Jackson's Ephemera

Artist: Taog Susej (US)

Title: FuneralMoonEclipse

Label: Meurtre Noir

Date: 2005

Taog Susej is ‘Goat Jesus’ turned backwards so, yeah, this is some real inverted crosses ‘n’ incantations black ambient; the first demo from a project which would go on to do a few splits before disappearing around 2007. At least one member was involved in Vrolok, which was a slightly experimental and equally arcane USBM band.

The whole ‘black ambient’ genre feels a bit useless to me. I don’t think it does anything that traditional dark ambient doesn’t do better and I keep waiting for the guitars to come in. This is definitely an atmosphere though. About a half hour of cavernous rumblings, maybe some echo-drenched moaning (?), and distant feedback. It’s actually better than a lot of other stuff from the genre in that it never confuses unpleasantness for evil, as some of the more noisy releases do. Instead, its three indistinguishable tracks maintain a steady, looming presence that would perfectly complement a nighttime stroll through your local catacomb.

Great logo and design. I think I might have got this direct from the Meurtre Noir label in Canada, which released albums by Akitsa and Hypothermia also. Now defunct, of course.