Utilizing noise as more of a highlight or emphasis, Wallraf eschews the all out bombast of harshness and instead focuses more on an atmosphere of impending doom on The Commune of Nightmares. Composed and constructed far more like a film score, his approach lends itself far better to digging into the listener's subconscious and evoking emotions and reactions subtly instead of by force. Given the album's thesis and purview, bringing about natural, instinctual responses is a perfect fit, and by keeping it subtle, the reactions are true to the individual instead of by following the forced hand of the artist. The Commune of Nightmares plays somewhere between dark ambient and mild death industrial, for the most part, with wonderfully jarring noisy pieces to add depth, doom, and punctuation. Its atmosphere is creepy throughout, but in a very thought provoking way, like the shadow at the periphery of one's vision. Wallraf's composition of the sounds and source material often makes the listener question if what they heard was really what they heard or if it's a figment of their imagination, the brain looking for patterns in the dark. As the songs on Commune are all based on arbitrary tape loops (both owned and found on the street), it's very impressive to hear such a cohesive and well done whole, showing that much care and attention was taken to form these random bits into an engaging and haunting work.

 

The Commune of Nightmares excels in both premise and execution; it's intriguing and engaging from start to finish, concept to completion. Its sonic component does as much to inspire thought as the thesis that was its genesis, and the grim atmosphere provides an excellent subject for any listening session. While life may often feel like a nightmare, it's one we all have to experience, and through this, we can all come together in solidarity to understand that although it seems like we're all alone, we are still one, connected and massive, in our collective unconscious. To check it out- drop by here