Drawings of the Mari Lwyd on the cover = I’m sold. Even the opening cut by Diaries of Destruction on DoD II (NO LABEL) is titled ‘Mari Lwyd’. Everyone has been “into” the Wicker Man and associated pagan riffs for years now, but we don’t hear enough about this terrifying Welsh horse rite which might be a scarier, darker manifestation of the hobby-horse that shows up in Morris dancing and Shirley Collins records.
Elif Yalvaç is the genius visionary behind this experimental drone-metal project, doing it in conjunction with her buddy Jordan Muscatello; Elif is a Turkish composer and was inspired to start playing guitar by various metal genres and sub-genres which she figured she could blend with ambient, electronics, noise and amplification, leading to microtonal results with weird frequencies and thick, jammy sludge seeping from speakers. The duo met and bonded at a Keiji Haino concert – how fitting – as they compared wounds and gouges suffered from the claws of that Japanese tiger. The album’s titles and themes sometimes overlap with folk-ish cultures from Turkey, Scotland, and Iceland – besides the Welsh strain already noted. Plus the whole album was made with bass guitars, admittedly with added effects and some synth, computer touchettes, and field recording gumbo, but it’s that “twin bass attack” that Diaries of Destruction might be working to establish as their signature sound.
Yes, the results are slow and dreary, but filled with ominous atmospheres and sensations of imminent dread. It’s not really about the performances – no distinguished bass playing moves on offer – more about the sound they make, and its burnished surfaces created by audio software. There’s more air and space than you get on any given Sunn O))) project with its over-clotted layers, qualifying this band as genuinely “experimental metal”. Added spookster bonus: they released it on Halloween 2024! (15/10/2024)
CORRECTION 16/02/2026 from Elif Yalvaç: Jordan is not my buddy. He is now my husband/partner :)) I really like that they use the phrase “genius visionary” but can please request correction as follows: “Elif Yalvaç is the genius visionary behind this experimental drone-metal project, doing in conjunction with her partner Jordan Muscatello”?