Tunnels Of Āh – The Smeared Cloth: 2012-2018 Unearthed
Tunnels Of Āh – The Smeared Cloth: 2012-2018 Unearthed
Cruel Nature Records
Release Date: 30/06/23
Running Time: 2:22:18
Review by Dark Juan
8/10
The integration of His Tiny Satanic Majesty, Moss Boggart Grimshaw Ravensworth III, into Crow Cottage continues apace. Having first subverted Hodgson Biological-Warfare to his inimitable will, he has now started on Mrs Dark Juan and is currently giving it the full fucking big eyes and cuteness on an industrial scale. She, of course, ever delighted at her biological empire increasing, is lapping it up like there’s no tomorrow and Dark Juan has been exiled to the puppy-free sofa, so you lot get to enjoy the benefit of my attention all over again, you gloriously lucky things.
It has been a productive morning for Dark Juan, apart from the parking ticket. Already I have achieved my completed to do list of chores around Crow Cottage and enjoyed two refreshing cups of tea and I am dog free after a stimulating and bracing walk with them. So, I have powered up the Laptop of Doom and have checked out what’s on my review list, for your edification.
The mighty Platter of Splatter™ is slowly revolving in a dark and dour fashion, faithfully reproducing the listening experience for the current record spinning upon it, this being “The Smeared Cloth” by Tunnels Of Āh. Do you know who Steven R. Burroughs is? You can’t call yourself an Industrial fan if you don’t – Steven was the vocalist and main man behind Industrial pioneers Head Of David, a seminal group that also featured one Justin K. Broadrick of Godflesh infamy. This gentleman is one of the founding fathers of Industrial, Industrial Metal and Noise and therefore any release of his is going to have Dark Juan snatching at it faster than a bunch of chav lads robbing the local Premier shop of all the Carling lager. For all you non-British people out there – Carling is a particularly unpleasant beverage masquerading as beer that tastes like the urine tests of millions of drug users and has about as much alcohol in it as British tap water. It’s barely a drink and is more reminiscent of industrial waste. There are more hops in an alcohol-free malt drink and more joy in having your own fingers cut off one by one by a homicidal maniac who has a serious Meth problem with garden shears.
A disclaimer: if you are expecting Tunnels Of Āh to sound like Head Of David or Godflesh you are going to be extremely disappointed. Burroughs has described this project as “Ritual Dark Ambient Industrial” and it runs at a gentler pace than most Head Of David tunes. Instead of raw power there is atmosphere in abundance. Tunnels Of Āh occupy a place in the musical continuum that is dour and dark and clad entirely in shades of black. Mournful expressionist poetry forms the majority of the lyrics, with stream of consciousness spoken word, ‘Keys King At Womb Door Again’ being a particularly fine example of this method of expression, with a beat that sounds like a combination of an iron lung, a steel press and breathing combined and understated, buzzing guitar. ‘Draize Cloud Over Arcady’ is a wholly different kettle of piscines, however, and is something akin to the droning, endless thoughts of a particularly unpleasant bout of depression. The music is ponderous, slow-moving, and terribly anxiety inducing. Odd tones and off-pitch feedback combine to create something akin to a musical version of Helmholtz resonance, and a bizarre and uncomfortable brain-sucking feeling. The sounds travel from ear to ear and back again and make the eyes of the listener flicker, the endless Drone building a palpable and very real sense of menace while maintaining a steady watchfulness of its immediate surroundings… The piece has a tremendous feeling of being the musical accompaniment to some kind of spirit quest ceremony where there have been a metric fuckton of hallucinogens imbibed by some poor teenager undergoing the ritual that will turn him into a man but is more likely to scare the poor fucker half to death when his innermost fears come roaring out of his subconscious, to fuck up his mindscape for the foreseeable future.
‘Lost Corridors’ is different again. It is staticky and disjointed and gives Dark Juan the uncomfortable mental image of being lost in the Backrooms. If you don’t know what the Backrooms are, do some Googling as it’s a fucking awesome concept and this piece of music (I can’t call it a song because it FUCKING ISN’T ONE) successfully evokes the fear of the unknown and the panicked running through wet undergrowth when you’re being chased by something unspeakably horrendous. Like Dark Juan on a full-blown charm offensive. I can clear a building of attractive ladies in a matter of seconds.
So yeah. Tunnels Of Āh are not so much a musical project as the soundtrack to a whole range of horror films entirely in your own head. Aural cinema if you will. An endless creeping around the edges of your defences, mistlike appendages forcing their way through the chinks in your mental armour and sitting in your mind, infiltrating thought and dream alike, leaving little obsidian trails in its wake. A time vampire who causes you to lose hours of life.
Let’s sum this record up then – A deeply idiosyncratic and extremely challenging listen that only the practiced and confident listener will gain some benefit from. A casual flick through the music of Tunnels Of Āh is not likely to garner any interest beyond a passing fancy with a particular sound or leitmotif. This double album is not so much music as a kind of organic soundtrack to existence. It is a very difficult listening experience as there is not much obvious structure to the music, but listen carefully and you will hear magic beneath the grinding steel and the roaring forge and the whirring machinery. An organic, breathing beauty contained within a rusted, oil-stained armoured carapace. An Industrial, far-future Snow White…
It’s not so much sturm-und-klang as it is sturm-und-drang.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is a huge and enthusiastic fan of the Industrial psychopomp that is Steven R. Burroughs and was delighted to be able to hear this aural tapestry. For sheer value for money, it can’t be topped, clocking in at well over two hours of music. Tunnels Of Āh are awarded 8/10 for a double album that Dark Juan thinks is fucking brilliant, but for others the music will be too esoteric and challenging.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Aceldama
02. Garlic Blades
03. Brute World
04. Keys King At Womb Door Again
05. Draize Cloud Over Arcady
06. Lost Corridors
07. Fountain Of Life
08. Icon Of Light
09. The Cloth Is Smeared
10. Great Darkness
11. In A Pig Ark Dark
12. To The Paschal Victim
13. Circumcision (Hunter Christ)
14. Metallic Shoes And A Sword
15. Gnosis Of Self-Loathing
16. Amorphophallus
17. The Castrate Became An Angel
18. Camphor
19. Multi-Storey
20. Red Distribution
21. White Distribution
LINE-UP:
Steven R. Burroughs – Everything
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.