header_image
AGHAST MANOR  Gaslights  CD   (Infinite Fog)   14.99
Gaslights IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

The all-girl Norwegian duo Aghast only put out one album, 1995's Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis, but it remains one of my favorite records of spectral witch-ambience. a collection of phantasmagoric funeral hymns, nocturnal drift, and graveyard atmospherics that still sounds remarkably unique. After the release of their one and only album for Cold Meat, the ladies of Aghast (who were also very closely aligned with the nascent Norwegian black metal scene) would pursue other projects both musical and otherwise, with Tania Stene going on to create some iconic album artwork for a number of classic black metal albums; Andr�a Nebel followed up her wraith-like black ambient band with a number of albums of dark Nordic-flavored classical and folk music under the names Hagalaz' Runedance and Nebelhex�, neither of which I've really delved into too deeply, as they were all pretty far removed from the ghastly dream-drift of Aghast. Fast forward to the end of 2012, and Scott Derrickson's demonic shocker Sinister comes out in theatres and features a bunch of bands that get a lot of play here at C-Blast, the ultra-creepy soundtrack utilizing music from black ambient master Accurst, Ulver, Sunn O))), and most surprisingly to me, tracks from both Hexerai as well as all new music from by Andr�a Nebel under the name Aghast Manor.

Of course, I was hoping for some sort of follow-up to Hexerei, but Gaslights turns out to be something different; that delirious graveyard chill and ghostly crypt-ambience of her work in Aghast is definitely lurking in these songs, but Nebel takes it into a strange new direction as she crafts a vision of blackened goth-industrial that brings together dire militant industrial music, utterly creepy neo-classical/cabaret vibes, and a strange, narcotized sound that reminds me of a darker, more "witchy" version of Dead Can Dance. Songs like " Decademons" and "The Nun Of St. Claire Abbey" pummel the listener with stentorian rhythms and martial snare drums, eerie cries and funereal organs droning in the backgrounds, her gorgeous powerful voice shifting between an almost liturgical chanting and frenzied howls, while Nebel's whispered singing and witchy laughter on "Dance The Hanged Man's Jig" drift on soft strings and eerie piano music like some mysterious black-forest lullaby. The other songs are equally eerie, from the blackened synthesizers on "Cross The Bridge To Manmade Insanity" that guide this short song through a grim grave-littered wasteland, to the cinematic atmosphere of "La Petite Mort" where I can hear vague traces of Goblin's decadent prog as well as the orchestral apocalyptic power of latter day Swans.

As lush and dramatic as the music on Gaslights is, I can still hear that connection to the early 90s "dungeon ambient" scene in the droning strings, ominous synthesizers and vaporous sighs that drift like gossamer cobwebs through the twilight gloom of the Manor. The electronic elements shift into really dark territory as you approach the end of the album, the dread setting in on the pulsating synth-dirge "Fear" where cracked Wax Trax-like rhythms are combined with buzzing blackened guitars, and the dread-filled cavernous murk of "Waking Chtluhu". The creep factor hits it's peak with the final song "Suck My Drain", though, a pitch-black tumble through an abyss laced with demonic shrieks, waves of suffocating reverb and ghastly reverberations, deathly sighs and deformed screams of utter soul-devouring anguish that are created by both Nebel and Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation who makes a guest appearance here, an unexpected collaboration that turns in the single most evil moment on the disc. Fuckin' fantastic...

Naturally, any fans of Aghast will want to hear this return to the shadows, but Aghast Manor's strange blackened darkwave and Victorian death-visions are definitely it's own. Recommended.


Track Samples:
Sample :
Sample :
Sample :
Sample :