(written by Islander)
De Sepulchris Occultis et Igne Profanationis (Of Hidden Tombs and the Fire of Profanation) is the second album (or EP if you prefer, since it’s on the borderline) from the Italian band Prison of Mirrors. It consists of two very long songs — “Chants Beneath the Shunned Shrines” and “The Devouring Fire of Demonic Doctrine“. It will be released by ATMF on February 24th. And you can listen to it today through our full streaming premiere.
While making references to “the desolate lines traced by the darkest Blut Aus Nord and Akhlys,” ATMF describes the record as “a work that is bleak, profound, suffocating, and all-encompassing: a sonic ritual that grants no respite and, like a slow-acting poison, will wound its listeners, consuming both mind and senses” — “a journey into the core of an abyss with no bottom, where every step drags you deeper, until nothing remains of former memories — only the faint echo of a consciousness undone.”
After that, you’ll be happy to know that the record is survivable, but the mental wounds it leaves won’t heal quickly. The experience is hallucinatory and labyrinthine, and around all of the many strangely curling corners something very unsettling and intense awaits, though the intensity manifests in different ways, leaving different scars.
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The opening phase of “Chants Beneath the Shunned Shrines” is dense, diabolical, and devouring. It’s really not possible to think of anything else when you listen. You either have to surrender to it or run away; there’s not really a third option.
The riffing generates a high, whining, and writhing swarm of sound that’s so vicious and debilitating it’s disturbing. The savagely screaming and maniacally roaring vocals and thunderous rhythmic assaults are equally catastrophic. The music also dissonantly chimes and unnervingly warps, creating pernicious hallucinatory sensations that are dismal as well as otherworldly.
But although the music is uncomfortably unhinged and saturates the senses with poisonous sonic miasmas, it’s still possible to detect and become intrigued by the strange, musing permutations of the bass during chime-like phases when the drumming settles down a bit. Even when the music is hurtling, the intricate layering of the piercing guitars is also detectable.
Just after the six-minute mark the bass burbles by itself, and abrasive guitars fiendishly pick up that throbbing pulse and help carry it forward, along with skipping drums and further outbursts of uproarious vocal bestiality. There’s something strangely exuberant about that phase of the song.
Later, the pace slows again and the music seems to clang like gongs and wail like ghosts being lashed, fashioning yet another unnerving hallucination that grows more intense and shattering as time passes. (It sounds like a saxophone is wailing in the midst of that chilling dream, too.)
Speaking of ghosts, the next time the decibels diminish, when the bass woozily stumbles about, a chorus of apparitions seems to come moaning forth from their hadean realm. The bass begins to revel in tandem with tumbling beats, and then Prison of Mirrors turn up the heat to a pernicious boil, creating slowly swirling sonic tides, and the crazed vocals break out of wherever they were temporarily imprisoned. (As always, the bass provides another cool counterpoint to the searing madness.)
******
The second song, “The Devouring Fire of Demonic Doctrine“, is about five minutes shorter than the first one, but still imposing in its length, and like its predecessor it’s remarkably elaborate (until its concluding minutes) and unsettling in varying ways.
Without prelude, the music swirls, sears, and viciously slashes but also disturbingly rings again, creating an unearthly atmosphere of madness, fear, and degradation, an amalgamation of hatefulness and pain. Like the first song, its opening phase wholly envelops listeners in a diabolically twisted and emotionally disturbing yet thrilling cavalcade of abominations, augmented again by a horned host of vocal terrors.
Like the first song, this one is also labyrinthine and intricately ornamented. Prison of Mirrors chain listeners and push and pull them through numerous twists and turns until, near the 9-minute mark, they cool things down and let us drift into a shimmering but chilling ambient void. Something almost trumpet-like slowly moans in the far distance, another grievous apparitional presence.
This closing phase is mesmerizing and supernatural, but hopeless. And after all that has happened before those final three minutes, it’s a finale that works extremely well, as it traces a haunting dream instead of a harrowing one.
It’s hard to think of many other bands who are currently doing what Prison of Mirrors have accomplished on this aberrational new album (though ATMF’s reference to Blut Aus Nord makes sense). The music is so hellishly baroque, so mind-bending, so dangerous but so endlessly fascinating, that it stands out. It leaves scars and will disturb dreams, but those who immerse themselves in the twisting nightmare realms it creates won’t soon forget the experience.
The album was recorded at Sonic Temple Studio, and then was mixed and mastered by Studio Emissary. The stunning cover art is the work of Khaos Diktator Design, and Francesco Gemelli handled the layout. The record is available for pre-order now.
PRE-ORDER:
https://atmfsssdtp.bandcamp.com/album/de-sepulchris-occultis-et-igne-profanationis
PRISON OF MIRRORS:
https://prisonofmirrors666.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/prison.of.mirrors.it