In “Frozen Rest” a percussive sound happens, and then a distorted bass tone appears, and then a guitar comes in, unflinchingly playing the same note. Static appears, then disappears as this occurs. The sound of a guitar pick can be heard, occasionally rejuvenating the strings. Then the drone becomes more dissonant, then consonant. A low note makes the drone more dissonant in a different manner, then again more consonant. But all the while in the higher frequencies there is a higher dissonant interval of some sort. A lower note starts playing a very slow melody over the constantly droning din. This minimalist melody becomes both higher and more dissonant, and then hits a consonant interval which gives a sense of development to the drone. The guitar continues moving slowly in the drone, and keeps creating more dissonance, and then more consonance, exposing the qualities of intervals in an extreme context. Finally, a quite dissonant interval is hit, then a more consonant one, and then only the guitar drones, and the song ends.
“Whispers” starts with the jangle of a mostly clean guitar put through a delay effect, and then power chords join it. However, most of the development is in the guitar with the delay effect, which becomes more obscure, more distorted, and plays a difficult-to-discern melody, with distorted harmonics harmonizing with each other in such a way that it covers the melodic development, which goes on for some time until it rests in consonance, which it remains in as the rest of the instruments drop out, and the track slowly fades.
“Relentless” begins with thundering power chords being struck in a constant, lumbering rhythm, with a small degree of development over the course of the first couple minutes. Letting go of the comfortable consonance of the power chord, more dissonant intervals are slightly explored. The development of the music is slow, going through many repetitions which morph over time into a slightly stormier harmonic situation, and then the instruments drop out and fade out for quite a while, ending the track.
The track “Slow Return” begins with serene distortion, which is joined by clean guitar with a delay effect, and then low-tuned, slowly developing power chords. Slowly, the power chords increase in discernibility, becoming hypnotic and demanding the attention of the listener as they develop with an aesthetic of great heaviness. Then the power chords stop, leaving only the guitar with the delay effect, which fades out over a lengthy period of time at the end of the music.
In “Cloud Chamber”, a clean note rings over some kind of distortion, the distortion remaining a constant drone which actually slowly increases in volume. Indiscernible noise occurs, and another clean note is struck which is consonant with the constantly remaining distorted drone. Very little development occurs, although one element of the mix (it’s difficult to tell which) becomes a secondary drone which increases in volume slowly. At the five-minute mark, a third clean note occurs, then another one at around 5:55. A guitar drops out at around seven minutes, leaving a peculiarly resonant drone, which is then accompanied by a clean tone at around half a minute later. This general progression of events continues until the clean note played is a different note which is a little dissonant with the mix of sounds at around the ten minute mark, but then becomes a consonant note again slightly less than a minute later. Then a less audible clean tone occurs, played with less force. The drone continues for a couple minutes, then the instruments drop out, one by one.
(https://sacredoak.bandcamp.com/album/dronedemo/ CD $7, Digital $4)
Thanks so much for the write up!