![](\"http:\/\/existest.org\/ee_v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/the_earthen_siphon.jpg\")
\nEvery year since 2012, we have been treated to a quality collaborative compilation between the iconic Malignant Records\u2014a label that I recently described as \u201cthe leading name releasing the new generation of old-school industrial and dark ambient music today\u201d\u2014and arguably the strongest digital label that our scene has to offer in Kalpamantra. Originally finding a run as The Malignant Series, the annual compilation found a life of its own last year with Endless Descent Into Oblivion: a thirty-nine-track marathon of nearly perverse audial violence (The Vomit Arsonist\u2018s \u201cFailed\u201d; T.O.M.B.\u2018s \u201cPurge\u201d) and, even more so, seething wretched atmospheres (Steel Hook Prostheses\u2018 \u201cMaggotry and the Sepulcher of Flies\u201d; Jarl\u2018s \u201cThe Great Moloch; Yen Pox & Funerary Call\u2018s \u201cBirth Lurker\u201d). 2015\u2019s edition, The Earthen Siphon, takes a small step back in terms of endurance at \u201ca mere\u201d thirty-three tracks (note the sarcasm), but the quality will no doubt remain incredibly high as most artists appear to be returning from last year, while a few notable new faces\u2014Abjection Ritual, Sph\u00e4re Sechs, and Climax Denial\u2014have either already been impressing us for years elsewhere, or have recently blown us away. Hall of Mirrors, for instance, seems to have come out of nowhere for this compilation after three solid years of silence, and their track \u201cForbidden Zone\u201d\u2014a creeping abyss of desperate dread that could have come straight out of Tarkovsky\u2018s Stalker\u2014has been fittingly used for this teaser.<\/p>\n