Dark Sanctuary from France are one of the original purveyors and legends of dark atmospheric music scene. Now, thanks to Avantgarde Music, they release their brand new full length opus, and this is the first one in fourteen years. The title of the album means a lot. Cernunnos is an ancient Gaulish god who symbolized cycle of nature, from birth to death, thus symbolizing the death and re-birth of Dark Sanctuary. This new opus contains eleven songs of beautiful dark ambiental atmospheric music. This borders between dark wave and neoclassical with such excellent and beautiful female vocals which vary from chanting to delivering almost opera dramatic melodies thus adding to the already dramatic orchestration and songwriting. This is indeed music which takes you as a listener to the whole another level, some other dimension, when you open your heart and ears and listen to this beautiful album. My personal favorites on this one would be ‘Yksin’, ‘Mater Oceanum’ and ‘Asphodele’ but as I turn and listen to this opus over and over again I hear in some songs what I didn’t hear upon previous listening so that is another plus for this excellent opus. Great, great album!
Besides black metal, there is one genre of underground that I love to listen to in the last couple of years, namely dungeon synth and dark ambient. Tales Under The Oak from Berlin, Germany has a new opus out with Dark Age Productions. This is in fact eight epic songs plus four narrated short stories. The music on this opus is dungeon synth, epic and fantasy melodies go throughout the album as a whole, but there is also a healthy mixture of medieval dark ambient describing the concept of swamp kingdom and its denizens. Stories such as Brogg The Builder are interesting, like reading a great written dark heroic fantasy novel. Dreamy epic synth ambient songs like The One Who Carved It All, Bogg The Berry-Belly or The Water Lily Boat are sure to win you over and along with stories take you to other fantasy world in which you can stay for a while, because it is beautiful although a little bit scary. Great chapter in the tale of honor, life and woe.
Monotone Depression is an entity hailing from Sweden and this is a re-release of two demos both recorded in 1998 during the entity’s stay at mental institution. As Bandcamp says, music from bipolar dungeon, so I can relate to psychological side of things, because I am on the similar side as this entity, so I was eager to listen and enjoy this little piece of record. Some of the music on this nine songs has been edited with today’s technology. The music is complicated yet deep and simple at the same time. Some songs have almost punk rock or post punk melody and melancholy feel like Sister Of The Dark. Gothic rock and death rock with interesting vocal effects and gothic melodies are present in Out Of Tune With Life, but I also love depressive black metal influenced guitar work in On A Plane With The Devil. Lyrics are important part of music on this opus, so although some are really minimal, I can understand their meaning and entity behind them. Also, songs that I must mention being a stand out for me are Of Darkness And Suicidal Thoughts and The Loss Of A Worthless Father. This is not for everyone. I love it!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 