Are you sitting comfortably? After the first few minutes of 'The Haxan Cloak', the chances are you won't be. Dark and evocative, 'Raven's Lament' uses cello to sinister effect, and draws the listener through the rolling mist and into the shadows. 'An Archaic Device' begins with a small jittering flutter of strings before low drones seep in... sullen, sombre and deeply atmospheric, there are unknown shapes lurking around every corner in this ancient and unfamiliar landscape, where 'Burning Torches of Despair' looms still darker, with creaks and groans before ominous drones ebb and flow. Clatters of chains or something else echo in the background before the sound of a distant battle, the ropes of a rack being stretched, the creaking of wood... strange voices. The wind blows and the voices of demons or the insane rise over scraping violins...
It's rare for an album – especially an instrumental album – to have the capacity to stir such a strong sense of the visual, but then, 'The Haxan Cloak' is no ordinary album. Where so many dark ambient albums feel somehow contrived and manufactured, there's an organic feel to 'The Haxan Cloak'. A lot of this stems from the way the Cloak – aka Bobby Krlic – has used live instruments and 'field recordings' alongside 'home-made stuff' to generate the sounds so subtly and often sparingly combined to realise his compositions.
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Tribal drums beat a relentless rhythm beneath sonorous strings as though building tension toward an obscure occult ritual on the epic 'Disorder'. The weight builds as the album progresses, reaching tremble-inducing levels of tension with the harsher sounds of 'The Growing' and on toward the eerie 'Parting Chant', where wordless monastic voices ring out from the shadows amidst thuds and crashes as multitonal vibrations stretch out into drones disappearing into eternity...
'The Haxan Cloak' sustains the sinister mood from beginning to end and holds the attention like few other albums of its ilk. Highly recommended listening – but not last thing at night.
The Haxan Cloak on MySpace
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