Music for a ritual, or a ritual set to music? Either of these descriptions could be viable as far as the strange world of Haiku Funeral are concerned and they are far from the easiest outfit to get to grips with. This is something I have discovered over the last few releases including the sprawling double album ‘Decadent Luminosity’ of 2018. This time however the stars have somewhat aligned as I have only just, in an act of pure synchronicity, reviewed the new Corpus Diavolis album ‘Apocatastase’ and both musicians here are members.  These are  Bulgarian Dimitar Dimitrov who pens his Haikus with US born and French based musician William Kopecky who among other things is acknowledged for his dark poetry. They share a congruence of ideologies pertaining to ancient religions and beliefs that seem to meld the two acts.  Whereas Corpus Diavolis focus on black metal which sounds like the listener has been dropped into the midst of a Satanic mass, here we have a much more dark-ambient focussed project.

There’s plenty of time to lose oneself in this hour-long overture. It’s certainly a hallucinatory experience and captures you in a bit of a fever dream. ‘The Universe Murders Itself’ has drama amidst the swirling clouds that form in the head. There are dramatic reverberating drum beats and an electronic focus, which spills into the vocals once we get to them and again the pronounced snarls really remind of GGFH, a focus, looking at past reviews I can’t escape from. ‘Drinking Blood’ and ‘Summoning Demons’ is the approach here but after this lengthy opening statement things settle down a lot more and subtly haunt the listener rather that throwing the furniture around like a distempered poltergeist. Indeed, it’s a bit like being at a séance as we find ourselves “Dreaming Poems In Dead Tongues’ via ‘The Head Of The Innocent One.” It is here the mysticism comes into play a little like the opening scenes of The Exorcist as we dip into ancient texts and cultures via Kopecky’s sitar playing. The vocals are whispered hisses, more in the background here and the effect is meditative and somewhat evil sounding. The spirits summoned are certainly restless and it’s a bit like waiting for the destructive force to hit after a malevolent djinn is freed from its bottled-up incarceration. Greg Chandler (no surprise) makes every aspect sound glorious, the fretless bass playing and more ethnic sounds really come to life. One thing that does strike whilst listening to the album however is what someone like Youth would make of it all and if ever the opportunity to remix material arose, he would certainly be an interesting choice. For now though we calm and flow in a diaphanous opiated fog through ‘Cherny Shamani / Черни Шамани’ the sitar tickling the senses with a gentle caress before, despite its title ‘The Earth Burns And Burns’ take fully into a trance like state but not without drama from rising vocals and slow pulsating percussion.

There is something about the sinister sounds and darkened ambience of the rest of the album that takes me to New York. The electronics stalk like a killer over ‘Split The Swollen Dark’ and the grimy sleaze of Jay Chattaway’s Maniac score is evoked with the poeticism of these “tendrils like tentacles’ vocally intoned like the nightmares of a deranged mind. It’s incredibly atmospheric and does a good job of creeping you out and having you cautiously looking over your shoulder. The sharpening of blades in an abandoned warehouse sees the killer having succeeded and torturing their prey on ‘To Illuminate A World;’ what ghastly images this has borne; even if they are far from what their composers intended. However, you interpret, there’s no denying this is damn unsettling stuff and when we move to the last epic and title track there’s no loosening of the cold touch of tension.

I do feel that this album flows and gels together more than past outing, it is slightly less fragmentary although it does shift me through what can only be described as two different dimensions in time and space. This is not music for the casual, it needs focus and even dedication to absorb. ‘A fleshy carpet of meat’ this will take you into the void!

(8/10 Pete Woods)

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