Shadowcaster (us) - Abandonment CD 1996
1) Wisdom Is My Misery (Melancholia's Caress)
2) Abandonment
3) In the Darkest Reaches of a Distant Cavern at the Very Depths of a Great and Silent Lake
4) We Are the Elite... (Into an Abstract View I Sail)
5) Ereshkigal's Gift (the Descent of Inanna, the Ascension), Pt. 2
6) The Shadowcaster
7) Prolonged Aftermath, Then Solitude
8) My Summoning of the Darkness Princess [Embrace Me]
9) I Am Truly Free: The Blackness Within
Mediafire / Depositfiles
More non-metal follows, but despair not - I promise next entry will be metal. Probably black. Back to this post, here is another donation from brother Vaalkoth, the debut album of his ambient/synth solo project Shadowcaster which also released two demo tapes in 1994 and had some pretty bitchin' flyers if I remember correctly. Thanks mate! Right, released by the late infamous Greek label Unisound Records as a digipack, Shadowcaster kind of continued where fellow Americans Equimanthorn left off with their "Nindinugga Nimshimshargal Enlillara" album in 1994. I had no cover scans but found decent images of the front and back of the digipak, these are included in the download. And before you complain about the track titles differing from the album, these are as Vaalkoth sent them and I'd expect him to know how they are supposed to be written.
Less ritualistic and conceptually focused than Equimanthorn were, Shadowcaster combines darkwave, ambient and even some dungeon synthesque parts with (mostly) raspy black metal vocals, supported by some (very little) clean singing, whispers and such. I'm under the impression at least some of the material is improvised, not to Abruptum degree but there are still occasional jarring changes and unexpected turns of events. At its best the album is hauntingly atmospheric, at worst it makes you drum the table impatiently and wish the track would change. With a duration of 70+ minutes it does overstay its welcome a bit, but there is certain crude charm to this, similar to much dungeon synth work. I have to say I'm not too fond of the "lasers firing" sounds on the 25+min mammoth "Ereshkigal's Gift" - which otherwise works surprisingly well for its lenght. Try it if you're into bands and genres name dropped on the post so far, if you're not into them I guess you'll wait for the next post.
This is some pretty strange dungeon synth, though I definitely think its playing in the same sort of tradition. I've only given it one listen, but it seems very interesting. The vocals are pretty goofy and grating on your nerves, and there are definitely some annoying parts, but there are also some really fantastic parts too (the beginning of Ereshkigal's Gift, for instance, at least before the vocals). Also its cover is awesome. Thanks.
VastaaPoista@Andrew:
VastaaPoistaYes indeed, it's quite a difficult listen, especially doing the whole album at once! I was personally uncertain where to put this but you're right, it would largely fit within the dungeon synth parameters too.
Vaalkoth sent me also a second album which I'll post later.
Bizarro stuff happening indeed, especially in Ereshkigal's Gift about 20 minutes in when the theramin-like sounds arrive. Mega.
VastaaPoistaKitschy sci-fi movie soundtrack-isms and all, I'm looking forward to the second post.
@kp:
VastaaPoistaI thought this might amuse you and I'm sure Vaalkoth takes your comments as compliments. I'm planning to post the second one after Hammer Open Air (=this weekend).
At UNISOUND compilation there was a pretty nice theme
VastaaPoistahttps://www.discogs.com/es/Various-Into-The-Catachthonium-Vol-2/release/653985