Stratvm Terror — This Is My Own Hell

Holding the cover of Stratvm Terrors This Is My Own Hell one can feel a bit of apprehension.  The long awaited release is bathed in the artwork of Mia Makila, in what seems to be an ode to Hieronymus Bosch, and quite a good one at that.  Released in 2008 in limited copies; eight songs drown the listener in a world of hopeless, dark atmospheres.  Peter Andersson (of Raison D’etre, Necrophous and Atomine Electrine) and Tobias Larrson (of Ocean Chief) deftly create sounds that plunge us into sound scapes found in our nightmares.

Harsh and aggressive, each song combines industrial and drone in ways that are cold and surgical in their precision.  At times it almost feels as if This Is My Own Hell is the soundtrack to the apocalypse; with its metallic grating, mechanical pounding and agonizing screams.  Yet within this, especially in the case of “Unveiled Is My Skin”, we are graced with small bits of melody that are intertwined with creeping, ominous noise.  Or in the short track, “No Redemption No Remorse”, where the distorted sound of reverb is used like its own instrument. 

Apart each song is its own chapter of helplessness and pain, together they unite to create an immense sound and define the beauty that noise and industrial can create.  The Is My Own Hell is a riot of sounds that wash over the listener like tidal wave.  The music and artwork are perfectly matched in this marriage made in the abyss.