Outer Gods return with free LP of doomed bliss

• Courtesy Drowning

Since 2012, doom-drone duo Outer Gods — it’s core members known only as the Flail (guitars, vocals, effects, synthesizers) and the Wrathe (synthesizers, vocals, oscillators, samples) — has been at work, crafting a discography of dark, dissonant music. Flipping through the duo’s Bandcamp page reveals a slew of tapes, CDs and digital releases, all issued alongside live activity, including a recent collaboration with performance artist Meredith Kooi. Now, the duo returns with Ascend Unto the Seventh Throne, a two-track LP released via Danish Internet label Drowning.

The album’s two 20+ minute tracks dive into bleak and murky aural territories, scraping shards of noise and feedback into a pile of sonic soot, smearing the various tones into a symphony of blissful dissonance. “Shattered In The Fathomless Abyss” sources a lone sample lifted from “The Horror of Dracula,” opening the album with a fitting sense of the macabre. The track dissolves into a lengthy bout of focused hysteria, droning on with shimmering chords of blackness. “Read The Black Book” is a meditative affair that begins with a set of resonating bells but is soon set adrift in a sea of distorted low-ends with no hope for solace in sight. The album brings 40 minutes of cavernous nihilism, but it’s easy to slip into when the mood is right.

★★★★☆