The 33 minutes of Skrekk Lich Kunstler (Nekk Brekk, 2007) required over 900 studio hours. Either the studio was a home setup, or someone cut the band a sweet deal. If Steve Albini had engineered this record, at 10 hrs/day and his rate of $650/day, it would have cost $58,500. Nekk Brekk, Slagmaur’s own label, probably didn’t have such funds.
I can believe that this record took so long. It’s dense, twisted, and nightmarish. Imagine the seasick detunings of Blut Aus Nord’s MoRT given funeral doom heft, but with piano and real strings taped on. Eventually, the tape dissolves, and the acoustic instruments disappear into layers of groaning filth, cavernous drums, and animalistic croakings. Instead of the usual blastbeat flailings, the drums march at a slow, grim oompah. If My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless had had this production, it would have been murderous.
The packaging is quite special, a matte finish digipak with grainy, old-photograph aesthetics. Slagmaur’s mastermind, a General Gribbsphiiser, includes liner notes about how to listen to this record (“take your time with it”). “THIS is Black Metal,” he says. For sure, he’s onto something in capitals.
Skrekk Lich Kunstler is available from Twilight Vertrieb and Black Legion, and also by emailing Nekk Brekk directly.
This is a surprisingly cool song and all, but I think this dude probably records at home, so… EVERY hour is a “studio hour” when he’s “making an album”. Eating a baloney sandwich? “Studio hour”. Feeding the cat? “Studio hour”.
I only say this because making statements like, “This half-hour of music took 900 studio hours,” are so pompous and silly, though.
Cool track, however. But I could absolutely do without the Rocky Horror looking cover art. I dunno. WHo IS this guy!? Ha, ha…
Agree w/Andrew that this is a good track with much going on for it. I’d say the cover came off as a little more Turbonegro than Rocky Horror though, haha.
Heh, yeah, the cover is actually the worst thing about the artwork. Once you open it up and see all the images and liner notes inside, it’s really cool. And it takes a lot to grab me these days artwork-wise.
As far as studio time goes, I too want to feed cats and make soul-sucking black metal that sounds this good!