(written by Islander)
We are about to present a full stream of the debut album from प्रलय (Pralaya), a Polish two-person formation consisting of Demoniac (vocals, guitars, bass, effects) and Thisworld Outof (drums). Entitled Beyond the Tattered Curtain of Unspeakable Madness, it will be released on August 23rd by Ancient Dead Productions.
Ancient Dead calls the music a “Black and Death Metal monument of despair, bestiality and blasphemy in its purest form,” and a “conflagration straight from the depths of mighty Yama’s underworld” that “will eat you alive.” Of course, we have our own thoughts about what Pralaya have accomplished with their devastating music, but first we want to share the results of our own investigation of the band’s name.
Here’s what we found at The Font of All Human Knowledge (lightly edited):
Pralaya is a concept in Hindu eschatology. Generally referring to four different phenomena, it is most commonly used to indicate the event of the dissolution of the entire universe that follows a kalpa (a period of 4.32 billion years) called the Brahmapralaya.
Pralaya also refers to Nityapralaya, the continuous destruction of all animate and inanimate beings that occurs on a daily basis, Prakritapralaya, the great flood produced by Prakriti (Nature) that ends all of creation after the completion of 1,000 Chaturyuga (four-age) cycles, and Atyantikapralaya, the dissolution of one’s Atman (Self) due to its union with Brahman (Ultimate Reality).
When you hear the music, it will become astonishingly evident how fully Pralaya (the band) have embraced and expressed such concepts of utter destruction.
Demoniac
They begin their “monument of despair, bestiality and blasphemy” with “Aeon of Dissolution“, a 7-minute assault of dense, maniacally roiling and flesh-eating riffage, shrieking lead-guitars, tumultuous drumming, voracious roars, and possessed screams. It is an experience of violent, all-consuming chaos, but laced with methodically neck-chopping beats, booming percussive tumbles, and eerily shrill sonic streamers that add an atmosphere or otherworldliness.
The song slows, the notes dismally moan and morbidly whir, the vocals gag, and the music thereby pulls listeners into a monstrous abyss of degradation and decay. At the end, Pralaya brutally stomps, ruinously chops, and sends the lead guitar into wails of terrible misery or ecstasy (or both).
“Epitafium“, on the other hand, begins with solemn choral voices before transforming into a hulking menace and then a sandstorm-assault of brutally abrasive tremolo’d chords. The drums furiously rattle and primitively pound, the lead guitar insanely spasms, and the vocals remain as ravenously ugly and possessed as before, even when they chant like prophets of blood. The song also descends into sensations of ruinous despair and brutal agony. When the choral voices return at the end, soaring in the midst of a stomping march, they sound as demented as they do hallowed.
Thisworld Outof
The following five songs follow a similar course, combining crushing and corrosive riffage, unhinged vocal horrors, frequently gear-shifting momentums, deliriously screaming guitar-leads that sharply pierce the mind, and an overarching aura of primeval dread and ancient diabolical ritualism (much of which is due to big booming drums and fanatical chanting).
At times the music spawns images of earthquakes, at others of massed vipers on fire, at others like the dense churn of some enormous machine quarrying stone, or like viscera congealing in a charnal-house pit or the death march of towering golems.
Here and there, Pralaya underscore the horror in other ways, with vocal samples of crazed women wailing, bursts of quivering and screeching electronics, groaning horn-like tones, and bouts of pile-driving punishment. But nothing is more horrifying than the changing vocal tableau of cavernous roars, choking snarls, rabid howls, and tortured screams.
A few surprises also lie in wait, such as the mournful strings that close “Emanations of Furious Deities,” the haunting organ and piano keys at the end of “Deathcrown“, and the dancing piano keys and demented strings that end the entire album. But in the main, the record is a musical rendering of chaos and catastrophe, and its horrors are so extravagant that it’s very hard to look away. Discover for yourselves now:
The album was mixed and mastered by M. at No Solace, and the album includes guest vocals in tracks 2 and 5 by JRMR (Trucizna/Wékeras) and on track 6 by Haasiophis (Antediluvian/Revenge).
Beyond the Tattered Curtain of Unspeakable Madness will be released by Ancient Dead on August 23rd in a slipcase CD edition with exclusive artwork and a 12-page booklet; a jewelcase CD edition with a 12-page booklet; variant vinyl editions; and digitally — and they’re offering apparel as well. The cover art was created by Mar.A Artwork, with drawings, calligraphy, design & layout by Q. For more info and to pre-order, check the links below.
ANCIENT DEAD:
https://www.ancientdead.com
https://www.instagram.com/ancient_dead
https://www.facebook.com/AncientDeadProductions
प्रलय (PRALAYA):
https://www.facebook.com/pralaya666
https://desecrationcommand.bandcamp.com/
