Lux Sine Lumine, which is Latin for ‘light without light’, is a project by Eri Nthentropy aka Yydraah aka Ni (or just Nathalie, haha), the directing entity behind the unique Centipede Abyss community and partner of Pan Inentropy. She’s active in acts like Zvylpwkua, Act Of Entropy or Ukakuja (all Centipede Abyss combos) as well, for your (extremely important) information.
Under the Lux Sine Lumine banner, there was a first untitled release in 2023, shortly after followed by II. And now we do have 3, which is, indeed, the third LSL recording. For some unexplainable reason I have never reviewed that second one - for the first one, I did write down my meaningful thoughts; link below - but I’ll make it all up by giving some time and energy on this grandiose third effort.
It’s a monumental result once again, consisting of two extended lullabies with the sweet titles Syn'a R∫• and Cyvmis. Both march further through the portal whilom passed with Lux Sine Lumine and II, being once again a step further towards the immeasurable abyss behind that secret portal. I am the concluding… Harbinger of the void, congregation of the infinite grave… There are no shadows writhing here, no breath of rotting creation remains… Only monochrome monoliths that gleam glimpses of unlit and desecrated unnamed spaces…
Syn'a R∫• clocks 23:18 minutes (!) and opens in a menacing way, like an introduction to some minatory experience. Yet after about two minutes, things turn even nastier. Lo-fi strings of doom, impending percussions, and eerie voices get canalized into a morbid, grim savor-of-fate. These vocals, by the way, are quite ‘distant’; not purposely inserted at the foreground, yet rather as fortifying effect, going for the remote screams, haunting whispers, or distal chants.
This ‘track’ permanently dilates and withers. Even-though the spine remains identic throughout the whole composition, several seemingly-scuffling segments seem to compete, and to blend at the very same time.
The low-tuned production adds an alluring tinge of hypnosis, an innuendo of imperturbable seduction. The continuous excrescences versus the imminent downturns works mesmeric, etherizing (not in the definition of ‘boring’, believe me!), and astounding. The result, therefor, is addictive, sweetly addictive…
The second elegy is a short(er) track; it lasts for less than seventeen minutes (16:58), hehe… Initially it might sound sharper, let’s call it saturated. The droning strings sound more prominent – and asphyxiating – and the percussions are more heavy and brimming in execution. The whole has a bleaker, more blackened utterance, a more obnoxious, inclement embodiment of morbific Death / Black / Doom / Drone / Sludge finesse.
Twisted riffs and anesthetic rhythms, eerie and invocative voices, rumbling drums and militant percussions; the result of this chaotic yet coherent (read: discordantly fine-tuned) is a brain-twisting assault, a mischief of one’s senses, a defiance of notion and concept. But it works, it really does. Despite the lengthy duration, this ‘song’ too stays tempting and enthralling until the last moments (which are, by the way, quite ‘witchy’).
Physically released in an edition of only twenty-five hand-numbered CD’s (no reprint will happen, ever), it comes with disturbing artwork by Ni’s partner Pan: a black hole like picture, like a malignant cosmic eye, like an orifice ready to swallow whole stellar systems. Life is futile after all…
https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/3
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/lux-sine-lumine
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/act-entropy
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/act-entropy-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/act-entropy-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/act-entropy-zebulon-kosted
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/zvylpwkua