It’s been over half a decade since Kristoffer Oustad and Peter Nyström joined forces for an initial release entitled “BRAKEhead” that saw the light of day in a mere edition of 20 copies before Malignant Records picked it up and re-released it the following years with an additional track. Once this was available, the project seemed to go on an indefinite hiatus, essentially offering up nothing but dead air for 6 long years until the project unexpectedly once again found it’s footing and offered up this new release in “Overlook Hotel”, again to be found on Malignant Records. Most should be already well-aware of Hans Peter Nyström and his impressive level of experience as he is a monolithic figure due to his work with Megaptera and Negru Voda. Of course, it should also be mentioned that he has collaborated like this before with Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse) under the Negru Pvlse alias for a one-off, highly underrated album on Old Europa Cafe entitled “Madeira”, so he is no stranger to the world of interesting collaborative efforts. The unique factor in this one, though, is the presence of one Kristoffer Oustad, known in the Avant-metal community for his, at least early on, extremely impressive work under V:28 (and V:O:I:D) whom spent their entire careers on Vendlus Records with the exception of a remix/cover album on Cold Meat Industry entitled “Total ReConstruction” prior to effectively disbanding.
As with most relevant and thematically-fitting death industrial, the music takes on a psychological aspect that is genuinely unnerving for the listener — an important quality to the genre as a whole. It would seem then that it’s only fitting that a project of this caliber would choose a subject like the Overlook Hotel — the infamous fictional hotel that was created in the mind of Stephen King’s “The Shining”. The front cover of the album features the hotel from the classic film which in real life is known as the Timberline Lodge and is located on Mount Hood in Oregon. Depending on whether you’ve purchased the CD version or the record version of the album, you will have a different track list. The record version seems to focus more on allowing the listener to evoke randomized imagery and emotion through a track list lined with specific rooms and elements while the CD version actually offers titles that actually elicit a visual journey for you through more expressive track titles.
The album opens with some cryptic samples from one (or more) of the many renditions of the classic 20′s blues song “Love me or Leave me” that has been performed by the likes of Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Nina Simone, if not countless others. The sample in question simply repeats, in a looped manner, the lyrics “you might find the nighttime the right time…”, effectively starting us down the dark path that Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester is intent in leading us on. These samples eventually give way to a bombastic industrial field of looped percussive clanking and expressive, atmospheric high-end ambiance that, mid-track, takes over the forefront before once again being pushed to the back of the mix by the resurging bombast. This track immediately shows the artists’ understanding of volume levels and the effectiveness of subtly changing them within the mix to give a track more character — an important but often overlooked aspect of atmosphere creation in this genre of music. More cryptic verses are recited, this time through a familiar face in David Lynch through a sample from the movie Inland Empire that has been cut and lines re-arranged for a more effective meaning. “Industrial Pale Ale” features a light percussive flavor that tags along with an airy drone ambiance that playfully fills the path with mists before a nightmarish industrial world returns in subtle yet noisy fashion, before cutting off in favor of field recording-based liquid textures and junk metal improv. Ambiance inevitably leads into more ambiance through “Becoming the Green,” a track that is both freeing and suffocating and contains a textbook switch to harsh noise that is set up as a quick jolt for the listener whom has found his or herself lulled into meditation by the gentle drift. “Vulgalina Fever” is the most powerful of all tracks on the album and is thus a major highlight featuring, again, bombastic percussion — this time performed in a mildly tribal manner that could have some long-shot comparisons made to Ulf Soderburg. For me, the ultimate highlight of the album is the visceral and cerebral “It’s a Test” which focuses minimal industrial elements around extremely depressive guitar ambient layers and a combination of samples from the film “Memento”. Something about this track feels exceptionally emotional, pushing the listener into philosophical territories.
This unique album has been released as a tri-fold digipak that, much like the music within, and with the exception of the disc itself which is crossed in the colors of both the Swedish and Norwegian flags representing the unison of the two artists found here, is adorned in black and white artwork that leaves much to the imagination for interpretation. To add even more cryptic flavor to the release, a maze — which playfully hints at the iconic snow labyrinth at the end of the book/film — has been left in the final fold with the note “Can you solve the maze?” and a request to send your answers to Malignant Records’ headquarters. It’s been mentioned that this release ups the ante for contemporary death industrial projects — I argue that this release is trying to turn the page and usher in a new relevance for the genre, writing in a much-needed new chapter. Or perhaps, just maybe, heralding the final one.
Track List:
01) The Night Corridor
02) Cleaning Still Houses
03) The Tale and the Variation
04) Industrial Pale Ale
05) Becoming the Green
06) Vulgalina Fever
07) Helvetesfallet
08) It’s a Test
09) Ned I det Bunnløse
10) Astronaut 47
Rating: 5/5
Written by: Sage
Label: Malignant Records (US) / TUMORCD50 / Digi-CD
Death Industrial / Industrial / Dark Ambient
