Every time I review or give radio airplay to a project by Shane Embury I make some cliched comment about him being the busiest and most prolific artist in heavy music. The problem with cliches is that they care created by truths a lot of the time. A quick scroll on Metal Archives shows Shane as a member of 14 (FOURTEEN!) active bands or projects at the moment. When you take into consideration that this includes his “main“ gig Napalm Death , Lock Up who have released a new album, Venomous Concept who released an EP this year and have a new album out very soon and the fact that he has been gigging with Napalm across the States with Eyehategod you begin to wonder whether this Brummie lad is a superhuman or a crazed maniac.
Whatever his motives are the sheer need he feels to play and record music with a gigantic cast of musicians from around the globe is a great gift to the ears of humankind.
Dark Sky Burial is his outlet for dark electronica and ambient soundscapes which he creates with some help from his friend and long-time producer Russ Russell. Omnis Cum In Tenebris Praesertim Vita Laboret – which translates to “Life is one long struggle in the dark” is the final part of a 4 album project. That project only started on the releases of De Omnibus Dubitandum Est in April of last year. There were two further releases in 2021 Quod Me Nutrit Me Destruit in February and Vincit Qui Se Vincit in April. Three albums in a year – from one of his projects? WTF! Also what is with all the Latin?
Binge recording and dead languages aside the important thing is the music. I will admit after buying and loving the first in this project I missed the two subsequent releases so will take this one on its own merits before circling back to its slightly older siblings.
With electronica especially when it comes to darker takes on the genre there can be a tendency to go for a feeling or sound that whilst creating a pleasing continuum can cause each piece to blend into one. On this release Embury has taken the darkness that the world has undergone over the last two years and used a big highlighter pen to add create varied aural portraits around the same theme. The pre-release track Mind Rat brings to mind mid-nineties PlayStation games, early Pitchshifter and Trent Reznor. Elsewhere there is the heaviness that you would expect from such a luminary of extremity but when it strikes it is with a sombre tone and razor wire rather than a jackhammer. Necromanteion and Nekyia ooze trepidation and menace the former utilising chant vocals and choirs to ramp up the Omen meets Terminator feels. Flesh Altar offers up some great cyber moments that could do with some smoke, half time strobes and green lazers to fully enjoy.
For me the track that keeps me hitting rewind is Splintered Reflective. It reminds me of the first time I heard Close (to the Edit) by Art of Noise in 1984. I didn’t know what to make of it – I wanted to hate it but I taped it off the radio and became obsessed. It sent me spiralling into a world of Electro and early Hip hop. For me, Splintered Reflective has taken Art of Noise skill of sound collage built around a repetitive phrase and Embury has added in some Future Sounds of London groove and ambience to create a track that I do not want to end. This is the kind of track you want playing on a loop, ear bleedingly loud at 2 in the morning. There are hands in the air moments, eyes to the floor moments – hold on I need to start it again.
I wonder if Dark Sky Burial has run its course. Is this quadrology of albums all that he wrote for this side of Shane Embury’s musical psyche? I hope and expect not. There is plenty of room in my collection and the worlds ears for more dark, groovy, red eyed electro eeriness.
(8/10 Matt Mason)
Leave a Reply