Ecdysis

Darsombra reportedly recorded this debut effort, Ecdysis, in a converted Baltimore funeral home, which perhaps explains its overall haunted ambience and brooding sounds. From the start, nebulous, deliberate movements such as "Thinning the Herd" and "The Place Where There Is No Darkness" proffer unfathomable combinations of searing industrial foundations, field recordings, and repetitive, wafting waves of dissonance, which leave them sounding like soundtracks to extra-terrestrial invasion. No voices are heard, no lyrics declaimed, indeed, none would arguably fit onto these experimental songs' wholly unorthodox, unwelcoming frameworks. However, both percussion and vocals (albeit submerged, whining, and unintelligible) are eventually introduced for the slightly more energized "My House," which comes off like some demented kind of Irish jig at quarter speed. Next up, "Drag the Carcass" returns to fitful droning over which Darsombra's one-man mastermind, Brian Daniloski, duly begins raving like a deranged preacher man; and then its back to instrumental purity for the closing tandem of "Swelter" (containing more of the same abstract noise constructions), and "Dies Irae" (resorting to minimalist, foreboding power chords). All in all, Ecdysis isn't usually engaging or visionary enough to earn top marks, but its challenging material does deserve some praise, if only for the sheer audacity required to attempt it.