New Risen Throne

Rex Cerminorum (ii)
At The Shadow Of The Gates
Anointing Rite

Cruel Harvest

Black Aura Funeral March
Sacred
Haunted By The Same Dream
The Darkness Beyond

As Jesus said whilst on the cross: ‘What a way to spend fucking Easter. Hanging around admiring the local fucking view.’ Well bearded son of God fella I’ve got a far better way to pass my time over this holiday period. I’m into selfish indulgence where I’m going to chill out with my music and let my current worries and woes fade into the background. One of the records I’ll be listening to is this split CD on the God is Myth label. The last CD I heard by New Risen Throne, actually the only other CD I have by the Italian artist Stielh, was the "Chants for the cold and dying sun" [read here] released on, funnily enough, God is Myth label. I even bummed this up in a review on this site. Exceptional I called it…and exceptional black ambient it remains to this day.

On this recording he presents three new tracks, totalling 30 minutes, of pitch black tar ambience. By building on the facets and elements that worked within his previous work, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it, Stielh has once again produced the goods. Utilising the usual array of submerged echoed sounds and vocals and wrapping them in the densest electronics imaginable the music chills to the marrow. The whole idea of dark ambient music is to transport the listener into a fantasy realm of darkness and decay where the prevailing foreboding sense of danger and death is just a stones throw away. Stielh translates this journey through his music in a manner that is quite heart stopping in its effect. I may have overused the word exceptional in describing his music before but never has a word encapsulated everything so concisely about these pieces.

Cruel Harvest on the other hand is an unknown quantity. The four tracks on this CD are the debut recordings from this USA artist and having to follow NRH is no easy task. The music of Cruel Harvest takes a slightly different path and approach to NRH. On the first track he gentle lures the listener into a false sense of security with a slow build up using drones and piano before adding the effects of a prevailing storm gathering in the distance. The tension of the sounds are cleverly masked until its too late to escape its icy grip. By track two he introduces further musical styles into the mix making the music fluctuate in different directions whilst still retaining the dark ambience that dominates proceedings. Track three has a more experimental organic quality to it which came as something of a surprise to these ears. The music simmers slowly, never fully reaching a climax, instead content to fade away as though it never existed. The last track continues along the same lines but here he’s included a notable upturn in heightening tension that barely registers but is all to prevalent. Slowed down when least expected it stops suddenly leaving only silence to digest. The debut tracks by Cruel Harvest show a promise of better things to come from this artist and it will be interesting to hear how he develops through future releases.

In conclusion it will be the NRH tracks that will ultimately sell this CD but the music of Cruel Harvest shouldn’t be ignored. Both artists have contributed great music worthy of your attention.

ANM