Aderlating

Artist: 
Album Title: 
Hell Follows
Release Date: 
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

I have to admit that I like about everything done by Dutchman Maurice ‘Mories’ de Jong. Especially his Gnaw Their Tongues solo-outfit caresses my ear drums time after time (check out the review on L’arrivée de la Terne Mort Triomphante on the update of November 26th 2010 within the ‘Archive’ section, or the one for Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus, which was uploaded on January 6th 2013). Half a year ago, on June 26th 2015, we did also put a review online for Cloak Of Altering’s Plague Beast, by the way.

Another fine outfit is Aderlating (Dutch for ‘bloodletting’), which Mories runs with colleague Eric Eijspaart (the guy behind Drone / Ambient / Industrial project Mowlawner). Within the ‘Archive’-tab, on September 16th 2012, you can find a review for Spear Of Gold And Seraphim Bone Part I, by the way. The duo did record this newest effort live at Mories’ home studio, with less computer processing, and the nine-tracker got once again released via Black Plagve Productions, a sub-division of mighty Malignant Records, in an edition of 500 copies.

Hell Follows (I’m afraid it does…) starts with Black Heaven, which is a weird yet extremely suffocating and eerie Drone-scape, including haunting ‘melodies’, a spoken sample, and psychedelic noises.

Then comes Golden Streams, which has more Dark Ambient elements, yet still with that asphyxiating atmosphere. It’s transcendental hypnosis, with the first half reminding me a lot to the earliest efforts of Desiderii Marginis and, especially, Swartalf, yet then again slightly adapted in their own post-apocalyptic vision. The second half of this track can rather be considered as a floating, somewhat introvert Drone-Ambient field recording.

From The Mouth Of Gods then again comes with hints of Harsh Noise and heavily distorted Minimal Industrial excerpts, covered in a bleak and blackened mist of malignancy.

Choir Of Sick Children starts off with bewitching spells à la Aghast’s Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis, but injected with mostly haunting and terrifying details (mind the weeping / crying and tortured voices at the background).

Curse is an energetic ritual (I’ll try another comparison: what about a mixture of the collaboration in between Deutsch Nepal and The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud at the one hand, and earlier MZ.412 at the other?), an aural expression of demonic incantations, raped by semi-martial drum patterns and nightmarish synth evocations.

The next composition, Always Burning, is like a mental rape, a sinister invocation, an evil spell. Noise drone-scapes and malignant voices are combined into a hellish monument of sonic dis-pleasure, nihilistic in essence, colossal in experience.

With the title track, Aderlating might bring their most psychedelic piece on this album. Hell Follows is created around haunting drones and atmospheric yet formless keyboard lines, once again with morbid voices, and line by line building up into a climax of total frenzy and chaos. This piece is like the definition of sonic destruction, or an audible expression of Post-Life existence.

The Howling Pyriphlegethon Below is like a claustrophobic re-interpretation of certain pieces from the first (legendary?) Diabolos Rising album, blackened and skinned, tortured and still transcendentally mesmerizing. It might be the least 'adventurous' piece on this album, yet still it grabs you by the throat.

Hell Follows ends with The Silver Domain, which does differ quite a lot from what we’re used to. Still based on obscure and abyssal sounds and melodies, this specific creation is like a semi-electronic (mind the electro-percussions, somewhat Trance / IDM-alike) journey through dimensions beyond earthly presence. The vocals are much in the vein of what a project like Puissance brings (do you feel the end is near? I do too!), and the whole is less chaotic, apocalyptic, noisy than ever before. That does not, and I repeat: NOT, mean that The Silver Domain is a ‘soft’ composition. Actually, it is incredibly darkened and ominous, yet pretty attractive too, as if you are longing for the final solution: death.

So, in order to conclude: this album is, once again, a great creation by the (tortured / frenzy) minds of Mories and Eric. The continuously progression comes to its peak with Hell Follows and it might not stop yet (not until we’re all gone). Hell Follows for sure is a mighty successor of Gospel Of The Burning Idols, and a classic-to-be in its genre!

90/100