Band:	Golden Ashes
Album:	In The Lugubrious Silence Of Eternal Night
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	May 01, 2020
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. As Sacred Bodies Wither Into Nothingness
02. Let Death Stalk My Enemies, Let The Grave Swallow
03. Amongst The Mossy Tombs
04. When Every Word Uttered Is As Whip Cuts Into Flesh
05. From Grace Into Utter Ruin
06. In The Lugubrious Silence Of Eternal Night
07. Black Mouths Murmur Black Prayers
08. Death Came With The Golden Dusk

Now there are two albums in the universe that sound like this.

I've had encounters with Mories before (it's kind of hard not to - I swear, officer, he's behind every corner), but, while I've generally enjoyed his eclectic collection of metallic noise and metallic noise accessories, Golden Ashes is the first project from which I have found myself actively anticipating a sequel. Finally, I'll have something to talk about at the next Mories-Appreciating Party.

Not that this fabled Dutchman spends much time in the well-charted waters of musical entertainment, but Golden Ashes seized my attention for being so unusual even relative to the frontier where he typically hangs out. Apparently played on the ghost of a synthesizer that Mories brutally murdered in an act of musical rage, Gold Are The Ashes Of The Restorer introduced a novel and hitherto-unasked-for soullessness to ambient music, as if someone had cranked the Blade Runner soundtrack to max volume on a car stereo and then recorded the blown-out futurism on a smartphone from another car down the street. A charming image, no?

The sequel album's production is cleaner, with less distortion in the synths and louder, clearer percussion, which makes this sound more? mortal. It's easier to tell that this is music that somebody wrote, instead of just something you hear when you die as a direct result of being assaulted by a wizard dressed like a bumblebee. It feels more like a highly unorthodox black metal/dungeon synth album than an accidental explosion of sounds from a dreamscape approximator; the melodies are subtler and more thoughtfully composed, with layers and harmonies that even bloom into baroque constructions (or maybe just fancy-schmantzy medieval torture chamber ambiance). It's an odd thing to hear such complexity in songwriting when those songs are played on the distorted, acid-washed echoes of slightly off-key synthesizers with rapid-fire black metal percussion underneath and indecipherable screeches overtop, but I find that this elevates the album and exposes some of the effort behind it.

Where Gold Are The Ashes Of The Restorer sounded esoteric and dreamily mystical, In The Lugubrious Silence Of Eternal Night sounds grandiose, imbued with a religious awe. The extra layers of choral keys in the back broaden the scale to great effect - tracks like "Let Death Stalk My Enemies, Let The Grave Swallow" and "Black Mouths Murmur Black Prayers" practically reinvent the concept of symphonic black metal from the ground up. This album sounds more grounded in recognizable genres, which may be disappointing to some who prefer the debut album's ineffable qualities, but the songwriting is much stronger and more distinctive, and I think the production focuses the album's sound rather than detracting from it.