It’s odd. Blame the plague but I realised when I got this that I hadn’t heard anything from this atmospheric UKBM band for a couple of years and from what I thought was just a diversification from their sound on the 2019 Resilience Of Life And Death single where the ‘…And Death’ part was pure dark ambient. It appears that the intention is a little deeper than that. And, from this EP you might think Crimson Throne are travelling the same path as label mates From The Bogs Of Aughiska except in the opposite direction.

This four tracker consists of three tracks of dark ambient covering a little over twenty minutes and one final track ‘Instinct’ which over around five minutes opens out into a stormy black metal song.

Despite some people believing dark ambient is on a level with bad dungeon synth in its ease of composition, it is absolutely not easy to do well. Lacking the traditional shorthand of song structure, it still needs to create the space for your mind to exist within and explore and it needs context to lead you. Go and listen to the classic Heresy by Lustmord for a near perfect example of what dark ambient can be in the hands of a skilled musician.

First passage here, ‘T.E.’ has an almost cosmic feel in places but drops back into a more…subterranean sound with the curious interjection of a spoken word sample pondering on slavery and the shift in what society finds acceptable morally into a discourse on dumping waste particularly on poorer countries. ‘F.C.’ is harsher and weirdly reminds me of some old C.C.C.C in the heavy static use and The Axis Of Perdition’s Urfe. ‘I.H.’ is the shortest passage and is calmer, more contemplative before building into a proto-riff and thence into ‘Instinct’.

I guess the only real problem I have is connecting this EP. The only real context is that sampled voice and if I’m honest I have difficulty following that brief anchoring of subject through the remaining ambience and into ‘Instinct’.

For what it is its ok. The ambient, particularly T.E. is rather good and Instinct is a nice turbulent and deeply atmospheric piece. I just found difficulty in following a combined intend.

But yeah, worth a listen for sure.

(6/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/crimsonthrone

https://crimsonthrone.bandcamp.com/album/instinct