Artist: Ebony Lake
Title: In Swathes Of Brooding Light
Type: Album
Label: LADLO Productions
This Yorkshire-based act made themselves a certain cult following with their debut album back in 1997, which was called ‘As Ghosts We Dance In Thrashing Seas’. Unsurprisingly there is quite a buzz surrounding this long-awaited follow-up some fourteen years later and those who remember the band fondly from the early days are excited about the comeback. Given that when the first album was released I was just 13 years of age and my knowledge of music extended little further than what was played on mainstream radio, this is the first time I have encountered Ebony Lake. All I can definitely say is this is not for everyone. If you want something that plays by the heavy metal rulebook then may I take this opportunity to point you towards the Iron Maiden section in HMV. If it’s something simplistic and heavy with lots of riffs to bang your head to then this is definitely not for you. In fact, this is not suitable for 95% of all of the metal-listening population.
The fanbase for Ebony Lake is definitely those of us who are used to hearing that word ‘elitist’. It is challenging and difficult, involved and highly unpredictable and if that is what you want from your music then this is for you. Think of an album that is easy to listen to, and this will be the exact opposite of that. Be prepared for a terrifying, nerve jangling and hellish listening experience, one that is still difficult to predict after 20 or so spins. ‘And From The Seas The Sickening Things’ throws us right into the swirling vortex leaving us thrashing around in the dark and frozen sea gasping for our breath as it sucks us beneath the surface. At times it does feel rather like one is drowning in an ocean of chaos, as a jazz-like piano plonk-plonk-plonks away making a maniacal racket, stopping, starting, unsure what it is doing or which way the wind is going to blow.
This is an album that doesn’t merely have no regard for the rules, but spits in the face of those who attempt to enforce them…no more like pisses all over them and not to mention all of you cunts who are to weak to handle such extremity. This is anti-conformist, anti-metal and anti-music, much of the time it doesn’t resemble anything; just as you think you’ve figured things out it will all shatter into pieces and shapeshift into something entirely unrecognizable. The guitars on ‘I Painted The Suicide Of Neptune’ work their way around in a very circular repetition, while the distorted harsh vocals contrast very dramatic clean tones and altogether there is a blackness to this that brings to mind Blut Aus Nord. I love the urgency depicted on the intro to ‘The Curious Cave Of Deformities’, which is very curious indeed and not to mention utterly deformed…demented and depraved as well for that matter. The way the spoken words are uttered in a maniacal way over a backdrop of relentless repetition comes across like a soundtrack to the apocalypse. The drums batter away a mile a minute and things descend into complete terrifying madness.
‘In Swathes Of Brooding Light Skeletal Birds Scratch At Broken Windows’; dare I say there are some entire songs with less lyrics than that title and it’s all very poetic and Poean isn’t it? The plinky plonky renaissance keyboard melody is spine-tinglingly creepy and as it rolls forth the additional trumpets signal the end of days. The more serene moments here are all the more unsettling just because in a similar fashion to a good slasher movie you know something is going to pounce out from somewhere in order to rip your innards out. ‘Licking At The Nesting’s Of Young Fledgelings’ offers an eerie interlude where the crashing ocean waves meet howling winds as the ghost ship sinks into oblivion. It’s not hard to imagine label-mates Pensees Nocturnes got one or two ideas from this band as they are equally terrifyingly bonkers. A piercing shriek on ‘Amerthyst Lung Concerto’ builds to a crescendo before fizzling out leading into a dark haunting passage where hushed whispers caress the eardrums; there’s a certain Gothic beauty and the dark serenity of a twilit wander through the graveyard. This track and the following three are re-recordings from the debut album.
Ebony Lake bring their nightmarish and macabre visions to life on this dramatic, sprawling epic that is certainly not for the feeble-minded; be prepared for a terrifying and deeply unnerving musical journey into the pits of hell. You have been warned… (9/10, Luci Herbert)
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