LAMASTU PER CHAIGIDEL & NERATERRAE: FORBIDDEN TRACKS/FORBIDDEN TREKS

The trailblazing Alessio Antoni has shared with me a cavernous-climate triumph, produced by Cyclic Law and promoted under the Chaigidel & Neraterrae banner (i.e., composed by Antoni, behind his guise, Neraterrae, teamed with Mattia Giovanni's Accinni's acclaimed Chaigidel). The experimental outcome is labeled Lamastu. 

Like Michael Ferentino's recent masterpiece of the same name, Chaigidel & Neraterrae's Lamastu covers the undercurrent crevasses of the feral, birthing goddess, creating audio scenarios shaken from her allegorical wings. We're talking the venturesome landscapes of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rose: tribal patches of the untamed, each ferocious and eclectic.

"Da'at" starts the album as an unadulterated anthem for any chosen Middle-earth or maybe more so, Hollow Earth. It thunders like Kong, to be exact, its hissing-horned ascent accompanying a beast who pushes through trees to grab a maiden fair or if need be, destroy any aggressor who should get in his way. With this stated, "Da'at" is ominous, threatening and as such, an apt intro for the rest of Lamastu's discomposing queue. 

"A'Arab Zaraq" counters the colossal base by being imminent within its saber-swiped spot. It's sandy and reedy in aura, etching forbidden paths toward weird, occultist abodes: an audio nightmare that needn't happen within one's mind, but could be found in any crack-house neighborhood, at any misdirected turn. 

"Entrails of Souls", however, returns to monstrous exotica. Through implication, it's Temple of Doom or Fuad Ramses during a virginal Blood Feast. Either way, its gutsy construction reimagines "A'Arab Zaraq'"s terrestrial cage, galloping over an innards-spilt stretch that must be heard to be (a-hem) disbelieved.  

To instill that disbelief into religious terms, "Mac Benach" welcomes a Gaelic-guru exaltation. Its mean moans and swooning wisps are Svengali-like and highlander transcendental, its chords invoking Stonehenge turbulence, summoned by a sick sorcerer's incantations.   

"Purson" is more (person)able, perhaps. That is, it alludes to something human, something common, but reverted to its bestial roots. This track is Moreau-esque, creating shuffling, hybrid noises that only bipedal freaks could make, in a voyage of conundrum from which no pedestrian could dare escape. 

Speaking of bestial aftermaths, "Satariel" goes down another tawdry path. This one's tailored to ribbit and does so in reference to Ray Milland and Sam Elliot near a frog-ridden swamp: nature striking back, as it were, rising small and hitting hard. This one sounds eerier than the previous mentioned, for it slithers right in the unassuming pit of one's backyard. 

Perhaps my favorite Lamastu track is "Eloi Eloi Lama Sabacatni", which grazes the austerity of "Satariel" and "Purson", but here we have wee, pale people corralled by meaty Morlocks as drums and chimes mock. The composition is timeworn yet futuristic and like the other tracks, occupies frenzied corridors, with steampunked hints that are specialized for the dim, dank and hungry. 

"Malkuth" ends the epic, presenting a kingdom of terror from the inside out. "Malkuth" is about possession (and therefore, invasion) via pain-inducing demons like Lamastu: those shrieking, sadistic deities that mess one up and wrack one's soul, that turn one from ecstasy to anguish through trails left best untraveled and maybe, just maybe, unheard. 

But Chaigidel & Neraterrae's bewitching Lamastu must be traveled. It must be heard, if only to fortify one's mental mettle; so prick up one's ears and strengthen one's heart. Lamastu calls at 

https://www.cycliclaw.com/music/chaigidel-neraterrae-lamashtu-cd-181st-cycle?fbclid=IwAR0ahz7zroK7nU3R0y5M2_JvEGc81MjPv1AkXeBDoJn5V3m1pw21fAQtmDo 

NERATERRAE'S SUBSTANCE OF PERCEPTION: STRANGE CHANGE SPRINGS ETERNAL

When I reviewed Alessio Antoni/Neraterrae's album, Nhart Demo(n)s in Oct '17, I linked it to the season in which I listened: autumn. 

With the newest Neraterrae creation (produced under the Cycle Law label), it's spring, but don’t get the wrong idea. Though the season is perceived as a period of sweet, idyllic growth, it can also bud unusual sights and sounds. 

Neraterrae's The Substance of Perception is an album that, per its thunderous, burrowing tracks, emotes change, both in mind and body.

It's my stance, therefore, that Substance has the power to transform any repressed listener, but the best I can relay is my own humble experience, and so with reference to Antoni's converting tracks, the following I do share: 

...I let the sounds of substance build, until "Shadows of Regret" enshrouded me...

Through its whispered call, I caught the taunting traces of a petulant past. I wished to shake these remnants, pretend they had never occurred, but that damn, lingering regret reinforced my inability. Layering notes shaped symbolic shadows along the anxious trail. With each step, with each murky elongation, I pressed on.

I finally grew frustrated, ravenous and for desperation's sake, triggered the courage to "Reveal the Unseen". 

In a windfall of untamed calamity, I fell to my knees, the impact of the billowing sounds pounding my flesh. My limbs extended; my bones cracked. Renewed energy surged through my mind's soundtrack. I laughed and wept at the same time, for I was "Becoming the Nightmare" I had for so long feared yet desired. 

The air clashed as a raw clanging crashed. I lost control of my emotions and then wet my lips with lustful ambition.

A "Wicked Pulse of Consciousness", pampering though grating, followed me through flowered fields. My keen sight spotted a shape. I fancied her soft, scented skin as she plucked a precious pedal. My stomach quaked. 

My prey turned...saw me, but before the amber-haired morsel could flee, I sprinted, fangs bared... 

My victim's screams filled the air. I snorted and gnawed, performing the grisly ritual of "That Which Shall Not be Witnessed"... 

Though my stomach was full and the orchestration gentle, I stomped "Beyond" the carnage, into a dense forest, seeking mournful reflection. Alas, my "Echoing Scars" renewed the same regret. 

I'll try again when another dark season awakes...

So, there's my subjective take. 

Listen to Antoni's affecting album, so that you might also adapt a cathartic, strange change: 

https://www.cycliclaw.com/releases/neraterr-the-substance-of-perception-cd-138th-cycle.

NERATERRAE PRESENTS THE NHART DEMO(N)S: A PROJECT AND RESULTING CREATION BY ALESSIO ANTONI

Alessio Antoni is an artist of a most peculiar nature and therefore, my kind of creator. Those who've read my reviews on the compositions of Raffaele Pezzella and Michael Ferentino know how much I appreciate the experimental and offbeat. That's precisely what Antoni serves his audience, and for my sake, listening to his new release struck an autumnal chord. It's the Halloween season, after all, and Antoni's work fits its crisp, crusty, and enchanting mood to an atmospheric tee.

Incidentally, Antoni's experimental-music project is named Neraterrae, which signifies something dark...lofty. The project's initial offering is The Nhart Demo(n)s (Nhart being the name of Antoni's previous project), and per that title (and its clever structure, as well as Federico Gusso's moody cover artwork), I felt compelled to imagine something formidable and demonic. Of course, such things needn't always be hellspawned; and as Antoni's creation seized my senses, it wasn't long before a series of bizarre variations inundated me. 

Trust me when I say, it's Antoni's heavy, eclectic ambiance that does the trick here, and man alive, Nhart Demo(n)s is ever drenched in it. To me, the album is as dark as night and as orangy bright as a jack-o'-lantern; even more so, as forlorn and delicate as a fallen leaf, sprinkled with slimy dew. I suspect that Antoni's experiment would prove gratifying to those who flip over rocks to admire all those pretty, creepy crawlies. 

The introductory track, represented by a slashed circle (an implication of an "empty set"), defines the album's open-for-interpretation, idiosyncratic mode. However, this prelude isn't too open and far from empty, for it spurts a wall of sound that reveals...what? Maybe it's something akin to Kong, Gojira, Vermithrax...maybe something extra-terrestrial, culled and complied from the celluloid clips of Ridley Scott, though charged by metaphysical wit. Whatever the case, the introduction behaves as a gargantuan host, demanding one's undivided attention, then requests one to pave a personal pathway through which the other tracks (and their accompany landscapes) can uninhibitedly roll; and they do as follows...

"Core" (merely based on my imaginative bias) extends the prelude's mood, invoking Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar: a place into which one may have steampunked to reach reckless fun. On the other hand, "End" dictates more of an absolute beginning in its harsh, sardonic stream; with "The Gift of Blindness" becoming its terrifying, losing-one's-way aftermath. To counter "Gift'"s stinging glare, "Night Visit" presents hope through coarseness, in defiance of that spiteful thing that dared to block one's view. The "Untitled" tracks then bounce from out "Night'"s desperate delights, morphing into the most complex of Antoni's musical progression, for they work as Rorschach hymns upon which any meandering pursuits might populate (endless, intersecting visions, if one will); while "Deeper Down" and "New Faith" symbolize and parenthesize the crazed ascents and descents of being damned and yet ecstatically blessed, cradled in a time designed for death, rebirth, struggle and above all, well deserved rest. 

It's important to acknowledge that Antoni is a drummer; therefore, his build-ups are percussive, even if devoid of the expected, associated beats. Some tracks are colored by panic-propelled bursts, crunching crashes and tingling industrialization. No matter what the twist or pull, each produces a recognizable, mounting draw: steadfast roads that lead to something unknown, perhaps forbidden and/or dangerous, but once the disquieting dust clears, fulfilling.

As one may infer, Antoni's creation grants a fantastic, full-range voyage. One's imagination will be stretched, plundered and restored all in one magnificent sitting. Such dark, euphoric experiences don't come often, no matter what the season, so be wise to take advantage. 

Tune in at... https://soundcloud.com/neraterrae; and ... https://neraterrae.bandcamp.com/releases. Thereafter, encourage others to visit Antoni's audio accomplishment. He's one of those special artists whose musical demo(n)s deserve a legion of fans.