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Blackwood is one of Eraldo Bernocchi's several experimental musical and artistic projects (Sigillum S, Simm, Obake...) and Of Lies is Blackwood's second release, an EP of 3 tracks with an overall playing time of about 20 minutes. Time enough for Bernocchi to get you hooked on this relentlessly crushing Doom Dubmospheres. Even more so since he's supported by two greatly talented vocalists who lend their unique touch of eeriness to two of the three songs, Emilia Moncayo of Minipony and Stefania Alos Pedretti of OvO.
Emilia Moncayo's vocals appear on the first song "Of Flies". They are beastly gnarls and incantations complementing the minimalistic rhythms that sluggishly pound their way through the song. The vocals and the wailing guitar melody are kept quite low compared to the omnipresent sub bass lines and drone sounds, and this combination is as terrifying as it is creepy.
The structures and rhythms get increasingly disintegrated on "Seclusion". Word samples like shreds of communication, overlaying effects and especially the oscillating sounds, create a chaotic and nauseating atmosphere. The powerful beats drench everything in an oppressing slow motion nightmare.
And finally Stefania Alos Pedretti's vocals on "Infraworld" provide a very special mood. She uses her vocals as an additional sound effect. There are no words, only sounds... sounds like cries of demons and ghosts echoing from the deepest void where words seem meaningless, anyway. Waves of dark sounds swathe you into a trance like state.
The all-encompassing slow beats and sub bass lines on Of Lies capture you right from the start and take you to an obscure alien place. The minimalistic structures, deconstructed rhythms, all the sound effects and the unusual use of vocals make this place all the more uncanny and scary. It’s a place where dark meditative primeval rituals meet dystopian nightmares, where the beginning of all worlds synchronize with the end of all worlds in a buzzing vibrating tension... greatly disturbing and electrifying.
