TenHornedBeast - The Sacred Truth
TenHornedBeast is the UK’s Christopher Walton, who reshapes an interest in doom metal into something much less formatted. Evidently, earlier work leaned towards guitar, bass, and drums. Now, however, TenHornedBeast exemplifies a world where black metal, doom metal, drone, and noise aren’t loci but merely reference points shading into each other.
Our Lady of the Lightning Bolt (excerpt)In the Teeth of the Wolf (excerpt)
“Dark ambient” best describes The Sacred Truth (Cold Spring, 2007). The term is inadequate, though, as the record is full of shade, if not necessarily light. It’s a rich collage of sounds and sources – harnessed feedback, screaming synthetic winds, found sounds, electrical ambience. Flange-esque throbbing arcs throughout. “Oppression Sacrament” mixes religious chants into its miasma; “Strength Through Fear” saws out trenchant, cello-esque lines.
At 22 and a half minutes, “In the Teeth of the Wolf” is the record’s linchpin. It’s Godflesh inverted – guitars imploded so their atmosphere faces out, militant percussion marching in the background, cymbals hissing in a sea of roiling drones. The mix is seamless; the effect is cinematic. Ridley Scott would kill to have this for a soundtrack. Imagine exploring a massive, abandoned spaceship that mysteriously crackles with electrical life – or death.
This is art as it should be – fierce, nuanced, with room for interpretation. It comes in a beautiful digipak with matte finish and laminated accents, and is available in Europe from Conspiracy, in the US from Malignant and Ominous Drone, and in the UK and the rest of the world from Cold Spring.
