Black Seas Of Infinity — Hieros Gamos

The hieros gamos, the marriage of a god and goddess, has been symbolised in Wiccan rituals, either through physical coupling or metaphorically with knife and chalice, as a fertility rite. Originally subtitled ‘The Sacral Fornication’, Black Seas Of Infinity’s album offers recordings from a series of such rituals, apparently aspiring to unlock secrets held within those distantly related to fallen angels, or more specifically the blood line of the Grigori of Biblical apocrypha whose enthusiasm for women sired the Nephilim, a mixed race of  the heavenly and the mortal.

Primarily the work of self-appointed oracle Jhon Longshaw from Salt Lake City, the convoluted concept opens with ‘Iblis Hiwwah Kassia’, a gnostic reference to the devil’s spiritual fire entering the Earth during Adam and Eve’s first sexual act. The sound is of a treated and looped cymbal or gong writhing over gentle, mid-range shivering drones regularly punctuated by bells and kettle drums. These elements ebb and flow throughout the release and often the combined sound levels clip and distort lending the recording an authentic, bootleg aura. Deep, dual vocals of, appropriately enough, one male and one female, are central to the album, sometimes speaking or chanting, often processed, occasionally reversed and almost always in unison. These incantations are initially sinister and convincing but ultimately trite when they become clearer and central to the mix stating things like  “The blood of our brood is the illuminated ones tincture. Drink deeply, as I swoon in the vulture’s caress, am I not the progenitor of time and space…”.

Some passages on ‘Hieros Gamos’ are genuinely atmospheric and evocative of hidden behaviours and dark obsessions, but it is also strongly reminiscent of early Coil and Current 93 as they started to establish their respective esoteric doctrines. Indeed, the tempered gong sound used throughout the fallopian ‘I Hu Tubalo’ directly brings to mind Coil’s debut, ‘How To Destroy Angels’, itself ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy. So, although it is encouraging that the ritualistic roots of music to affect physical and mental states continues to be explored, serving up the recipes of others with trimmings of dungeons and dragons imagery and bombast picked’n’mixed from romanticised antique texts can dilute the intent and risk pilorying the form.