Well, aside from a couple of song titles that still seem out of place to me, this, my second exposure to A Crown of Amaranth, marks a much stronger and more focused release - exploring a rather ethereal, minimal dark ambient direction, as opposed to the jarring and disjointed exploits of the "Shave" EP. After the brief "Cower" shifts from rumbling samples of squealing pigs to bright ambient rings, the 12-minute "Reduced to Ashes" sees chirping birds and other such field recordings mingling with restrained lulls - which gradually take over and shift around over the course of several minutes to gradually change the tone of the piece to a reverberating hum with tactful swells of distortion (not unlike an alarm of sorts). Of course this is a bit of an abrasive approach in the latter half of the piece, but the transitions are fairly well handled, and it plays out nicely in the end. "Winterupt" then references some of the musicality of the "Shave" EP, combining thickly recorded guitar notes behind a sizzling midrange hum and resonant low-end. Were the guitar laid to rest this would be a much darker and more menacing piece, and I'd certainly prefer it that way, as I wasn't missing the presence of traditional instrumentation at all during the first two tracks here. "Harsh Vaginal Rubbing in Flames" (say hello to the first song title that clashes with my particular tastes) is an extremely stripped down piece that utilizes basically nothing but one windy, wavering texture that's not nearly as harshly distorted as the title may suggest, though it does start to pick up and get a little more fiery on occasion. But then it's onto the piano and faint drones of "Spirit That Never Moves", which is certainly a more effective take on musicality than the earlier presented guitar work. "Gargling Infectious Waste" (you guessed it, there's that titling issue again) is the loudest and most abrasive of the tracks, using a lot of heavily reverberated and oppressive distortion that's basically aggressive via muddiness and volume more so than actual harshness, and there are lots of swirling electronics in there too, so... this one's a big miss in my book, and clashes with everything else herein. But after that random outburst, "Deciphered" returns to restrained, billowy ambience of the darker variety. Go figure. The CD-R comes in a color sleeve with some nice looking photography and almost no text on the outer packaging. Some of the other imagery isn't really my thing, but the real problem is that the printing is done on those weird perforated sheets or whatever, and the quality ain't that hot, so a lot of the power of the images gets lost in that decision. Shit happens, though. I'm still torn on this one. This is definitely a stronger offering than "Shave", and I actually really like some of this stuff, but... I mean, honestly, what's the reasoning behind silly song titles like "Harsh Vaginal Rubbing in Flames" or "Gargling Infectious Waste" amidst an otherwise intriguing and tactful collection of sound explorations? It's not like the literal noise delivered in those tracks calls out for such titles, aside from the goofy samples at the start of the latter (which is basically a bum track anyway). And that kind of stuff, coupled with oddly "lighthearted" artwork inclusions under the CD tray and a couple of rough spots in terms of sample use or performance quality still manages to hold this one back from doing the trick for me. So, basically I'm still hoping for better things to come from A Crown of Amaranth. Curious, if nothing else, though.
[Audio Savant]
Running time - 37:36, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Winterupt, Spirit That Never Moves]
Audio Savant - http://www.audiosavant.com
