it feels to be looking down from the mountain, looking down where everything has been dead for a long time.

After being up here for another long time something just kind of floats in. There are never any words, yet I hear something about “Hallucinating a Colossus” (4:34). The premise is terrifying. Just how big is a Colossus? I imagine a warrior maybe standing above the valleys and mountains, a giant who would have to bend down low, speaking softly and cooing slowly as the air is growing darker. Boom? Something is getting closer, I am going mad, it eventually marches out. 

Rain and wind at night hold “The Watchful Eye” (7:05), now the dread increases and something hums into form from mere gas, something is sneaking up behind me. Now wind, now alone, the horror builds as the thing gets closer in the darkness. The sound from where I am now, the marching is military, here legions are forming. They stand sharp. I hear ringing, “As Far as the Eyes Can See” (3:26). I hear an electronic bass, an ensemble with strings, Foley percussion and horns, all this emerges slowly with an actual tempo and melodic exposition.

Deep in a hidden chamber ::

But meanwhile, at another now, at another simultaneous time, we are deep in a hidden chamber. My drones of sorrow are still growing stronger. The world is dark. In here there is  thunder coming from under the cave. I think I hear an organ drone. Such as what makes slow progress and then peacefully fades, “Hollow Concrete Flesh” (5:14). There are jets in the sky, “Patient 4067” (3:33) I hear nothing that makes me think of a medical facility, but something is getting slowly louder. I swear I hear, down below me, a wet cave, and the sound of a scuffle, possibly barking. I see “Lights from Above” (6:28), there is some kind of mysterious drama in the darkness nearby until the drones take over. Before long I am back to endure dramatic mysterious thumps and sizzles. All is unexplained. 

I hear the instrumental voices but I don’t know… It keeps getting bigger, while somebody who is far away and lost is calling. I have gotten the old moldy motor running and hopefully off we go to the great beyond. Nothing moves. I keep thinking about all that we left behind, all that godless territory. The only thing left is “Escaping the Zone” (3:14). The whole thing will soon probably feel very nice, even while I am leaving this planet for another. This is an option sometimes. My footsteps echo off the walls as I navigate through a sea of ferns and wildflowers that have long ago claimed the pavement as their own.

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Written, Produced, Performed: Oleg Puzan
Design & Mastering: Simon Heath

Godless Land by Dronny Darko was released on May 7, 2024 from the Cryo Chamber, on that same day Ukrainian forces launched a missile strike on an oil terminal in Luhansk, Israeli forces entered Rafah in a “limited” operation, taking control of the Rafah crossing on the Egypt–Gaza border. The death toll from rocket strikes on an IDP camp in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, increased to 18. The death toll from ongoing heavy flooding in southern Brazil increased to 90, with more than 150,000 people left homeless.

Godless Land is available on Cryo Chamber. [Bandcamp]