The world of dark ambiance is very much like that of metal to anyone who isn’t familiar with what the respective genre has in store. It has many twists and turns, loads of subtle touches that masters can use to create truly astonishing works, and delve into the void in a way that many thought wasn’t possible. Ambiance has always appealed to me because of its slow but definite approach to you as you listen to the sinister cacophony, and it’s bands like Moloch Conspiracy that uses said infection to their advantage.
If you’re anything like me, you can appreciate a good story. Typically, stories require narrators or just any voice to guide us along the way so that we can see the rising action and soon the conclusion of the story that we’re immersing ourselves in. Yet, there are many people who decide to tell tales without so much as a whisper. Moloch Conspiracy does just that with his latest dark ambient album, “The Burned Temple”. Here we’re given a story that spans across many eras of human civilization as the old gods of Persia and their very few amount of remaining followers continue their heinous rituals to regain power through many treacherous acts be it through revenge or conspiracy over millennia. Each track describes both the varying characters in this grand tale to the vicious acts that are committed across time and “The Burned Temple” does it without Moloch Conspiracy uttering a single word. And as if the pristine instrumental storytelling wasn’t good enough, then allow the instrumentalism itself to take center stage. Whereas many ambient acts are contempt for keeping everything digital, Moloch Conspiracy isn’t. Featuring an amalgamation of different sounds from a cello to a timpani to synths and much more, “The Burned Temple” is given a much more natural and even analog feel that we simply don’t see a lot with ambiance, yet Moloch Conspiracy pulls it off with utmost precision.
The more I immerse myself in the mysterious world of ambiance, the more darkness I realize there is and the more I love it! Moloch Conspiracy is an incredibly important step in my journey to becoming a real fan of the style, and I couldn’t have asked for a better album. “The Burned Temple” is as haunting as much as it is an achievement as it shows off plenty of what dark ambiance has to offer without getting too crazy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
LISTEN to “The Burned Temple” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Moloch Conspiracy on Facebook here.
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