Demonologists/Deathstench – Incantations in Dead Tongues CDR

Black Goat Records

Here is a sick split between two artists who I’m unfamiliar with. I always enjoy hearing new stuff that peaks my interest, and there’s nothing like a good dosage of black noise to do so. First off the artwork on here is somehwere inbetween black metal and stoner ink drawings which represent the sounds accurately.

Demonologists kick things off with a mix of wall noise and creepy ambience. With song titles like Corpse Orchard and Blood Soaked Pregnancies this is a dark, soulless sound that barely comes up for air. The formula seems to be working off a searing hot core of brutal noise and adding moving ambience on the fringes of the mix. The sound here reminds me most of Existence Establishment’s own Sistrenatus & BT.HN – Exposing the Ribcage with a nice mix of wall-noise and drone. Demonologist’s formula only goes so far though, as some of the noise starts to wear thin after a while. Although it never becomes bad at any point it does suffer a bit from “vacuum cleaner” fatigue as the hallowing noise drowns out a lot of the more subtle details and can get tiring on the ears. This is about 15% ambience and 85% harsh noise, if they were to switch the percentage around it would be right in my sweet spot.

Deathstench actually does represent the right mix of ambience and noise and he lets his textures breath a bit more. Continuing with intense track titles like Wivesblood, Bones of the Aborted, and Putresence Upon the Altar there’s still no respite from the deep pitch black concepts here. The material brings to mind early Gruntsplatter which makes me think how it’s interesting to hear artists kind of re-discovering black noise in this day and age. The production here is lo-fi but in a way that makes the recording feel gritty and weathered, so it’s not held back by this characteristic. Deathstench seems to employ a bed of churning industrial noise with washes of textured sounds piled on top, accompanied by whispering samples to form a thick core of seething industrial noise.

Of the two I enjoy the sounds of Deathstench a little more as I think the ambient qualities of this split are generally stronger than the noisier elements. Either way though, this is definitely a quality release with a consistent vision, great artwork and solid sounds from two lesser known artists. I’ll be keeping one wary eye on everyone involved with this project.

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