Shadowseeds
Dream of Lilith

The album I'm talking about today, folks, is a gem for true connoisseurs: I challenge anyone to post "I've got this too!" (which, by the way, would bring me immense pleasure, given that never - I mean never - have I had news of someone owning it... so much so that I almost fear being the only holder in Italy!).

"Dream of Lilith" was released in 1995 and is the first and (if I'm not mistaken) the only work by Shadowseeds, a Swedish duo devoted to a music difficult to classify. Wikipedia talks about a "dark wave / esoteric musical project", a definition in my opinion inaccurate and definitely misleading for the unsuspecting interested party. But on Wikipedia, I discover, twelve years after the purchase, that behind the mysterious names of Daemon Kaighal and Daemon Deggial are Tommy Eriksson and Thomas Karlsson, who happens to be the lyricist of the much better-known Therion.

And indeed, come to think of it: who else could come up with titles like "Thy Shrouded Wings (A'arab Zaraq)" and "Dreaming Ecstasy (Gha'agsheblah)"?

"Dream of Lilith" is the artistic expression of the thought and philosophy that inspire and animate the more or less known Dragon Rouge, a Nordic order (with operational groups scattered around the world) that aims to share knowledge and experiences related to the practice of the Occult (if you feel like delving deeper into the subject, I recommend you take a look at the website http://www.dragonrouge.net, where you can find a comprehensive and clear section in Italian, satisfy every curiosity and even find a way to join!).

From a strictly musical standpoint, Shadowseeds hypnotize us with an extremely original dark metal that truly finds no connection with branches and subgenres that the genre provides: by the end of the listening, one won't quite know if what they just listened to is black metal, gothic, or esoteric industrial.

Rotten guitars, obsessive riffs, generally moderate tempos, some synth brushstrokes to dull the whole and a dark recitation that introduces us to the fascinating world of the Red Dragon: these are, in short, the ingredients of the recipe of the Seeds of Darkness.

It should be clear, far from the most purely ritual music, Shadowseeds remain strongly anchored to the pragmatism of metal grammar, where drum and guitar solutions engage in dialogue: the first keeping tempo with the metronome (one almost doubts it's a drum-machine) and the second, bare and essential, unfolding theme after theme.
Sporadic accelerations and mosquito-like riffs sometimes return us to the parts of a cold mid-nineties black metal, but it's clear that Shadowseeds, as physical, material, rational as they might be, actually aim for the mind, the submerged part of our unconscious, the dark side of our psyche.
A mystical experience, we might call it, if the surgical work of the guitars and the continuous tempo changes didn't regularly bring us back to this world.

The voice, a true peculiarity of Shadowseeds, is an arcane and threatening echo that dematerializes in moldy and dusty corridors, filled with stacks of books, glass vials, and three-legged tables.
In the tones of an inquisitorial theater, dark sermons and the learned articulation of philosophical readings, Karlsson and Eriksson lead us into dark rooms, spiral staircases, decaying basements where alchemical experiences, initiation rites, studies of mysterious sciences, and doctrines of the Occult take place.

Where the initiates gather, consult each other, make blood pacts. It feels like freemasonry is in the air, if you haven't noticed yet: mysterious formulas, cryptic messages, incomprehensible symbols understandable only to those who have the codes and knowledge to decipher them.

The "Eleven Shadowseeds of Kliffoth" unfold in just over fifty minutes: a reasonable span of time in which the two multi-instrumentalists, despite their obsessive stylistic coherence, do not manage to bore, but rather remain (except for some slight lapses toward the end) always and anyway riding high.
And precisely with the calm oscillation of the waves, promptly interrupted by the martial advance of the drums and a surreal and evocative riff, the rite of Shadowseeds opens: "The womb of darkness, is your open Eye, the gate to the Force is the Dream of Lilith" recites the title-track, inviting the listener to find a passage in the darkness, the sole custodian and holder of Knowledge.

 "Kalis Moon (Gamaliel)" fully surrenders to industrial loops, the alluring sounds of an Indian sitar, and sonic gashes of hallucinatory electronics that compose an almost eight-minute ritual capable of generating blurred visions and setting the conditions for psychic transfer: two dark hands will massage your seductive shoulders and temples so that the transcendental step can be definitively completed.

"The Hidden God (Gamaliel)" is perhaps the most approachable episode: undoubtedly due to the theatrical attitude of the singing (which evokes the haughty tones of furious professors who raise their reproachful finger to the sky!).
To complete the picture: enveloping keyboard runs and crackling off-tempos, gradually supported by the solemn sound of hand percussions.

"Thy Shrouded Wings (A'rab Zaraq)" starts violently: opened by a blast beat of clear black metal origin, it will convert into an engaging gothic ride, and then revive in medievalesque tempos that would not have sounded out of place in an album like "The Shadowthrone" by Satyricon (whose atmospheres, in my opinion, will emerge in more than one instance).
You can appreciate, for the occasion, the more melodic use of the voice, which reveals itself vaguely tributary to the baritonal vocals of Pete Steele of Type 0 Negative.

In short: it should be clear that explaining this music is not at all easy!

"Lion-Serpent Sun (Thagirion)" continues along the same lines, but without being tedious (and it will be a real pleasure for Therion fans to hear, driven by heavy medium tempos, phrases like "Night of Pan in the Desert of Set", a formula of might to interpret").
Smart and well-balanced, in general, the use of keyboards and effects, never intrusive and always ready to highlight the most significant passages and aimed at sealing the compositions in a mystical envelope, always beneath the iron laws of metal.

"Baptized in Blood (Golachab)" is a candidate for the best piece of the lot: opened by a classical guitar arpeggio and airy orchestrations, it will propose, between full and empty, the essence of Shadowseeds' art: taking 5 or 6 scores and repeating them over and over again in a sort of endless hypnotic loop capable of generating dizziness and disorientation in the listener, defenseless, vulnerable, completely at the mercy of sudden tempo and mood changes.

In "Dreaming Ecstasy (Gha'agsheblah)" a female voice finally makes an appearance: called to tear the black veil of the leather-clad templars, it will, however, be immediately repelled, pushed back with force and drowned in harsh inquisitorial tones.

"Dark Night of the Soul (Satariel)" recovers the ethnic moods of "Kalis Moon": tribal rhythms, hand percussions, and the ethereal fluttering of Petra Aho for a suggestive atmospheric pause aimed at interrupting the reigning metallic suffocation.

In "Daemon est Deus Inversus (Ghagiel)" (but in Latin, est shouldn't it shoot to the end of the sentence?... mysteries of the occult!) one begins, in truth, to feel the physiological fatigue linked to the reiteration of an overly-used formula: the uniformity of atmospheres, certainly essential to crown the conceptual intents of the work, could only end up burdening the final stretch of the work with excessive redundancy.

Finally closing the dance, the two parts ("The Eye of Shiva" and "The Black Diamond") of "Shadowseeds (Thaumiel)", which soften the clamor of the guitars and the pounding of the percussion into the uneasy abstraction of disconnected noise phrasing and distorted voices that go to mark mysterious formulas.

It will be quite a hassle to find it, folks! I hope, however, that at least downloading it will be possible, as someone might truly enjoy it.

Recommended to aspiring initiates of the Red Dragon!

All'kebab'aki-kai'kutuzov-kabaret-b'har'ba'p-ha-pah'inkul'att'umah!

(I messed this last one up.)