Sleep Of Ages — Maciste in Hell (Barbariccia)
This release comes in the form of a 3inch CDR. The mini cd case features a moody black and white picture of pair of quite masculine yet theatrical looking male bikers- this brings to mind a modern take on gladiators which is very fitting as all this projects work is themed around sword-and-sandal or Peplum movies.
The single self titled track on offer here starts out with SOA building a battering ‘wall’ of rumbling amassed drum textures, juddering crisp static and buried sword like slashing. As the track moves into its third minute SOA adds in sudden off pattern slashes, mid-pitch jitters ‘n’ drags, and static texture like gallops; though through-out these additions the ‘wall’ like structure remains firm & thick. The rest of the track finds SOA nicely balancing a constant walled noise presence with the mentioned extra elements which really give the piece a dramatic sense of story. And to me that story is something to do with a galloping, sword fighting, and carriage battering battle between two military forces in the time when the Romans ruled large parts of Europe. The extra elements seem to become louder & more prominent in the last few minutes giving the one feeling that the battle is in it’s last desperate stages.
All told this is another great release from both SOA & anarchofreaks production as the shifting/dramatic ‘wall’ & artwork are both great here. So if you dig active, but thick & atmospheric walled noise this is a must have item