Aere Aeternus - Humanity Needs No Funeral

by Cosmo Lee

Claudio Alcara is a talented fellow. In Frostmoon Eclipse, he unleashes black metal with bouts of acoustic picking. Stroszek is his delicate, mostly acoustic project. (I wrote about these here and here.) Aere Aeternus is his collaboration with folks in England and France, and it suppresses his six-string prowess in favor of dark ambience. It’s no less musical, though, overlaying the requisite ominous synths with found sounds. Voices are the chief condiments, with men and women at various distances in various states of agitation/ecstasy. These voices undergo copious mutilation; one can almost hear the computer cycles crunching them up. Cavernous reverbs help create an endless tunnel feeling. Such detailed and atmospheric sound design is almost going to waste in the underground. It would make a marvelous video game soundtrack, especially as video games grow increasingly immersive (see this interesting New Yorker article on Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski). Perhaps Aere Aeternus is already thinking along these lines; this CD contains a grainy video of images of bondage, a skull, and a knife. Humanity may need no funeral, but Aere Aeternus seems determined to provide its requiem anyway.

Ouverture – A Conspiracy of Rats
Hatred to My Last Breath

Buy:
Kaosthetik
Rage in Eden