Lakes of Sacrifice

Starting off with a dark ambient track, punctuated by the oh-so-angry ramblings of It-clings creating an atmosphere of foreboding, as the vocals thrash through the agony of the world, angrily denouncing life, while grasping for some sort of meaning. The music continues from there into a martial neo-folk set up, angry dark ambient drones punctuating the roots of the tracks, while overture-like noises float in, leading to the marching beats and vocal samples floating in and out.

Operatic female vocals add a really nice sub-text to the whole thing, like a little emphasis to the desperate feelings. A sort of overall horror at facing the world. Leading to increasing darkness and despair, life feels as if it's slowly ebbing out of you as you progress further and further into the album.

I feel as if I'm at some medieval ritual, perhaps awaiting the sacrificial burnings. Or I suppose drowning would be more appropriate, but I guess any old killings would be just fine or maybe just sitting around and despairing also wouldn't be so bad place to be hearing this.

Definitely a very intense and frightening album, which I hope is the point, for it would make a terrible light pop hit. Really, I mean I hope the intention wasn't to make a sugary top 40 hit, as this would be a miserable failure. Great listening for a cold, miserable winter's day.

--Matthew Rich , march 2007