Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain "Remembrance of Your Last Moments" CD
[Pottersfield Site]
I believe this is the second release from this experimental noise outfit, but it's my first exposure to his work. The CD-R is housed in a nice looking vellum sleeve with some abstract imagery and simple text, allowing portions of a handwritten note and a smaller text insert to show through. The back cover is hand-numbered of 51 copies and the handwritten note goes on to explain that the project's visionary, Marc Benner, lost his father in 1998 at the age of 51, and this release is inspired by the "anger and frustration" resulting from the situation. After a minimal track of sparse distorted textures, "The Affliction Has Taken Over" is longer and slower moving, with faint distortion and effects applied to a deeply pitch-shifted speaking voice that's impossible to decipher. After a brief ambient interlude of sorts, it's back to thin, raw harsh noise with "Fractured by Love and Duress". This is another fairly minimal piece, though there is enough movement present, shifting into a thicker and more oppressive density. "Watching as Your Once Brilliant Mind Slips Away" tops eight minutes and is more atmospheric and involved to me, using some sinister textures that possess more character and intrigue than any of the prior compositions. This leads into the crisper and sparser distortion in "Cascade of Ambivalence", which again references some of the pitch-shifted speaking to a lesser degree of prominence. "During the Last Moments" is another succinct dark ambient excursion, which brings us to the massive 16-minute finish with "In the End You Always Realize There is No Hope" - which is very similar in approach to "Cascade of Ambivalence", sans the sampled voice. This is a tough one to review, as I definitely respect the inspiration of the work and in no way want to demean such an intense personal trauma, but I feel like the packaging and the song titles on this one actually conjure up more powerful imagery than the music does. I enjoy the quaint ambience of "As Your Body Weakens", and "Watching as Your Once Brilliant Mind Slips Away" is an excellent piece, but a few of the other tracks seem to fall on the bland side for me, and I'm not particularly moved by elements of those sounds the way the subject matter had me anticipating. I also feel like a $7 pricetag might be somewhat expensive, even for a limited release, simply because I have a hard time justifying paying more than $5 or so for a D.I.Y. styled CD-R when you can get professionally pressed CD's from most underground labels for around $10 each, but... maybe that's just me. So, in the end I respect the vision here, and there are strong elements present, but the complete release falls a tad short for my particular tastes. But Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain is a rather young project, so we'll see what the future holds as things progress. (6/10)
Running time - 50:04, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: As Your Body Weakens, Watching as Your Once Brilliant Mind Slips Away]
Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain - http://www.m-arcanum.info/dead/

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