{"id":605,"date":"2010-06-08T07:18:40","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T05:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/?p=605"},"modified":"2011-04-15T05:59:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T03:59:49","slug":"a-review-from-maelstrom-zine-june-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/?p=605","title":{"rendered":"A review from Maelstrom Zine (June, 2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For \tthe first time in memory, we at Maelstrom <\/em>are highly recommending an album \tbased on the work\u2019s packaging and care in putting it together.<\/p>\n

The AL 100th Anniversary<\/em> is a 2CD compilation of dark ambient bands \t(separated into „songs“ and „electronix \/ experimental“ disks). The impetus \tfor this release is the 100th anniversary of a significant even in the \thistory of Aleister Crowley, the patron saint of the occult.<\/p>\n

The CDs come packaged in a black cardboard box with the artwork shown at \tleft (the same art on the booklet). The CDs are in their own double sleeve, \teach side featuring with each one\u2019s specific art. You also get a fold out \tposter of the fetching art work. The booklet is the same size as the box, \tapproximately 10″ x 6″. The track listing, like every other visually \tstunning aspect of this work, is carefully and professionally laid out.<\/p>\n

Before we continue, a disclaimer: as far as dark ambient goes, I am little \tmore than a dilettante. And by that, I mean I\u2019m a casual, disinterested \tparty, mostly keeping up with it through the ardor of ambient-loving staff. \tBut it is with strong conviction that we can say that this compilation is a \tmust have for any enthusiast of dark ambient music.<\/p>\n

For one, the track listing. Names like The Soil Bleeds Black, Atrium \tCarceri, Musterion, Chaos as Shelter, <\/strong>and Za Fr\u00fbmi <\/strong>are no strangers to \tpositive reviews in our pages. And while compilation albums have become \tentirely worthless in general due to the advent of Myspace.com<\/a>, this 100th \tAnniversary collection works as all the tracks were made specifically for \tthis album.<\/p>\n

You can complain about how many of the tracks feature way too much \ttheatrical talking (well, you can make a case that any is too much), and \tthat the album\u2019s sinister proceedings can often err on the side of the \tcheesy. But that goes along with the genre\u2019s territory, and bemoaning it \twould be like pointing out a power metal album is bad because it had high \tvocals. Besides, the whole compelling mystique that surrounds Crowley is \tpretty cheesy anyway, so this album is indeed an apt musical mirror of that.<\/p>\n

What is apparently positive about the album is that much of the material is \tindeed musical, with frequent occurences of singing and melody. Even the \texperimental disk features tracks that have indications of arrangements and \toriginality from one another. That disk is unexpectedly the best of the two \toverall, as it generally weaves a consistently effective web of plodding, \tmisty, occult atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Although you can make the case that dark ambient as a genre is artistically \tsuspect as it relies far too heavily on plagiarism (if you hear an \torchestral arrangement in a dark ambient album, you can be sure it\u2019s lifted \tfrom an old, obscure LP), again, it goes with the territory.<\/p>\n

Is this the best dark ambient music you can find? Possibly not, but it is in \tall likelihood one of the choicest additions you could make to your dark \tambient loving collection. Hell, even I couldn\u2019t give it away to my staff.<\/p>\n

gorgeous\/10<\/p>\n

Roberto Martinelli<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in memory, we at Maelstrom are highly recommending an album based on the work\u2019s packaging and care in putting it together. The AL 100th Anniversary is a 2CD compilation of dark ambient bands (separated into „songs“ and „electronix \/ experimental“ disks). The impetus for this release is the 100th anniversary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-va-al"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.horus.cz\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}