Here we have eight tracks and over an hour of material from this UK project. I've never heard any of Skullflower's previous work that I can remember, but these compositions result in lengthy excursions into psychedelic drones and noisescapes that tend to be very repetitious and loop based in presentation. I'm honestly not that into the stuff just because it's a little one-sided, but there are a few things that can irritate me here, which is unfortunate since there are definitely characteristics of the atmospheres that I enjoy. What I don't like is the fact that the guitar parts, which are usually quite distant, seem improvised to the point of feeling raw and underdeveloped, and I don't find that such playing is enough to keep these songs from basically sounding like the same thing over and over for five to 10 minutes apiece (barring a few subtle shifts here and there). Also, despite the fact that each track tends to explore its own realm of textures, I'm not at all a fan of the way the songs start and end abruptly without any sense of gradation, so it basically sounds like these "songs" were simply clipped out of larger recording sessions, given titles, and slapped onto a CD. Sure, it wouldn't necessarily make sense to just fade the ends or anything, but it doesn't really sound complete in this form, as often it will feel like a more finished end is approaching when things instead jump quickly to the next track. "Annihilating Angel" is much more ethereal and atmospheric, shifting about more often from pulsing percussive textures and eerie loops to harsher electronic distortion and swirling movements. Some of that motion continues in "Vampires Breath", but the guitar noodling is again bothersome - drawing away from a rather interesting Godflesh-like loop that lurches off in the background. The longest track at barely under 10 minutes, "Ghosts Ice Aliens" is the only song that I actively dislike (along with "Star Hill" which sounds almost identical but with a better sense of clarity), as the annoyingly persistent and hollow hum is uninteresting and the layers of muffled guitar improvisations are even more dull than in the other tracks, though admittedly almost all of the random guitar leads such as these sound damn close to the same everywhere they appear throughout the entire album. Closer "Forked Lightning" is more of a straight noise track, with a thicker and more rambunctious mix that feels a little more caustic and in your face, though you can still make out elements of the guitar style and such in there as well. I don't really have any quarrels with the sound quality other than the fact that some of those obscured guitar tones are a little too raw for me. The core of the work's soundscapes sound full and efficient, so it's only the lightly musical elements that sort of rub me the wrong way sound-wise. The packaging does look nice, too. The Skullflower logo is messy and illegible, but other than that I quite enjoy the color scheme and style of imagery/text employed. In the end, though, this just isn't something that interests me. Something about it just comes across as too "easy", or something. I mean, I could very well be completely and totally wrong, but this just doesn't sound like something that required a great deal of thought or effort, and I'm rarely picking up on any sense of feeling in these compositions. Abstract opener "Starry Wisdom" is by far the most successful track on this outing, with the more varied and unique "Annihilating Angel" coming in a close second. The bulk of the other material is just too one-sided and redundant for me, and I think the guitar work needs to push for something a little more inventive, if not something that ends up being catered to specific tracks rather than following the same path no matter what. There are some curious moments here, but various forms of this approach are being explored to greater strengths by other artists these days.
[Crucial Blast]
Running time - 60:59, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Starry Wisdom, Annihilating Angel]
Crucial Blast - http://www.crucialblast.net
