Cory Strand — Castlevania: A Reinterpretation

Here’s a double cdr set from Altar of Waste, presented to its usual high standards: colour artwork, smartly designed, in a dvd case. The release is, as its title suggests, a reinterpretation of the Castlevania computer game - this is, for better or worse, where my knowledge ends. The album contains nine tracks.

I must admit that this release has somewhat short-circuited my brain, on a conceptual level. Given that I know practically nothing about Castlevania, and that the tracks use sounds and music from the game as raw material (‘Manipulation and construction by Cory Strand’), I’m really left with an album of sounds - without context or knowledge that might aid analysis on any level. The first disc starts with a five minute burst of rumbling, speedy hnw; its dominated by a trundling bass drone, more nervous, stuttering mid-frequencies and a delicate layer of treble crackle on top. It gives way to ‘Vampire Killer’, a much more complicated beast. This twenty-minute plus track, drifts through the speakers with an arctic atmosphere; the muffled wind sounds and buried elements (akin to slowed bell tones) creating an effectively claustrophobic tone. There’s perhaps a similar theme in the third piece, where an ominous melodic snippet is looped underneath a wall of noise; over time, however, this becomes a little tired to my ears. ‘Wicked Child’ is perhaps the most accomplished instance of wall-making on the album, beginning with nice crumbling textures and a burrowing bass; before being hollowed out (about two-thirds through), leaving just the low end, and exquisite crackle dancing. The last track on the disc, ‘Walking On The Edge’, is blown out, reverberating noise; centred around phasing melodic elements. Like the third piece, what should be hypnotic, just doesn’t have that effect on my ears.

The second disc is somehow less substantial than the first. It begins with a track very similar to ‘Vampire Killer’, having a comparable ‘muffled wind’ drone; though with perhaps a more barren sound - its almost like a whited-out drone, reduced to only its bass elements. Though, within this, hovering tones seems to appear and dissipate. ‘Out Of Time’ is next, a churn of noise; albeit colourful, psychedelic noise, spinning out of the speakers. The third track, ‘Nothing To Lose’, again revisits a bleak, arctic ambience; though this time, its at its most barren. Constructed out of very low tones, which lurk in the speakers, it achieves a near Koner-esque glacial atmosphere. Fittingly, its also the longest work on the album; just shy of twenty-five minutes. The final piece, ‘Poison Mind’, begins with a late unveiling of the source materials: a short passage of computer game music. This is quickly swallowed up by a raging, hard - although distressed - wall of noise, before equally quickly (in the context of previous tracks) disappearing with a burst of spring reverb.

As I’ve said, I know practically nothing about Castlevania; so these discs really just present sound to me. To that end, its a fair array of tracks and textures; though the durational bulk of the album utilises those wintry ambient drones. These are pleasant and accomplished, but I feel they suffer for sitting alongside the noisier tracks. Most of these noisier pieces really do very little for me, but ‘Wicked Child’ is a clear stand-out; its exquisite textures and effective shift culminating in a great noise wall. It’s hard for me to mould these separate pieces into an ‘album’: it really feels more like a collection of tracks.