Lakes of Sacrifice

Dead Man’s Hill is best introduced by the artists brief bibliographical statement on the Dead Man’s Hill website “Dead Man's Hill started in 1998 with the intension of making dark and cold music, especially influenced by The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud, and early In Slaughter Natives, but with a more aggressive feel, by incorporating black/death metal influences. The Lyrics of Dead Man's Hill revolve around Haïtian voodoo cultists (Culte des morts) and the sickness/cancer that mankind is.”

At first glance the concept of a Belgian musician performing music in the vein of In Slaughter Native and The Moon Lay Hidden with black metal influences and Haitian voodoo lyrics may seem a bit eclectic but Dead Man’s Hill has proven that this new generation of industrial musicians is capable of bridging such diverse themes. Taking inspiration from defining acts of the past Dead Man’s Hill has helped to reinvigorate a sense of experimentalism within industrial and especially martial industrial music.

Lakes of Sacrifice is the 5th official album by Dead Man’s Hill released on Bugs Crawling Out Of people of Canada after four previous successful releases on such prominent labels as Slaughter Productions, WOP and Beast Of Prey. Lakes of Sacrifice features collaborations with spoken word artist It-Clings and a remix by Nick Gorman of Fractured.

The musical style will be familiar to Dead’s Man’s Hill fans who have come to enjoy the dense driving martial industrial dirges that have come to define the sound of the band. As on previous albums martial drumming mixes freely with swelling choirs, electric guitars, percussion, keyboards and samples. Unlike The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud the music is not medieval in tone but rather more industrial and apocalyptic. There is an emphasis on anger, despair and hopelessness akin to many of the older CMI bands like Coph Nia and In Slaughter Natives. The inclusion of electric guitar and drums in many songs is not only refreshing it is rather effective at contributing to the driving nature of many tracks. The use of ritualistic percussion is also worth mention. Though it is slight and seldom when Dead Man’s Hill does direct his attention towards ritualistic or tribal percussion scores it seemed as if he was touching upon something worth exploring further. Merging the martial tone of the music with ritualistic elements occurs in some passages but I was left wanting to here more of this mixture.

Though most of the songs follow a deep furrow that leads to ever darkening recesses the artists manages an amazingly narrative passage that holds the listeners attention. Though you never expect the sun to break the dark skies the music projects your imagination and attention are held completely throughout the album by keen use of sound and acoustic structure. The music is epic and diverse changing pace from song to song from dark oppressive soundscapes to engorged martial anthems while ever retaining a menacing industrial edge. Dead Man’s Hill stands alongside the next generation of industrial musicians leading the way into the future alongside acts like Cold Fusion, Rukkanor and the many other newer musicians who seem so talented at introducing new elements into otherwise rigid musical styles.

If you indulge in dark martial soundscapes written for a decaying age you will find solace and sanctuary if not new nightmares in the music of Dead Man’s Hill fifth release Lakes of Sacrifice.

reviewer: malahki thorn, july 2007