Burial Hex — Gauze
Burial Hex is the horror electronics alter ego of Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby. Founded in 2005, Burial Hex has been very prolific over the years issuing a host of different releases, both on his own and in collaboration with a number of other artists including Zola Jesus, Iron Fist of the Sun and Sylvester Anfang II to name just a few.
2012s Book of Delusions was my introduction to Burial Hex, and it’s an album that has lived with me ever since. It remains a regular listen on my playlist even ten years on from its original release, so when his latest offering, Gauze, dropped through my letterbox I was quite excited to see where the project currently sits in the general scheme of things. Clay Ruby is ably assisted on this release by regular collaborator Nathaniel Ritter (Circulation of Light, Compass Hour, Wreathes), and the pair are listed as having mixed and mastered the album, with Ruby undertaking production duties across a ten-year period between 2011 and 2021.
The album opener, Lost Sailor is built around a looped cello sample with distorted vocals that sound like they’ve leaked through a dimensional rift from hell. This is followed by Lion’s Breath, an atmospheric slab of lo-fi industrial noise that sounds like it has been dredged from the same depths as the opener. Treasure Spirits has a somewhat wholly more ethereal feel to it, although it has a scuzzy hellish atmosphere that feels quite cinematic in some ways. Auspices follows in a similar vein, sticking with the creepy atmospheric nastiness of the previous track, with even more demented and distorted demon vocals that give the track a really sinister and oppressive feel.
The second half of the album kicks off with Sed Liberas Nos A Malo, featuring a repeated sample of the words in the title and choral samples that give the whole thing a sinister occult horror vibe. Double Scorpio is up next, weird, creepy off-kilter violin screeches and plucked banjo-style sounds make this one of the album’s portentous centrepieces. Menacing and drenched in atmosphere, it’s an epic slab of unsettling industrial horror. The album’s title track, Gauze features a vocal track spoken in German and a repeating piano motif that gives way midway through to samples of laughter, atmospheric electronic drones and other found sounds. The album closer is Two Rivers featuring reverb-drenched drum sounds, electronic samples, found sounds and an ethereal vocal track. It feels slightly less hellish than some of the other tracks on the album but remains just as effective and leaves the listener feeling more than a little downbeat by the end.
Gauze is a sinister slab of cinematic horror electronics. At times it reaches into the very pits of hell to create soundscapes that would work well as the musical accompaniment to Dante’s journey through the nine circles. Whilst the album harks back to the earlier Book of Delusions, this is even darker in tone and leaves the listener drained. A host of modern black metal bands could learn a lot from listening to this ominous masterpiece of absolute darkness. Highly recommended!