Another 60+ minutes of dark ambient soundscapes from this project. The first thing I notice is that the recording quality is noticeably better, it's brighter and fuller, as well as louder, with no lack of detail. As far as the material, slightly harsher tones are employed, though nothing too over the top, and repetition still plays a large role, sometimes more blatantly in the form of obvious loops and such. "NGANGA" is more percussive, with some indecipherable vocal samples way back in the distance and an almost dance-like sort of throbbing beat, lending an industrial feel to the piece. Overall this disc provides a slightly more aggressive and in your face approach, but not at all harsh per se, and there are sill some ominous ambient epics that top 10 minutes - see "Wormwould (Live 2.16.01)" (which for a live track sounds incredible). This is a masterful piece of thick, brooding dark ambient, with perfect clarity and depth... very nice. I'm not into the layout at all, simply because I find the icons to make little sense, I hate cheesy looking Photoshop effects used as background textures, and the motion blur effects on the back cover's text are unnecessary. The text on the backside of the insert is pretty much the only thing that looks clean and professional... the rest is pretty bland. For the most part I feel very much the same about this as I did regarding the "Abominations" collection. A few excellent songs could have made for a killer EP, but this is too long and largely uninteresting for me to really enjoy. I'm glad that it's not the exact same thing, there's more variation here and some growth shows itself in the stronger songs, but at the same time, there's too much filler and not enough exploration of the projects' stronger areas. With a more appropriate visual aesthetic and a honed musical focus, this project could do quite well in the future, but I'm not overly enthusiastic about the bulk of these recordings.
[Tantric Terror]
Running time - 68:56, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: The Writhing Darkness, Wormwould (Live 2.16.01), Temporal Vortex]
Tantric Terror - http://www.tantricterror.com
