Ugorim - Moonlight Rites
I'll say right off the bat, I wish I hadn't done these two releases back to back. While a different project, a different aesthetic, some slightly different instrumental timbres beyond that of the gothic palette on the Erythrite Throne release , my praises are all the same. So are my complaints, although in some ways more noticeable on this release.
To recount - this artist has a phenomenal sense of atmosphere. This fact is indisputable. Some of the sounds, like slightly de-tuned electric piano, pure synth patches, and some haunted disembodied vocal pads, give the sense that this music is the soundtrack from a ritual being witnessed from too close a distance to escape it. The song titles, which give me a hint of Biblical (or at least Apocryphal) themes, perhaps give the idea that one is looking at the rites of early Christianity with a sense of fear and distrust, from a distance too close to escape them without alerting the worshippers to your presence. The first track in particular, "The Ceremony of Sephiar", conveys this dark atmosphere with admirable focus.
The problem is that for me, while atmosphere can carry a lot of weight, it does not prevent repetition from grating. While there is no indication in the album text, this one also seems to have the same loop-based composition approach utilized on Erythrite Throne's "As Shadows Crawl from the Eclipse". It also has the same issues related to that approach - each of these tracks have similar build, similar arcs, and similar tempi, and that causes even the strongest elements of this comparatively short album to blur together. The longest track here, "Eyes of Mourning Light", does not justify its length to my ears, and especially the timbre of the looped string melodies toward the end start to really drag on. "An Everlasting Sleep" is fairly compelling, but leans too heavily on its primary melody throughout, and seems to fall apart toward the end with attempts to get away from that core melody. "Under a Malevolent Moon" seems to me to be the worst offender structurally - a tense but dynamically flat piano line hammers through half of this track, leaves for a few bars as the music strips down to a single layer of haunted synth, and then all instruments return at once, in what feels like the equivalent of an expected jump-scare in a film. "The Wrath of Xhadrear", the album's closer, feels like a quality occult horror atmosphere, but the arrival of traditional kit drums in the last third of the song feels like a sudden intrusion of the modern world into the established scene, and takes me out of the listening experience.
I'm honestly a little surprised. This music is not ineptly made - there are some good melodies, and when the atmosphere is successful, it's crushing. But the composition suffers frequently from what feels to me like a lack of focus - like the album was completed quickly, without much in the way of editing or revision. It makes me wonder, then, why so much material so quickly, rather than fewer, more refined releases? I count an astonishing nine releases since the start of 2021, which is one more than the number of weeks that have elapsed in this year so far (and there are at least two other splits on the Erythrite Throne page). The artist clearly has tremendous inspiration and talent, and an extraordinary love for Dungeon Synth - - what I hope is that they also find some patience as they continue working.