Allerseelen - Frühgeschichte II - Requiem [Aorta/Ahnstern - 2015]Here’s the second in the series of reissues of early releases from Austrian industrial innovators Allerseelen. Requiem originally appeared in cassette form back in 1989, and it showed the band in a very primal, murky yet highly atmospheric sonic setting. The reissue comes in a suitable murky & earth coloured digtpak, which takes a dark red skull tile picture on the front, & layers of brown, yellow & black textures following the dark, grimy & stark feel of the music its self. The albums eight tracks are built around a very lo-fi & primal mix of the following elements: Violin, Kettledrums, Guitar, Xylophone, along with samples of ravens, bone & flame. Each of the track comes in between the seven & nine minute mark, and each track creates a suitable stark & bleak ritual industrial vibe- at times it almost wonders towards having the same vibe as very lo-fi goth music, at others slurred & barren stripped-back black metal. Compared with the first release in this series Schwartzer Rab- the tracks here are a little more varied & advanced in their use sound & the way their composed. Yet all the tracks are extremely stark, striped-back & ultra bleak in their slurred ritual industrial feel. The linear notes talk about autumn tiredness, crypts & death, and that’s exactly what the music here sounds like- it’s grey, earthy, musty & dread filled rattling with age-less despair & time-less gloom. In summing up it’s great to see Allerseelen continue with this reissue series, and I do hope there are more in the pipeline. So if you enjoyed slurred & dread heavy subterranean industrial music this is well worth checking out, but don’t hang about as once again this is only ltd to 300 copies which I’m sure will disappear fast. Roger Batty
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