The debut album, The Pulse Of Atoms, is out October 2nd on Ipecac Recordings. Another must-have for me. Enjoy!
Black pulses guide through a Lovecraftian void of murk horror and total darkness.
Another dark, dystopian and sinister track from my favorite new dark ambient discovery, Envenomist. The perfect soundtrack for your Saturday morning.
This one is in my playlist for today's haunt setup. The rain and winds have finally moved out, so it's time to finalize the display for tomorrow night's trick-or-treat.
Enjoy.
Last Sunday, I posted an incredible dark ambient compilation from Cryo Chamber that included many lesser-known artists, entitled Tomb Of Iconoclasts. As I listened to the entire compilation, one track really stood out to me, and that was the second track Threading The Needle by the artist Envenomist (who I had never heard before).
This track had a darker, dystopian and more sinister feel than the rest and it really got my attention. After hearing it, I immediately researched Envenomist and I couldn't believe what I found.
I'm not sure how I hadn't found this artist before now, as this style of dark ambient is right up my alley. I have since added his work to all of my Halloween playlists, and if you're like me, you should too. Really great work here with a truly dark, industrial sci-fi/horror atmosphere.
Just a quick post for today, as I'm out in the garage repairing all of the broken props from last year's windstorm. A really great dark ambient compilation from the Cryo Chamber label. Tomb Of Iconoclasts is the latest in their Tombs series and makes a perfect dark soundtrack for a day of toiling in the garage. Enjoy!
From the Cryo Chamber YouTube page:
The Tombs series returns with a special roster curated by Apocryphos featuring new and familiar artists, creating atmospheres of dread and existential horror. The knell of a distant bell fallen can be heard within the decayed houses of the gods. Once standing with grandeur and might, these temples are now their own tombs across a wasteland left by man. Recommended for fans of oppressive dark ambient, brooding atmospheric and layered texturing.
I make no secret of my love of the dark ambient music genre. It sets such a great uneasy mood, and I have always thought that it works really well in haunt settings. With no recognizable patterns or vocals, the audio sits nicely in the background, supporting and heightening the tension of the haunt setting, never becoming a distracting focus.
For years I have been using various dark ambient tracks in my yard haunt, and in the last 4 or 5 I have settled on what I have found to be a perfect track. A wonderful, dark balance of creepiness and eerie foreboding. I absolutely love this track and every time I play it, it instantly takes me into the middle of my yard haunt display...
Enjoy the unofficial haunt soundtrack of Highbury Cemetery, artist Jeff Greinke's 1992 dark ambient masterpiece, The Moor.
Here's a great one for the long weekend. Lustmord's 2024 release, Much Unseen Is Also Here, is an absolute dark ambient standout in a catalog full of incredible releases in his long and storied career. Oozing with lush, dense atmosphere with an overarching sense of darkness and subtle uneasiness, it will serve as a perfect soundtrack to a long weekend of getting those props and projects done! The clock is ticking...
Enjoy!
Back at it with another great ambient release to get us into that dark Halloween mood. This time from Laughing Hands, an Australian experimental group and their 1980 release, Ledge. I recently discovered this track through ZoydRa's incredible YouTube channel, choc full of rare and obscure ritual, ambient and industrial releases.
This one really nails that droning, creepy Halloween ambient feel. Maybe not what they were originally going for way back in 1980, but it still sounds so modern today. Definitely one to add to your Halloween playlist. Enjoy!
The Halloween display is all put away. The golden, orange, and brown leaves have all fallen from the trees. The last of the sun-warmed days of Autumn are gone. We now look ahead to the desolation of winter.
Enjoy.
Look, it grows dark! The positive peace of everything fills me with rage, with something that is the bitter aftertaste of the air I breathe. My soul aches... In the distance a slow ribbon of smoke rises and disperses... A restless tedium blocks all further thoughts of you...
— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Enjoy.
Atrium Carceri, Metatron Omega, ProtoU, Cities Last Broadcast and Kammarheit. A literal who's who of the dark ambient genre and a perfect Monday playlist to focus the dark atmosphere for next week's Halloween celebrations. Cryo Chamber is again bringing the goods.
Enjoy!
Some of his music was performed on industrial and domestic tools, as well as on self-made instruments and electronic media. His influence was noted by bands such as The Sisters of Mercy, Throbbing Gristle, and Deine Lakaien, and he became better known in Japan, the U.S. and Britain than in Germany. His music was "characterized by a fondness for the nightmarish and the fantastic."
Another fantastic track from the dawn of dark ambient. German artist Peter Frohmader's Nekropolis project from 1981. Very dark, very discordant, but ooh so good.
Enjoy.
A long time ago, I decided that I wanted to take my meager Halloween yard display to the next level. I wanted to build more detailed props including coffins and tombstones. I thought more about lighting effects and the use of color. And I wanted to add to the overall creepy feel of the display through the use of music. No more silly "spooky sounds" cassettes (although they ARE still really fun!), I wanted to take the display from fun to deadly serious...
It was at about this time that I discovered the dark ambient genre. I happened upon my wife's CD collection, where she recommended Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. I dropped the disc in the player and was absolutely amazed by what I heard. Tracks that were more akin to background sounds without any lyrics of identifiable repeats. And so much creepy atmosphere! I instantly knew that audio like this would make a perfect backdrop to my display. It added an unsettling soundtrack that would lay "behind" the visuals of the display without overwhelming or drawing attention away from the main focus.
I ended up grabbing six tracks from the Apex Twin CD to make my first "display soundtrack playlist." Every track a haunting, atmospheric cut to instill fear and unease in the trick-or-treaters on Halloween night.
And since that time, I have continued to refine things throughout my display, including the audio portion. I continue to discover new artists and tracks from the dark ambient genre, and use them in the display.
But every October I still go back to that original playlist to revisit those memories. And every time I hit play on this track, the one that begins that original playlist, I still get a sly smile and a jolt across my belly as it transports me back. Matchsticks will always be an important piece of Highbury history and will always be in my October playlist.
Take a listen and enjoy.
A little "cryptwave" for your Saturday! Another really cool, totally random YouTube find.
Each Autumn in the late 80s and early 90s saw the abundance of Halloween cassette tapes available in every retail store. These tapes would include sound effects, music, spoken word, or a combination of two or three of these elements, often with cheap packaging and illustrations. They were meant to add atmosphere to Halloween parties and in-home haunted houses, and could often be heard playing on boomboxes while trick-or-treating. As cassette tape became an irrelevant format, these soundtracks made a brief transition to compact disc before disappearing entirely in the age of digital streaming music.
As a defender of the old and the irrelevant, and as a conjurer of nostalgia and tradition, Netherworld Nate has brought this concept back from the dead and created the first such soundtrack since the days of yore - Bloodcurdling Sounds, a homage to old Halloween scare tapes! Created entirely on synthesizers and sounding as if it was recorded in a moldering coffin, this is Cimitir at it's most atmospheric!
Those 2 paragraphs describe me to a T. Enjoy!
Here is another absolute gem from the dawn of the dark ambient genre. German electronic composer Peter Frohmader's incredible Nekropolis project from 1981 featuring this hauntingly dark, discordant composition.
From Wikipedia:
Some of his music was performed on industrial and domestic tools, as well as on self-made instruments and electronic media. His influence was noted by bands such as The Sisters of Mercy, Throbbing Gristle, and Deine Lakaien, and he became better known in Japan, the U.S. and Britain than in Germany. His music was "characterized by a fondness for the nightmarish and the fantastic."
The original 1981 LP release on which this track is featured, Musik Aus Dem Schattenreich, has gone straight into the Cemetery wantlist and will be on constant rotation throughout the spooky season.
Enjoy!
I have long been a fan of dark ambient, the music genre that I still feel perfectly embodies the creepiness of the Halloween season (and makes a perfect soundtrack for any yard haunt!). And as I continue to seek out more and different releases, I find myself discovering rarer sub-genres and releases to fill my growing library.
Case in point is this incredible track dating all the way back to 1985. I don't yet know much about Metgumbnerbone, outside of the fact that they are an obscure industrial/ritual ambient act from Newcastle, England, founded in 1983 and still recording today. But upon hearing this track, I'm definitely seeking out more of their work, because this one is really dark and haunting!
"Death" is on constant repeat as I'm working on props in the garage all weekend. Enjoy!
Belated happy new year to all you haunters! I took some much-needed time away from all things Halloween after another successful and fun season, but it's already time to get going again. Things are already moving for 2024, so it's time to dive back in.
Gonna start things off with another insanely great dark ambient mix from the Cryo Chamber label. I was instantly hooked by the incredible cover art on this one, and each track in the mix puts me right back into that dark and creepy Halloween mood. And it's only February.
As always, it's time to get crackin'. Enjoy!
One week to go until the big night, and the "to-do" list is starting to suffocate. So many little projects left to complete in an already full schedule. Couple that with a rapidly decreasing weather forecast, and the stress levels are starting to rise.
Luckily, I can just stop for a second, press play on an absolute classic dark ambient release like this, take a deep breath, refocus and put the hammer down. I'm still hopeful of getting it all done and still hopeful that this year's trick-or-treat isn't a complete washout...
An ode to the Lovecraftian lore of Shub Niggurath, Black Goat of the Woods was conceived as "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods."
Black Goat of the Woods pays homage to the dark denizen of the nocturnal glades, and is a true paean to backwoods horror.
Enjoy!
So I woke up late today to a cold, rainy, miserable day, still completely exhausted from a fun night of guest acting at the Akron Haunted Schoolhouse & Laboratory. With the late start, crummy weather, and a tired, depleted body, I quickly realized that everything I had planned for the day just went right out the window...
But I did want to drop this one for today. I originally posted this back in March, but I have been revisiting this release by Lords Of Infinity again lately, and I still find it to be an exceptional track to listen to during the Halloween season. Perfectly dark and creepy.
And how could you NOT love a track with THAT title!?
Enjoy!
Last month, I had posted about my discovery of Library Of The Occult Records, a label out of the UK that describes itself as "Esoteric Electronics, Dungeon Jazz and Wizard Psych sounds on limited vinyl releases."
And since that initial discovery, I have been grabbing releases left and right. Really great modern interpretations of 70s folk/horror/occult sounds on everything they put out!
But on this release, Boström forgoes the usual dark, droning atmospherics in favor of a rather unique, synth-based occult/horror soundtrack sound. Much more upbeat (yet still maintaining a dark essence) than any of his other projects. An unexpected treat for fans of both dark synth wave and dark ambient.
Another fantastic release from Library Of The Occult Records. Enjoy!
A quick post for a Saturday that will be spent working on Halloween projects in my garage...
Here is a new Cryo Chamber dark ambient mix put together by two of the absolute best in the genre: Atrium Carceri and Cities Last Broadcast. The mix features tracks from their collaboration on the Black Series (Black Corner Den and Black Stage of Night), and is full of wonderfully rich, smoky, atmospheric melancholy. And check out the image that was used!
A perfect soundtrack for a cold day here in the Cemetery. Enjoy.
