Hrossharsgrani – Sanguis (Beverina Productions)

Austrian dark-ambient outfit Hrossharsgrani have in recent years coalesced down to the one man core of sole remaining member Hugin, after the recent apparent departures of former collaborators Munin and Fygle. Whichever the case, this limited to 500 copies reissue on Austrian industrial / noise label Beverina collects together the four tracks that originally made up Hrossharsgrani’s 1998 debut demo ‘Blut’s alongside a previously unreleased video for ‘Carpe Noctem’ as an enhanced CD section, all under the revised title of ‘Sanguis.’ From the very outset, 18 minute long opening track ‘Pax Vehiscum’ sees all of the established hallmarks of the dark ambient genre firmly intact – read spooky chorale vocals, crunching oppressive industrial static and the diseased swell of detuned string arrangements. It’s captivatingly queasy stuff in controlled doses, but unfortunately the effect occasionally wears off over the duration of these lengthy tracks, with the repetitious use of the same melodic traces leading to a slight sense of directionlessness as points here. It’s certainly remarkably humourless stuff, to the point where I’m beginning to suspect that the seemingly ritual slaughter-themed video accompanying ‘Carpe Noctem’ might not actually be someone’s idea of a Spinal Tap-esque joke. Yes, these guys are really EVIL and they really want you to know it, but against today’s contemporary dark / industrial ambient-noise landscape, the contents of ‘Sanguis’ have invariably dated a bit over the ensuing decade – making this one for the hardcore Hrossharsgrani fanbase perhaps more than anyone else.