All Started With the Second Death
It Drowned the Ceremony of Innocences
Then Came the Blood Dimmed Tide

Track one, "All Started with the Second Death" is a collaboration between the two Canadian acts but it seems a shame it’s only two minutes long, I feel it could have been explored further. It begins with samples of crickets and a sampled voice (same lyrics as cover) and moves into drones and a steady slow drum.

This merges into Antigen Shif's track "It Drowned the Ceremony of Innocences". The drones and dark ambience continue until the beat picks up and dies away, returning rapidly to build up into noisy rhythmic beats. Throughout the track fluctuates between ambient interruptions and electronic pitches which wouldn’t feel out of place on a Coil track.

"Then Came the Blood Dimmed Tide" by Iszoloscope is brought in with a voice sample for a long intro. After this dark ambient calm comes pounding rhythms but the ambience is a constant undertone. The track builds up layers then breaks them down, separating into different percussive elements. The central part of the track is very danceable with varying depths of noise to make it interesting and listenable. This then slows to a drawn out atmospheric piece with distorted vocal samples and echoes, then slower again. The track then builds up for one last time with a single drum hailing the return of the rhythmic beats with the underlying drones still playing a part. The track ends with fading ambience.

I can see about 50% of this release being fantastic on the dancefloor but the lengthy ambient breaks in both track 2 and 3 are too much of a diversion. I feel this release would appeal to fans of Black Lung, Imminent or Vromb. Overall, quite a varied release and very recommended.

JLM