MZ.412 — The Nar Mattaru Curses

The Nar Mattaru Curses is a fourteen-track CD compilation bringing together unreleased or barely released work from Swedish Black Industrial pioneers MZ.412. The collection's tracks date back from the late 1980’s to the 2010s, bringing together demos, extended tracks, etc.

The CD comes presented in a four-panel monochrome digipak- this takes in illstrations/ pictures of barren landscapes, ancient grim temples, dark suns, inverted crosses, skulls, etc. There’s minimal text, detailing track names and their origins.

In the first half of the release, we move from the 1990 four-track demo “Stars Of Chaos Descending”. The seven-and-a-half-minute track is a steadily building/ layering up of grimly tolling gong percussion, uneasy vocal whisper sweeps, crunching/ bounding beats, crudely purr ‘n’ swirling synth tones, difficult to define bays/ squeals, floating voices, etc. From 1989, “Factories In Fire” is three minutes of buzzing/ ragged bass synth tones, eerie metal percussion jangling, darkly baying vocals, and general darkly pressing weight. Then, over its dead-on seven-minute runtime, “In Hoc Signo Vinces” mixes thick/ murky bass tones, baying ‘n’ bounding industrial loops, gloomy spring synth texture, and general bleakly tolling/ grimly booming fare.

In its second half, we move into nearly five minutes of “Fire”, which blends a dark/ morphed dialogue sample, eerier baying animal sounds, backward ambience, hacking ‘n’ shovelling beats, and distorted rubbings. On to the just shy of five minutes of “In Ritual”, which blends crunching boot-tone percussive march, distorted monk chant, and drowsy buzzing ‘n’ drilling electro texturing.

You might imagine that something like The Nar Mattaru Curses; we’d be presented with a mixed-quality selection of odds & ends. But instead, it’s a highly consistent release, which features a selection of impactful/ darkly moody tracks.