Jarboe - Pandora's Box FLAC

Jarboe continues to explore extremes on MahaKali, a blend of metallic rock, feedback, atmospherics, choral infusions and acoustic interludes. The extraordinary vocals encompass eerie recitals, howls, growls, wails and oneiric chorales. In tandem, the guitars employ extremely low or high frequencies while cello drones often enhance the texture.

Shuddering guitars open the album, soon joined by cello and a hypnotic keyboard pattern as prelude to Jarboe’s blood-curdling scream. Drums and wordless vocalizing fill out the fierce intro until they are displaced by muffled vocalic rumblings towards the end.

The acoustic piece And The Sky Which Was Once Filled With Light acts as a brief interlude before the guitar storm House of Void. Massed screams resonating with the shrieking guitars alternate and complement Jarboe’s vibrato. Greater turbulence distinguishes the Visceral Mix on the European and US special editions.

A vague vocalic undertone colours Transmogrification’s first section of drone and edgy drums. Then a young girl’s recital leads into an instrumental section which turns into a virtuoso performance of layered choral vocalizing and hints of a distant male choir. The song concludes with irregular drumbeats and distorted spoken words.

A lilting, uptempo instrumental From Afar Upon the Back Of A Tiger serves as a brief but welcome break.

The more striking of the album’s two duets is that with Attila Csihar of Mayhem & Sunn O)))) fame.
Classical meets Occult Metal on The Soul Continues, a multi-layered collage of juxtapositions: Attila Csihar’s guttural growl versus the little girl’s demented singing and strangled croaking, shudders, howling winds and shifting percussive patterns.

Philip Anselmo of inter alia Down & Pantera contributes mostly clipped and spoken – sometimes overlapping – lead vocals to Overthrown, a ritualistic chant where the guitars sound acoustic. Of brief duration, the duet proper takes place about halfway through before Jarboe’s vocalizing takes over. The uptempo demo version is driven by chiming guitars and propulsive percussion, where call & response vocals give way to a sequence of hysterical shouts and screams rising to an apocalyptic crescendo.

Jarboe sends forth an arsenal of terrifying voices on A Sea of Blood and Hollow Screaming. These vox personae, some of whom sound distinctly non-human, weave singly or in clusters through a series of intriguing sonic matrices. Appealing in a scary supernatural way, it has to be heard to be believed.

Mouth of Flames is an atonal modern classical track. The voice first does the Torch mode and then returns with a recital after an instrumental bridge. On the demo version with its acoustic guitars and symphonic synths, Jarboe’s voice abruptly changes pitch to occasionally surge through the stratosphere.

The little girl returns on the chilling Bornless, narrating an esoteric creation myth over spacey instrumental and vocal effects, edgy guitars & bursts of choral vocals.

Ascend’s salvationist theme makes it atypical in this company. Frequent tempo shifts characterize the complex arrangement. Despite frightening feedback, the effect is comforting owing to the redemptive theme and the sound of a heartbeat that emerges towards the end.

The tone poem Kali Lamentation II which was produced by Cedric Victor comforts and reassures unlike Kali Lamentation III that speaks of doubt, pain and confusion. The salvific promise of Ascend finds an echo here in Jarboe’s slow, deliberate enunciation over what sounds to me like viola, cello, violin and gongs.

MahaKali covers an emotional spectrum from the sublime to the unnerving, from the terrifying to the reassuring. Above all, it inspires awe for the unseen. This album is not for the fan of 'feelgood' music as its ferocity may be experienced as overwhelming.

Dark Consort was released as an experimental companion to MahaKali. Cedric Victor produced and mixed this highly atmospheric work.

The short intro See Emptiness Directly blends guitar-derived cymbal, drone and bleep sounds to prepare the way for Kali Lamentation IV, a brooding narration about mortifying the flesh with blades, daggers, hooks, arrows, nails, needles, splinters, talons and teeth over resonating tuning forks or musical bowls.

Divine Protection opens with Diana Obscura chanting a Sanskrit Mantra that gives way to a sonic collage of growls, sighs, twittering birds and perhaps howling winds. (Some sounds are hard to identify, let alone describe). The twitters, now sounding more mechanical, become one of the elements on the magisterial Summoning Tigers in Dark Eden, where sinister growls and rumbles form the backdrop for Jarboe’s natural and processed vocals that intone a medieval hymn like those of Hildegard of Bingen. On occasion the vocals resemble vast choirs to create a Dead Can Dance effect, at others the solo soprano soars over all.

Spoken vocals to a slow, insistent drumbeat characterize Kali Lamentation V which is followed by Black Dream I, a brief droning excursion. The second highlight is Mouth of Flames, a melodious instrumental incorporating high-pitched chimes that continue into The Long March of Ghosts where a trumpet sets the tone. Distant vocals emerge about halfway through with an effect similar to those on Summoning Tigers but more subdued, like far-away sirens.

Black Dream II is a strange matrix of atonal instruments, wordless vocals harnessed like instruments and snatches of muffled voices. The tuning forks or musical bowls (they may be produced by a guitar for all I know) return on the concluding track Kali Lamentation VI where natural and whispered voices repeat a phrase in subtle tonal variations.

With the exception of the Kali Lamentation series, the music of Dark Consort does not resemble the sound of MahaKali. The most outstanding tracks include Divine Protection, Summoning Tigers In Dark Eden, The Long March of Ghosts and the instrumental Mouth of Flames which differs substantially from the two versions on MahaKali.