One of the missions of Dark Ambient is to instill otherworldly emotions and senses in order to expand the horizons of the conscious mind. If you allow your psyche to open up to the music, the reward can often be rewarding. Whether the listener is seeking solitude, darkness, horror, a deep space adventure, or just an escape from reality, no other genre of music will capture that experience quite like Dark Ambient. Empty Chalice excels are doing just that, as their brand of Dark Ambient is a culmination of ritualistic ambience, terrifying field recordings, grim sequences and sampling, as well as vocal narrations. All of these combined create the malevolent recording known as ‘Mother Destruction’. At just over fifty one minutes long, these five tracks of neural dread, will anesthetize the senses and draw the listener into a hollow realm of consternation as they try to find the exit back to a normal reality.
Prominent album opener, “Unholy Light”, penetrates the ear canals with jarring synth pads and frequent cymbal crashes as a bombinate drone sound breaks through and add a depressive dynamic to the track. Moments of eerie near-silence pull the listener down even further before more deep drones start to rumble again. Various instruments add brief moments of angst, but this track halts on a grim & long silent ending. “Treblinka’s Snow” begins with a calming drone with dreamy instrumentation heard in the distance. Soon, beautiful female narrations add to the story, and it creates a numbing effect with its soothing structure and pacing. Scattered samples are amply placed throughout the narration, followed by a harsher droning sequence. “Qva Resvrget Ex Favilla” is a downright sinister track, as it features black metal vocal style narrations, as well as clean, operatic singing. At around the seven minute mark, the track begins to morph into more of an industrial ambient piece, with screechy drones and piercing synth pads. The near fourteen minute long “Rest In Pain” begins with inaudible narrations that have a echo effect on them. Combined with some high-pitched drones, and melodic sequences playing in the background, this track is a slow builder but very rewarding in the ends. At around the three and a half minute mark, a mid-paced drum beat enters the picture as the melody of this song becomes more prevalent. Even after the drums fade away, the melody continues to play on for a few minutes and then too it fades into the hisses of the synth sequences. The final track on the album, “Mother Destruction” begins with haunting tape loops, obscure samples and alluring synths slowly fade in. As the drones grow louder and harsher, the tone of the track becomes more evil sounding and bleak samples can be heard throughout. The final couple minutes of this song is a slow burn into obscurity as all of the noises gradually seize to exist.
Empty Chalice takes the listener to a cold and empty world, where escaping becomes the nightmare. Over the course of fifty one minutes, ‘Mother Destruction’ creates atmospheres that are both serene and nefarious. Featuring various vocal and narration styles, as well as elements of percussion and sampling, this is a very diverse and musically versatile album. I highly recommend this if you’re into the more obscure styled Dark Ambient recordings. Show your support for this amazing artist by clicking on the link below.
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