Xela — In Bocca Al Lupo

In Bocca Al Lupo(in the wolfs Mouth) is the third full length album from Uk electroinca/ experimental  one man project Xela. It finds J.P Twells (Xela creator and type label boss) slowing, blacking and making more cinematic his sound. Following on from the horror tinged tone of his last album The dead Sea, but dragging things down mostly into a darker and dense black ambient tone.

The Dead Sea followed the story of a zombie attack at sea and  In Bocca Al Lupo feels like you’ve been left for dead after the attack, floating almost lifeless in a blacked sea- the remains of your travelling companions bobbing around you. The album is made up of just four lengthy and often dense tracks which feature; dread filled drone textures, eerier boya and gong tones, sinster gitar scaping, horrifying electronic drifts, droning noise textures, as well as all manner of grim and horrifying sound making. For the most of the albums life (or death) the material remains drifting and dread filled striped of consistent and repetitive percussion elements. With only the last track Beatea Immortalitatis picking up the pace with grim, slightly voodoo tinged drum work outs by Jed Birdeman( Heavy Winged). The package is topped off with suitable grim and macabre artwork of a man been eaten by wolfs.

All in all an interesting & dread heavy progression in Xela sound from Twells. Which through is not as approachable or replayable as The Dead Sea, given time it sinks deep into your bones with it’s sinister and barren intent.