Please Don't Sweat the Afterlife

I fixed my goddamn computer, finally.

Last month, I had missed my bus. I was waiting to catch it in town to see a battle of the bands between a Slayer cover band and a Pantera cover band (featuring $3 Geary's drafts). I was already pretty tired but I decided it was worth the effort to get out and hope the Slayer cover band would shy away from all of their crappy late 90s groove songs. I fucked that up and misread the schedule and gleefully watched my bus go by the opposite side of the street only for it never to return, as I was unaware at the time that it was on a weird route. Anywho, that was the first night I could really feel Fall in the air. Fast-forwarding to now, it is absolutely that special time of the year where I start revisiting all the really depressive shit in my library. I had considered discussing Kold by Solstafir HOWEVER this was recently covered in the always insightful Trial By Ordeal, in a brief blurb which does more justice to it than I think I could.

Another favorite that I found around the same time in 2009 is the one-off, self-titled album by Miserere Luminis. I had an evening show around the time this came out and I would typically play at least one song a week and try (and fail) to pronounce their name and song titles.




Briefly -- Miserere Luminis emerged out of the rich Quebecois Black Metal scene as a sort of supergroup formed by Gris and Sombres Forets, two projects (three people in total) that I was already a fan of. Especially Gris. ML brings to mind the phrase of something's quality being greater than the sum of its parts. Eschewing the raw, claustrophobic sound of Gris, Miserere Luminis wouldn't sound out of place in a symphony hall. It's an enormous, orchestral album that thrives on a frigid, expansive atmosphere. It has moments of tranquility, scorn, and panic all during the course of single songs. It's eerie. It's gorgeously orchestrated. The setting I'm about to use is a little cliche but imagine stumbling through a forest in the dead of winter, following some ghostly, despondent wails. Finally, you discover an amphitheater and a bunch of dudes are playing black metal with a composer...who's also a bear. And that bear wants to die. Bet you didn't see that coming.

No, but with all glibness aside, this is a rare piece of work that seemed to slip by oddly unnoticed. This is another one of those albums that is best listened to A) Alone and B) with no other external distractions. Do not, do NOT just download this and listen to it while you play Xbox. This is crushing desolation. This is an eternity of solitude. If you can listen to "Senectus" without throwing yourself from a building, you don't have a heart.





The band is broken up buy BUY this. I'm not sure exactly how available copies are. It may be an import only deal.

Lunar Misery(?) .rar

The search for a sell-out job where I wear a tie continues.

-W.F.