Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals

I present to you this night another member of the bizarre fringes of Finnish doom, the frightful Umbra Nihil. Their unique sound is difficult to properly describe, but they do feature the mad dreamer behind Aarni as their guitarist, which should clue you in as to just how far this is from, for example, Candlemass. I've chosen this second album tonight on the spur of the moment, though it's not quite as raw and shocking as their earlier work (which will surely surface in the Swamp someday). The ringing guitars are precise and the vocals, though heavily affected, are frequently clean and quite comprehensible. Although there are no overt Lovecraftian lyrics, there is much fuss about open gates and transcending thresholds and things of that nature, and the title track seems to be an ode to William Hope Hodgson's seminal "The House on the Borderland," although it's abstract enough to defy real analysis. Nonetheless, it's a fine slab of weirdness for those of you who croak and chirp in the dark of the lengthening nights....
Bring back to life
The horror beneath this mountain

Electric Wizard and Reverend Bizarre

It is a benevolent ignorance we surround ourselves with. The monotony of day-to-day life, the roar of the highway, the greedy wail of the television, the clumsy thud of popular music: empty noise to block out the maddening silence of the void. Once these ephemeral distractions are allowed to fade from earshot, the subtle padding of drooling beasts can be just heard outside, malign and unseen. Audible here are an adaption of the William Hope Hodgson weird tale "The House on the Borderland" by noted Lovecraftians Electric Wizard, and a cultish ritualistic dirge by Reverend Bizarre, a spell originally crafted by occult entity Beherit. A holiday in a small fishing village inevitably goes horribly wrong, and stomps soggy footprints in the mud as it approaches shore.
Fortunately, this manuscript was recently discovered.