From OUTBURN Magazine:
"Record Of Shadows Infinite is a mixed bag of experimental music of the drone design. The most intriguing tracks stretch the boundaries a bit, showing an effort beyond the familiar. Ruhr Hunter's "In Memory With Blackest Wings I Fly" opens with stark, desolate tones that build to a kind of forest symphony in which the essence of nature is echoed by bleak drones and chiming bells like dew on tree leaves, dripping like tears. It's exquisite and moving music. Amon's "Drone/Evidence/ Foundation" is a stunning, dense drone that mutates as the track progresses; it's power lurks under the surface, in the back, amidst the layers that make up the density of the aforementioned drone - brilliant. The drone in Chaos As Shelter's "Nihil" seems to swirl and slowly pulse, lending it an air of unease. Francisco Lopez, well known for less dynamic material, lets loose on the weird aggro drone, "Untitiled #133", which sounds like he's distorted a metal band's music into incoherence. Good stuff abounds...." - JC Smith
From ROADBURN webzine (Neddal Ayad):
"... an album full of moody, droning goodness. Anyone into Earth, Sunn 0))), and Boris's more experimental/ambient pieces will find a lot to like on this disc."
Review from SMOTHER.NET:
(EDITORS PICK OF THE WEEK) "Records of Shadows Infinite is a tremendous collection of drone and minimalism that drives the furnace of creativity with well-shoveled sonic coal. Featuring some of the most interesting artists in the genre, it’s a marvelous introduction to any drone newbie. Amon’s dark ambient piece Drone/Evidence/Foundation will have people clinging to their proverbial seats with chilly displays of euphemism while Unearthly Trance chaotic rendering is likely to entice utterances of secret societies and Templar magik. The soundtrack to the apocalypse has been assembled here within and it appears to be more iconoclastic then ever previously imagined."
Review from AURALPRESSURE.COM:
"Here’s a fact for you to masticate over. That’s masticate not masturbate you sad wankers, and its this: drone music is the oldest form of music ever played. Since the dawn of civilisation the drone has been associated with the spirtualisation of human expression and worship. Education in a review. Whatever next? Now there maybe some of you out there who think drone music is just one note s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out for an eternity and then repeated endlessly but you would be wrong. Ok, you could also be slightly right but no need to let that put you off. Drone music can take many forms. As is proved by "Record of Shadows Infinite", which should really be subtitled ‘An introduction to drone music’, because here every facet of drone music is covered by artists known and unknown in one complete package. A beginners guide if you will. From the experimental abstractness of ‘Thuja’ through the claustrophobic ambience of Amon to the avant garde beats of Francisco Lopez: it's all here. And yes there is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-y one included also. "Record of Shadows Infinite" will break down your preconceptions of drone music and make you realise what you’ve been missing if you’ve never experienced this stuff before. Calming and relaxing, in a very chilled out way, it beats the hell out of whale music that those New Age tossers get off on."
Review from AIDING AND ABETTING webzine:
"A fine collection of experimental electronic drone music. I know, I know, there's a small market for this stuff, but let me assure you: This set is worth checking out. This music takes me to another universe."
Review from DEAD ANGEL ezine:
Just a partial list of the contributors should give you a hint as to why you need this: Troum, Unearthly Trance, Thuja, House of Low Culture, Ruhr Hunter, Francisco Lopez.... The histories of said artists should clue you in, as well, to the nature of these proceedings. It's all about the drone, baybee! More accurately, it's about dark and sometimes forbidding exercises in dark-ambient grimness. The liner notes pay respect to all the right gods (Theater of Eternal Music, Phill Niblock, Terry Riley, etc.), and while the compilation is definitely paying obesiance to these gods and newer ones like Earth, Abruptum, and Maeror Tri, there are plenty of surprises along the way. The first one is the opening track from Ruhr Hunter ("in memory with blackest wings i fly"), which is not only one of the best tracks on the disc, but marries drone and Krautrock with such skill and elegance that I can't fathom why Ruhr Hunter isn't more well-known. Troum's "uswena" is a drifting swirl of subdued guitars, bass, mouth organ, voices and other effluvia, none of which is really recognizable as anything other than the sound of the cosmos reverberating. " Unearthly Trance add elements of dissonant violence to their shuddering ritualistic drone, conjuring up fatalistic visions of rituals at dawn leading to blood running down the hills. (I think they should just start covering Hermann Nitsch and get it over with -- or better yet, start staging Nitsch rituals.) Thuja adds a bit of primitive scratching and clanking to their brooding drone on "Cave Floor," House of Low Culture throws in noise and glitch electronica on "A.T. Drone Home," and Scot Jenerik's "Of A Dead God" begins with minimalist noises and near-silence that gradually builds to a near-fury then dissipates, only to coalesce again in pained drones like radio towers malfunctioning. Israel's Chaos As Shelter builds up an impressive wall of cycling drone on "nihil," but it's the Lopez track at the end ("Untitled 133") that will really get your attention (and wake your ass up, if you dozed off while buried in drone) -- loud, chaotic noise washed clean by the healing power of reverb. Ten tracks, all good, and ultra-swank packaging (design courtesy of Aaron Turner at Hydrahead). Pour yourself a fat cup o' drone and bathe in it, that's what I always say.
Review from STONER ROCK.com (John Pegoraro):
"Remember that news article about scientists discovering that a black hole was generating what amounted to a B-flat note, and that it had been droning on for billions of years? Well, so did the folks at Crucial Blast. They gathered together a group of musicians, including Unearthly Trance and Aaron (Isis, Old Man Gloom) Turner’s House of Low Culture, to create this compilation that celebrates the art of the drone. That said, it’s almost impossible to review this piece as a compilation of separate tracks performed by different artists. There are, of course, noticeable differences in style and structure from one song to the next (Ruhr Hunter’s opener is distinctly reminiscent of "Tubular Bells", for example, and House of Low Culture’s "A.T. Drone Home" is an exercise in volume and repetition), but since this is drone music, it’s individually and as a whole about slowly unfolding aural experiences. A close comparison is probably Gavin Bryar’s The Sinking of the Titanic. While Titanic was one composition that grew increasingly layered as it progressed, the ten tracks on Record of Shadow Infinite do the same due to the ambient qualities of each song. The progressions are subtle, but even if you don’t always consciously notice them, you definitely feel them.It would be easy to describe the record as background music (save for a couple of noisier tracks), but that’s not doing it justice. There’s more than enough going on within each song, and Record of Shadows Infinite is as fitting a tribute to that intergalactic B-flat as any."
Review from DIGITAL METAL.com:
"In addition to hosting some of indie metal's coolest bands (Spickle, Totimoshi, Dove), Maryland's Crucial Blast label has a soft spot for noise, from ambient to ear-splitting, and Record Of Shadows Infinite is a stellar compilation along the lines of Relapse's Release Your Mind series. 'In Memory With Blackest Wings I Fly' from Seattle's Ruhr Hunter journeys through ambient space before descending bells and an acoustic guitar chord fade in, the latter a cross between Robert Fripp's League Of Crafty Guitarists and Led Zeppelin's 'The Battle Of Evermore'. Featuring ex-members of Maeror Tri, Germany's Troum glides in from deep space while clinging to an accordion with the resonant, Thomas Koner-like 'Uswena'. With a seven-inch on Southern Lord, Long Island's Unearthly Trance checks in with the doomy ambience of 'Scarlet', while San Fran experimentalists Thuja shuffle across the ceiling of heaven with 'Cave Floor'. Muffled, rippling bass drones ebb and flow then flicker out in a crescendo of power electronics in 'A.T. Drone Home' from House Of Low Culture, a/k/a Aaron Turner of Isis, Old Man Gloom, The Lotus Eaters, et al. San Fran's Scott Jenerik follows a similar time structure but uses jingly bells, low-gain synth chords, and slight oscillation on 'Of A Dead God'. Italy's Amon cuts through sub-space with icy thrusters firing on 'Drone/ Evidence/ Foundation', while Israel's Chaos As Shelter approaches Merzbow in chill-out mode with 'Nihil'. Wisconsin's Beneath The Lake softens the drone with distant tones creeping across otherworldly deserts in 'Hong Kong', one of the album's low-key highlights. Spain's Francisco Lopez ends the album on a harsher note with 'Untitled #133', as if he plugged speakers into a broadband cable. Expert liner notes truly set off the whole package, so switch on Record Of Shadows Infinite, tune out the chaos of life, and descend into the unclassifiable oblivion."
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