Vatican Shadow: Remember Your Black Day (Hospital Productions, 2013)
October 13, 2013 at 8:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Vatican Shadow: Remember Your Black Day
After well over a dozen cassette, vinyl and digital releases, Dominick Fernow’s Muslimgauze-inspired project Vatican Shadow is now releasing its first “proper” album (what does that even mean these days? just because this is released on CD means it’s “proper”?). Compared to Prurient and most of his other projects, there’s very little noise here, just desolate electronic beats and synths. After a brief shadowy intro, “Tonight Saddam Walks Amidst Ruins” has downtempo beats and an almost darkwave feel to it. “Muscle Hijacker Tribal Affiliation” is sparse techno, but with the beats at half-mast and used sparingly, along with small ripples of synth. “Contractor Corpses Hung Over The Euphrates River” picks up the pace a bit, with a knocking, almost future-garage/post-dubstep beat, with a more thudding, clanging mid-90s Aphex-ian beat added, plus slightly acidic synths, again used sparingly. Really good track. “Enter Paradise” has a midtempo pounding beat and guitars, very Godflesh-y. “Remember Your Black Day” is more straightforward Richie Hawtin-esque minimal techno with a slowly building beat, but with faint organ in the background. “Not The Son Of Desert Storm, But The Child Of Chechnya” is crunchy industrial techno with some ghostly voice-like synths in the background. Banger! “Jet Fumes Above The Reflecting Pool” is another slow darkwave/industrial track with guitars and cold synths, but gets more detailed beat patterns. Definitely a far cry from Prurient albums like
Shipwrecker’s Diary, this is some haunting stuff for sure.
The Answer Is In The Beat 
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