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Zinc Room
CD (ltd. 300) |
"Window of Erich Zann" is currently the latest album by Zinc Room from Ekaterinburg, Russia, led by Alexander "I" (also head of the Evil Dead Productions label and member of Prognostic Zero) and Kein (Sol Mortuus, Church Of Howling Dog, ex-Thy Repentance, etc.). This is a blend of raw noisy industrial and dark ambient with the project's trademark sound: roaring bass guitar, steel sheets and spiral springs are combined with thematic samples, powerful synth pads and slightly unexpected cello intrusions.
The album symbolically marks the past 10-year anniversary of the project's activity and contains several reworked compositions from the debut Zinc Room disc "Cold Corridors of Fear" (2004, Evil Dead Productions). "Window of Erich Zann" was originally released by EDP as a limited edition CD-R in 2015 and now re-issued on a factory pressed CD with the support of Zhelezobeton Distribution Division featuring two exclusive bonus tracks. Digital version is available for purchase at bandcamp.
Reviews
Zinc Room is a collaboration between Alexander "I" (Prognostic Zero, and label-head of Evil Dead Productions) from Ekaterinburg, Russia, and Kein (Sol Mortuus, Church of Howling Dog, ex-Thy Repentence, etc.), and this album, 'Window of Erich Zann' symbolically marks the past 10-year anniversary of the project's activity, containing containing several re-worked compositions from Zinc Room's 2004 debut, 'Cold Corridors of Fear'. My only acquaintance with Zinc Room comes from the review I did not too long ago of Sol Mortuus's 'Extinction,' a whole different animal than this work. While Sol Mortuus is along the lines of electro-acoustic ambient, Zinc Room is harsh noise dark ambient with black metal leanings. Quite a difference, eh? So if you're not up for that, you'd better move on, because no mercy will be shown for the casual listener.
Before we get into the music, we should consider the title - 'Window of Erich Zann,' which is based on a 1922 short story written by H. P. Lovecraft titled "The Music of Erich Zann". In it, a poor university student seeks lodging in a creepy old apartment building with few tenants. One of them is a mute German violinist named Erich Zann. Over time the student gains Zann's trust and discovers the old violinist has discovered melodies and rhythms of sound of an almost otherworldly nature. Zann plays these sounds to keep back unknown and unseen creatures from Zann's window, which is said to look out into a black abyss. One night, Zann's music reaches a crescendo, and the student, staring out the window in hopes of seeing the normal world outside, instead stares into an infinite abyss. The window shatters, and an unnatural wind sweeps through the room, carrying away all of Zann's music notes into the darkness, despite the students attempts at catching them. Fleeing the house after he finds Zann seemingly dead despite his body still playing the violin, the student escapes not just the house but the neighborhood entirely.
Now you may have a better idea of what you might encounter on this album, but you're still going to need a guide, and that's where I come in. Beginning with the title track, "Window of Erich Zann," a foreboding and low drone heralds some manic cello by Kein, along with a cacophony of of metallic noises set to stun on a variety of frequencies. Noise enthusiasts are going to love this novel opening. "Cold Corridors of Fear" (presumably one of the re-worked tracks from Zinc Room's debut) has heavy cello drone with repeatedly struck cymballish noise which eventually fades while thick drones emerge, both low amnd mid-range. More repeated, echoed noise strikes begin again, and after some rumbling, it fades out on a ring-modulated spacey synthetic drone. "Dust of J. Curwen" uses distorted noisy percussive bashing and roaring bass guitar for its rhythm over which unintelligible and nasty back metal vocals shout something ineffable while feedback squeals emerge now and then. "In the Night Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a phantasmagoria of noise, drone and misery that will test your sanity. "V-29. The Temple" is a tumultuous storm of rumbling noises with some repeating bird-like higher pitched sounds interspersed. It eventually fades into low drone and creepy organ towards the end. "The Rats in the Walls" (title taken from another Lovecraft short story) is more black metal, driven by cello drone here. The heavy, bombastic distorted cello is not to be missed!
The titles of the last two regular tracks, "The Dreams in the Witch House" and "Landscape. At the Mountains of Madness" are also taken from Lovecraft stories. For the former, I really need to quote Lovecraft -
"His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. At night the subtle stirring of the black city outside, the sinister scurrying of rats in the wormy partitions, and the creaking of hidden timbers in the centuried house, were enough to give him a sense of strident pandemonium. The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound—and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other, fainter, noises which he suspected were lurking behind them."
The music is sort of like that, but maybe amplified a hundred times. As for "At the Mountains of Madness," a Lovecraft tale that has always chilled me to the bone, the repetitive rhythmic clanging, the wall of drone and feedback, and other dire elements all seem calculated to drive the listener insane.
There are two bonus tracks: "Grave Abyss," a sonorous dirgy bombastic track flecked with metallic noise, and "The Evil Clergyman," with distorted intense metallic rhythm over sinister black metal dark melody. It is relentless and unforgiving. Definitely not for the meek. Yes, this is an album for harsh noise aficionados and fringe black metal enthusiasts. All others beware. Lovecraft wrote a short story titled, "The Colour Out of Space"; perhaps Zinc Room, if they want to continue along these lines might do an album titled "The Colour Out of Noise", and yes, noise does come in different colors.
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