
Sado Rituals/Mass Grave - Split [Gates of Hypos - 2021]Here we have a split digital release bringing to two sonic coffin slabs of ANW/ grim drone craft. Featured here we have Poland's Sado Rituals, and Uk based Mass Grave. The release appears on Poland’s Gates of Hypos, and can be found just here. Cover artwork wise we get a simple, yet effective blood-red reproduction of a medieval print of skeletons rising from the grave weaved with worms dancing together. With the names of the projects on top of the cover in a simple red fount.
Both tracks here hit in or around the twenty-minute mark, with the split having a total runtime of just shy of the forty-minute mark. First, off we have Sado Ritual track- this is entitled “Funeral Pile For The Nameless”. Here we find a constantly buffeting and billow drone, underfed by this distant rattle, which in my mind sound somewhat like the continued sound of a rickety turning cartwheel. Together these elements create a starkly morbid feel, with images of flaming burial mounds, or wind-battered crows trying to scoop rotting flesh from the dead.
Next, we of course have the Mass Grave this is “Untitled”- and is a much more monotone and pressing example of ANW/ grim drone craft. We have what sounds like a sustained organ key drone, this is underfed by a thinner wavering sub-tone, and I make out very subtle static grit pops here and there. The track has a very narrow/ oppressive sonic field, and there really is no hope or light here, with the wall feeling akin to been engulfed by a rushing mass of rotting coffin air.
So in conclusion what we have here is an effectively grim split- with both projects giving their own distinctive take on morbid/ death scented ANW/ grim drone. At a push, I’d say I prefer the first track due to the more tonal range on display, but the second track is a well-made/ good pairing, carrying/deepening the grimness of the first track.
     Roger Batty
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