SOMNOLENT - The Infernal Expanse [CD]

Label: Cyclic Law (189th Cycle)

Format: CD Edition of 300 copies in Gatefold LP Replica with printed inner-sleeve, Matt Lamination. 4 Tracks. Running Time 39:13

Somnolent rises from the abyss with its new album "The Infernal Expanse", an immense aural beast of infernal and diabolical black/death industrial dark ambient chaos fuming from the monstrous jaws of total hell and oblivion. The band comprises of founding solo multi-instrumentalist Jessi Nihl (Noctis, ex-Lycus, ex-Necrite, among others) on guitars, synths and electronics, joined on this release by vocalist MA (Abstracter, Atrament, Ash Prison), and the work sees the duo revel into unseen deconstructions of reality, fusing dark ambient, ritual industrial, noise and cancerous black/death metal debris to unearth the quintessence of infernal sonic abandon.

"The Infernal Expanse" both complements and diverges from Somnolent's lengthy mostly digital-only and purely electronic dark ambient and harsh noise discography, and sees the project expand its instrumental arsenal and apocalyptic yield to catastrophic effects. Adding percussions, strings, violins, and a churning cauldron of crushing metal guitar abstractions to the preexisting electronic dark ambient substrate, with "The Infernal Expanse" Somnolent deliberately embrace certain malevolent and diseased strains of extreme metal, morphing into an otherworldly sonic cataclysm of hellish atmospherics, suffocating hallucinatory soundscaping, and flesh-scaring ritual black industrial madness.

Its tectonic soundscapes and earth-shaking atmospheric dirges evoke aeons of absolute chthonian tyranny and bury the listener in an infernal aphotic realm of complete darkness, while molten flows of magmatic dissonance, twisted abstract black/death metal deformities gnarled out of shape and bestial demonic vocals conjure an inhuman sonic ceremonial of sprawling nightmares and absolutely blood-freezing horror.

Influenced by entities like Lustmord, Nordvargr, MZ.412, Portal, Blut Aus Nord, Tyranny, Teitanblood, Sunn O))), and Impetuous Ritual, with the "The Infernal Expanse" Somnolent have harnessed a realm of infernal aural majesty that will inflict deep and horrific wounds into the mind of those who set ears upon their inverted conjurations, and which will leave long lasting scars in the fabric of elite underground experimental ambient black/death metal and industrial.

The release sees two rising forces in the unholy propagation of modern deviant aural darkness -  Cyclic Law and Sentient Ruin - unite once again to bring fans of ritual sonic hellscapes one of the most baffling and nightmarish emanations the genre will see all year, with Cyclic Law handling the CD/digital and Sentient Ruin handling the vinyl/tape/digital editions worldwide.

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