First post - Locust of the Dead Earth review

Locust of the Dead Earth
Mithridate
Nostril Records

Ok, I'm new to this blogging lark, so this first post might be a bit shit. I'll start with a quick introduction to the blog: I'm going to be reviewing music of all kinds, mainly focusing on artists with Bandcamp pages, 'cause then I can listen to them for free. Feel free to send me a link to anyone you think I should review. I'll try and get a minimum of one new post up on here every week, but probably won;t manage that every week.

Ok, so - first review. This is a band/artist I came across while browsing Bandcamp, looking for some new doom bands. Locust of the Dead Earth (which seems to consist of one guy, Marcio de Cunha) is tagged as doom, but the actual music - or this album, anyway - is more of an ambient bent. De Cunha himself describes his music as

"An exploration of nihilistic atmospheres where drones and Frippesque guitar work will take you in a journey of swirling density"

and that seems quite accurate. I'm not sure what "nihilistic atmospheres" sound like, but there does seem to be an air of ecstatic, Neitszchean nihilism about these peices. Certainly, there's a sense of rising (or should that be downgoing?), of progression towards something, that reminds me of Thus Spake Zarathustra. There aren't any tunes to speak of, with the focus being more on texture and atmosphere - think Brian Eno synths, swirling, almost raga-like guitar lines and the occasioal doomy riff.
The entire album has a kind of ethereal beauty to it - it sounds like the soundtrack to an uncharacteristically upbeat Stanley Kubrick film. The guitars and synthesisers meld together to create a blissful, occasionally disturbing soundscape that calls to mind Godspeed You! Black Emperor's last album. Now, Locust of the Dead Earth is not as good as Godspeed (let's face it, noone is) but the style of this record is very similiar, if a tad less complex.

All in all, then, an excellent album, and definitely worth downloading (you can pay what you want for it on their Bandcamp page, so there's really no reason not to get it). It drags a little in parts, but it's still a solid record, and I look forward to hearing more from Locust in the future.

Rating: 8/10

(As a side note, does anyone know how to pronounce that name? Mithridah-tee? Mithridayt? Mithridattee?)