Another band from Portland, Oregon, the town where seemingly everybody makes music, and in many cases music of the darker kind. A new band from musical Portland, where people – the mayor included – are standing up against Trump, his enablers and their arsonist politics. Coincident? I don’t think so. Anybody thinking deeply, and I want to believe that the musicians active in the genres that we cover fall under that category as well as their fans, cannot support the madman in the White House.

Looking at what is happening in Portland, and in the whole of the USA today, it is entirely clear why someone would want to leave the urban mess and retreat to nature. But regardless of the motives for such a self-imposed isolation, can you really find solace there? That’s exactly what Aleynmord, a duo established only two years ago, set out to explore. The place they chose for their experiment was the Columbia Gorge, a landscape that features nature at its most impressive: Mountains left and right, a mighty river in between them and a vast expanse of wilderness connecting everything. The band’s debut album The Blinding Light is a musical document of their experiment and the experiences they went through.

What do we learn from The Blinding Light then? Well, primarily something many of us who have tried something similar might have suspected: You can’t run from yourself or your demons. Wherever you go, there you are. There is some solace to be found in nature, some transcendental experiences even, but no undisturbed peace. Also, nature has its own, inherent dangers. It is not the benign place it is portrayed as in kitschy pictures.

The album opens with Spores of Possession and the sounds of wind blowing and crows gathering. After a few seconds bells are added, and the soundscape rises to something that would make a good intro for a horror film score. We hear a tortured, subdued scream, and a tremolo picked guitar and relentless drumming complete the black metal soundscape. For an American band, this sounds very European, reminding me of the Dutch band Turia. Towards the end of the track things calm down and an acoustic guitar creates a rather serene, relaxed atmosphere.

The album’s remaining three tracks deliver variations of the above. Nature sounds, like wind and rain, or bird sounds are combined with black metal and folky passages – the latter are primarily created with the help of an acoustic guitar. The vocals are mostly unintelligible, mixed into the background and often take the form of tortured screaming and screeching.

However, there are two elements that stick out and deviate from the template sketched above. One of them is an obvious love for high-flying, heavy metal guitar parts. They can be heard on many instances on The Blinding Light. The other one is an evident attraction to dreamy psychedelia and transcendentalist ideas, displayed also in the album’s cover design, but to be heard primarily on track number two, Wounded Monolith, which also features clean vocals.

All in all, I found The Blinding Light a calming listen – with disturbing, tumultuous parts and parts that document the reaching of a higher plane of thought. Quite a good representation, therefore, of an extended amount of time spent in nature away from civilisation.

(7.5/10 Slavica)

https://www.facebook.com/aleynmord

https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/the-blinding-light