Last Rights
Creeping Death
Rigor Mortis
Tapping the Spine with Razorwire
Dismemberment
Whispers of the Dead
Decension into the Blackness
Keepers of the Deathgate

The subtitle for this review is: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. We’ll start with ‘the Ugly’ as that‘s easiest to write up first. That’s me. Hello.

‘The Good’ goes something like this. Habeeb is the moniker that L.Kerr of Steelhook Prostheses records under. Cutting a swathe a million miles away from the power noise of that unit ‘Il Cancello Della Morte’ is an expanded edition of the ultra cool 3 inch CD titled ‘Il Cancello di Morte’ released a while back on Somnambulant Corpse Recordings. Here not only have they changed the title slightly, which of course all you eagle eyed readers will have noticed, but it’s been released on the Somnambulant Records label. Have you noticed what they’ve done? Cleaver fuckers. Let’s confuse everyone. Well me at least. Anyway as an expanded CDr, as apposed to the original CD release, this actually compliments the earlier recording perfectly and adds greatly to the overall dynamic of the rendered soundscapes. ‘Il Cancello Della Morte’ is 8 tracks of the bleakest blackest ambient music you’ll have ever encountered. For this week at least. Fans of this style of music will know exactly what to expect. Swirling vortexes of textured noise that conjure up a nightmare vision of Hell on earth grabs your attention like a rabbit staring at oncoming vehicle headlights. Think…Watership Down on a motorway. The execution and production of all the pieces are faultless to the nth degree and, unlike some similar recordings, holds your attention in a vice like grip. This is very much an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in the darker side to music.

Then we come to ‘the Bad’. The original 3inch cd release came in a really neat bit of A5 packaging which was surprisingly different. Here however the cdr is presented in a bog standard slim dvd case that is, quite frankly, poor going on shit. For such an accomplished recording to be housed this way defies all logic and does a great disservice to the music of Habeeb. A minor niggle I know but it needs saying. So pop pickers. Go buy this and enjoy. Better still find the earlier recording and give yourself a double dose of the joys of Habeeb.

ANM