Monday, October 7, 2013

ENSEPULCHRED "CANDLEMASS" CDr (AOW 136)

The final recordings from Ensepulchred, one of my very favorite black metal bands of the recent past.  Falling somewhere between the hallucinogenic somnambulist dirges of Xasthur and the pure roaring majesty of Summoning, Ensepulchred took USBM to an incredibly cold, empty and terrifying place, a fissure in the universe where dreams went to rot and die and the ultimate nihilism of existence was laid bare.  Vastly ahead of their time, they left behind a small but incomparable body of work that still sends shivering knives of contemplative blackened horror into the brains of the uninitiated. 
The band has been gracious enough to allow Altar Of Waste to release their final recordings, two massive songs that easily rank among their best and most densely layered work.  There is a stoic and aristocratic beauty to these tracks as well as a deeply unnerving center of dream reality, a hazy winter nightmare that blooms up like a putrid garden.  Black metal approximation and minimalism at its finest, a wash of icily gorgeous synthesizers and scathing vocals buried beneath the pummeling programmed drums, a funeral march into the stench of oblivion.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $19 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

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