An obsessive, oppressive and darkly meditative temple of creepy drones and other sustained electronic textures.
Snowbeasts (Raab Codec & Elizabeth Virosa) are back with a blackened corpus of bewitching sound rituals faithful to the true tradition of the genre. The musical obedience and stylistic direction are quite close to the ones developed in the duo’s previous releases. Since June 2014, this rather hyper-active duo has released none less than three full-length albums: Snowbeasts (Component, June 2014), Ice & Shadow (Component, December 2014), and in last April Frozen Earth, also on Component (independent net-label based in Rhode Island that specializes in various experimental electronic fields, from IDM, to dronescapes, post-industrial and cinematic ambient).
The bleak, lugubrious path is explored further in this collection of synthesized waves and blissed-out drone mantras. The album starts with the deep sonorous and spacious “Awakening.” It continues with the malevolent and majestic Thelema-like hymn “Zealot.” Rumbling drones and eerily progressive ambience are occasionally punctuated by echoing percussive patterns which add a military industrial flavor. We can also notice the presence of treated incantatory voices, notably in the languid, cold and droney “Crash.” “Extinction” closes the album with an intense wall of powerful electronic sounds, reminiscence of a few post-industrial and cyber electronic materials from Bad Sector.
Frozen Earth is an obsessive, oppressive and darkly meditative temple of creepy drones and other sustained electronic textures. Recommended for fans of the thrilling and sinister black dronescapes of Beyond Sensory Experience, Blood Box and Yen Pox.
Frozen Earth is available on Component.
