Cvbe ov Falsehood, II, Hanged Man Recordings, cassette HMR011 (2014)
A new project helmed by one of the members of the US black metal band Servile Sect, Cvbe ov Falsehood peddles some seriously mysterious and most likely malevolent sound art with influences from black metal, industrial, drone and ambient. The first side “Upon the Stillness Manifest” takes its own sweet time warming up with snippets of orchestral violin, a steadily throbbing drone and bird-whistle effects. Out of that whirring, pulsing storm drone arrive snake-like canary chirp noises, a faint metal factory ambience and some whiny mosquito buzz, among other trapped noises. The parade of found sounds passes by quickly and in a smooth orderly way, and there is no sense that what we are hearing is a hurricane without direction. The track comes to a climax of blistering layers of noise within which familiar sounds are being crunched and digested, never to resound again in the universe. Thus begins the reign of Darkness.
Side B, “Weaponized Thought Forms”, is a near formless ambient track of gravelly sighs and deep hollow wind-tunnel rumble. Metal strips quiver and twist in the dark, empty landscape and eventually one stuttering machine wobble comes to dominate. The piece transforms quite dramatically into something very sinister, and just when you think it couldn’t be any more terrifying than it is, the track vaults deeper into sheer nightmare intensity with demented scrabble and a distant mechanical lion roar.
It’s not a long recording – each side is only 15 minutes long – but it’s certainly a very chilling work that hints at secret unholy rites taking place in a remote location at the witching hour. Listening to the entire cassette is not easy as there are very startling and intense moments on each track. The relentless nature of the soundscapes, particularly on Side A, hints at a deranged and obsessively single-minded nature of the machine god that demands mass sacrifices of human, animal, other life forms and inorganic entities alike. Though the music can very definitely be called noise of a blackened kind, it is never really loud and overwhelming in an outrageous way but it demonstrates its power and hold over the consciousness in a quiet, determined and unyielding manner.
Contact: Hanged Man Recordings