Blood Of The Black Owl — A Banishing Ritual
The album opens with ‘Intent (Movement I)’ which starts fittingly enough with a single gong tone that is morphed quickly into this thick, brooding & discordant drone haze. By the three minute mark you become aware of this rapidly strummed, stuck and at times ringing guitar element that seems to make the brooding & discordant drone(that’s now throbbing in a wonderful malevolent way)feel very strange, trance educing & urgent. By the eight minute mark tribal industrial drums have been added to the mix that are edged with native Indian rattle tones & rain stick shuffle, which really brings even more urgency & atmosphere to the track. The first ‘movement’ of the track ends off with echoed & 'going to hunt' like flute patterns that are sailed over the pounding & brooding back drop of percussion & drone texture with Scott’s vocals swishing roughly & muffled at the edge of the track.
The second movement ‘The Statement of Will (Movement II)’kicks in with brutal & forest blacked doom riff stomp, before we drop into disquieted & soundtrack like dwell of sourly weaved guitar tones, analogue synth hovers & Scott’s primal & throaty mad man of the woods growl. By the three minute mark the riff kicks back in sounding more Viking & Bathory like with a harmonic & epic top layer of guitar weaving melody.
The we’re into ‘Chant of the Captured Spirit (Movement III)’ which dips down into more brooding industrial pagan dwell & stuck tone hover with looped analogue organ buzz, primal drum brood & buried chants. Later on ethereal, hazy & synthetic horn drifts appear along with growing doomed guitar texturing & Scott’s deep primal vocals; which rise like guttural & strange animal calls from the track. By the eight minute mark Scott’s vocals change from primal murmurings up to more recognisable vocals as he intones “I will stand & fight, I will stand & cut..” his vocals continue as wolf howls are added to the Intensify & thicken the sound mix.
Then we’re into the last chapter or movement of the track which is entitled ‘The Final Banishing (Movement IV)’ and here the sonic picture thins out once more with acoustic bass chilling folk spaced wonderings that are soon joined by Scott’s layered vocals which are a mixture of: whispers, guttural moans, backwards murmurs & reverbed mumbles. At the seven minute thirty mark the track stops briefly before coming back once more as weaving & slightly sour mix of demented fairground organ, long, blacked & muffled metal guitar textures and Harmonic 80’s art guitar detail & guttural yet pained Burzum like vocals.
‘A Banishing Ritual’ is a highly distinctive. primal & emotional sonic ride into nature’s spirit & the forests twisting ’n’ turning forces. It’s a work of great power, broodiness & atmosphere showing once more Scott in excellent, original & inspired form.