Channeling the chants and ritualistic roots of civilization's ancestors, Italy's CHAIGIDEL & NERATERRÆ offer up their tribute to the Mesopotamian goddess Lamaštu. Dark and brooding, the eight tracks conjure up a time at the beginning of our recorded history, capturing the malevolence and terror of this ancient demon. Droning, deep, and rich, Lamaštu encompasses a range of the human experience through the lens of the darkly divine and menacingly mythological.

 

Built upon a strong and dark drone, Lamaštu utilizes sounds and instrumentation both new and very old to craft its dark and dreary ambient. Feeling like an esoteric, subterranean ritual, the album crawls forth from the depths, creeping forward to bring the listener into its dark realm. While practitioners of Lamaštu worship may have taken comfort in this darkness, those hearing these sonic rituals will feel uneasy, but certainly entranced. This is due to the skillful nature in which CHAIGIDEL & NERATERRÆ construct their tribute, following along with traditional ritualistic ambient structures but also harnessing the imagery and mythology of the eponymous demon. With layers and sounds that at times border on the side of industrial,  Lamaštu moves with a sense of urgency that is not typically found in the more ritualistic side of the genre. What would normally be filled with drumming and patience while the practitioners complete their worship, the grim and rough tones add a frantic and horrifying dimension to this somber statement of beliefs. To further add tension and authenticity to this recording, CHAIGIDEL & NERATERRÆ bring in traditional elements and instruments such as tuvan throat singing, tibetan bells, doumbek, balaban, maaponim, and shofar.

 

Dark ambient is the perfect vessel to sonically visualize an ancient ritual to a malevolent and demonic entity, one older than history itself. Skillfully layered, arranged, and paced, Lamaštu shows the collaboration of CHAIGIDEL & NERATERRÆ firing on all cylinders, bringing listeners to a dark and cryptic past. Brooding and thick, this paean to a Mesopotamian demon is a gorgeous slab of ritualistic ambient.