BLOODBOX Reviews

BLOOD BOX The Iron Dream (Eibon)

Cometh the hour. Cometh the man. Drowning in a sea of black ambient music that's slowly pulling me under and filling my lungs with the bad taste of apathy I need saving. How and why did it get to this? Black ambient music was my first true love and yet over time I got to know all her curves and caresses off by heart and suddenly lost my appetite for her seductive wares. She no longer thrilled or appealed to me as she once did. No matter how well she tried to change her appearance by dressing up in different outfits she still remained the same at heart. Now I'm lost and adrift in a meaningless relationship whose lustre faded years ago seeking release from my torment.

Yet wait. Salvation is at hand. Striding fearlessly into the cold waters like David Hasselhoff, but with better hair, a hand stretches out and pulls me clear. My lifesaver it transpires is Michael Hensley (Yen Pox) and the resuscitation is made possible by his release "The Iron Dream". Breathing new life into the black ambient genre he has guided me from falling into the depths of my despair and shown me the true path of enlightenment. The six tracks on this seminal recording has taken black ambient music into new uncharted realms that intoxicate with their heady brew. Painting majestic pictures through sound I can see landscapes filled with exotic fauna and flora. I have visions of mountain peaks covered in snow as darkness threatens to snuff out the last glimmers of light that sparkle from the flecks of ice. I see wondrous things so alien that my mind does a double take trying to register it all for fear of losing my sanity. I'm evoking nightmare visions that counter the heaven I've had the privilege to walk through. The music dances through my ears provokingly and once more I'm drunk with lust and longing.

Salvation has arrived and I look upon my love in a new light. I cannot turn my back on her and that realization is thanks to one man. He saved me...and for that he'll have my eternal gratitude.

~ auralpressure.com

Blood Box is a project of Michael Hensley whose work in the terrorist ambient ensemble Yen Pox we have praised before. On his own, Hensley strikes a more menacing pose; where Yen Pox conjures a narcotic numbness laced with the imagery of fear, death, and horror, Blood Box places you directly in the midst of a tragic aural nightmare. Snarling beasts and whispering demons haunt the nether regions of bleak reverberating dronescapes, giving way to majestic swells of minor key orchestral fragments. Later on, claustrobophia from The Iron Dream's sonic catacombs open into expansive forests, ominously crackling and creaking in the wind. At the same time, subtle musical gestures punctuate the wash and din, offering a hint of optimism to this otherwise oppressive album. On the Iron Dream, Hensley brings together the shadowy ambience found on Burzum's Filosofem, the soul-crushing depression of Anenzephalia, the darkly shimmered elegance of Maeror Tri, and subterranean terror of Lustmord. Morose, creepy, and gorgeously frightening.

~Aquarius Records