3 out of 5

Label: Auris Apothecary

Produced by: Kevin Pappas

I appreciate how, within seemingly more “limited” genres – to an outsider’s ear, anyway – artists find how to differentiate themselves, even while sticking to the fairly set toolbox of those genres. Black metal is something I haven’t quite found a set ‘in’ with yet, and don’t know if I ever will, meaning I’ll likely always be hearing it with such an outsider’s ear.

It Is Dead’s A Place of Darkness is absolutely within that scene, but this (at the time) solo project of Kevin Pappas is yet another interesting poke and prod at the gloomy, cavernous confines of black metal, creating an interesting 2-song set that gets close to creating that in for me, falling a bit short by almost not going far enough with its concept.

Pitched as “cryptsludge,” which intends to be a mix between metal and dark ambient, Pappas constructs 9- and 10-minute long dirges of slowly growled vehemence, drone guitar ring, reverb, and some “extras” – chants, synths, etc. This latter aspect is pretty subtle, which is where I take issue: side A’s Angel With Filthy Souls almost reminds me of latter-era Cavity (which is a good thing!), but the song never quite achieves any particular effect – it’s good drone, but with the addition of the Gregorian-esque chanting, it feels like it could be something more, held back by Pappas either not letting the black metal recording style ramp up enough (it sounds pretty digital), or by not digging into the ambience fully. Towards the end of the track, the guitars start to ring out a bit more organically and the track starts vibing, but then we’re wrapping up.

The B-side picks up this torch really well: A Place of Darkness allows the mood to flesh out the track, and Pappas’ enlivens the guitars with some simple but incredibly effective stops and starts. This suggests that the dark ambient side of this project may be more successful, but I’m down with the slow and growly if it’s a bit more menacing.

The lyrics are rather typical doom and gloom fare, but I do like how Kevin keeps the phrasings sparse and direct, and not, er, too “whiny?” Like everything is horrible, but these feel more like personal demons than lashing out. Also typical, but in a more directly complimentary fashion: the Auris Apothecary packaging is eye-catching, in an oversized plastic case with cover art (Jaems Murphy) that feels like it could be from some ancient demon-summoning tome, and some apropos white-ink-on-black-paper inserts.