[reviews] afe108lcd
subinterior: mesmerize

Though I now the name of this project for some years, I never had the pleasure of listening to his work. I did however bought Konau's only release "Speech From the Shadows" some years ago, which is a joint project of Subinterior and New Risen Throne. That release was really brilliant. It had a great pitch-black atmosphere to it and is an album which gets my highest recommendation!

To be on subject again, Subinterior hails from Italy and is the project of Andrea Freschi. The first releases were made around 2003, and according to Discogs, this reads like his tenth release, though according to Freschi it's his fifth full-length release. What's amazing with this release, and also with the release by Konau, is that it gets better and better with each listen.

The first time you listen to it, it sucks you in right away, but the more you listen to it, the more you notice how good and special it really is. I mean, there is a lot of dark-ambient projects out there, and a lot of good ones, but it sometimes takes its time to get to the really excellent and original ones. This project belongs to the latter category.

On "Mesmerize" there are five long tracks to be discovered. It all begins with "The White Space", which is a combination of deep drones and dark factory-like noises, or "aunted aviary", as is mentioned on his site. Also with the use of vocoded vocal effects, it makes for an interesting listen.

"The Dominant Color" continues with the dark industrial factory passages and noises. At the end the song is getting pretty scary, as there are some demonic voices to be heard. "Azuria" is more of a quiet drone with a somewhat dark angelic touch. Then comes "Instant Forever", which is terrific! Somewhat reminds me of Raison d'Etre's darker material, like "The Empty Hollow Unfolds". The song is basically one long and dark drone, which gets some static sounds halfway through. Really hypnotizing. Its listening pleasure is far greater than my description. The album closes with "Mesmerize", which with just above 15 minutes is also the longest piece, starts of with some metallic-like sounds. It also feels as if you're in some kind of disturbing hallway in an abandoned hospital or penitentiary. Then the song turns into a deep drone, which climaxes into a melodic structure.

This is a great drone/ambient album, which gets better every time. It had the same effect on me as the album by Konau; the first time you listen to it you think it's very good, but maybe not overtly special, it then sticks into your brain and won't let go. Then the only thing left to do is listen to it over and over again! This is what great music does to you, highly recommended! (9)

[Fabian]