Iggor Cavalera / Shane Embury
Neon Gods / Own Your Darkness
UK COLD SPRING CSR294CD (2025)
Split CD of unpleasant dark ambient noise from two players, both associated with one form of another of extreme metal.
I’m not familiar with Brazilian Iggor Cavalera, but he used to drum for Sepultura, more recently touring with Soulwax, and also has a solo act called Mudo for his very occasional electronic forays. From this, I might have expected a relentless pounding from his merciless drums, but instead his ‘Neon Gods’ is almost purely abstract noise designed to terrify and unsettle the listener with its spiky textures and aggressive mood. He himself refers to it in terms of a journey that takes the listener from “darkness to light”, but the reality is quite the opposite – the climax to this monstrous piece is an industrial Hades of power noise and distorted electronics, with a haunted voice intoning our imminent doom through a megaphone. This portrait of the Neon Gods – perhaps a skewed and cynical look at the despotic rulers of 21st century global politics – isn’t exactly an uplifting listen, but I’ll admit Cavalera has worked hard on the dynamics and layers of what the press blurb describes as a “brutal sonic nightmare”.
As to Shane Embury, I am at least somewhat familiar with his original group Napalm Death, though I never heard Dark Sky Burial which is his solo project for experimental nightmares resembling horror movie soundtracks. It’s always impressive to me how many members of Napalm Death spiralled off into the dark ambient regions, and I’m still personally keen on Mick Harris and Scorn, but perhaps it shouldn’t really surprise us if grindcore and dark ambient are revealing themselves to be two sides of the same coin of bitterness. Here, Embury rolls out 13:35 mins of ‘Own Your Darkness’, a subtler counterpoint to the Cavalera piece which gets its results from sheer persistence and focus. Embury isn’t perhaps doing much more than adding a synth to his bass guitar, but what a synth…it seems he formed an instant bond with the Solar 42, an analogue instrument which is marketed and sold as a “microtonal ambient drone machine” and claims a direct lineage to the original Theremin, hoping to find creators who want to create atmospheric effects for cinema and the stage. With some assist from Russ Russell, Shane Embury succeeded in generating “those eternal drones of despair” which he evidently craves. The finished piece is indeed harrowing and alarming, but Embury seems to be coming at it from a very personal place…this kind of music might emerge directly from his own depressive and bleak moments, and he doesn’t shy away from admitting to these profound moods of psychological despair. At any rate, that’s his explanation for the title. (07/04/2025)