PACT INFERNAL Vinyl & CDs

Review: The Horo label wouldn't be complete without the mischievous industrial patterns of Pact Infernal, a mysterious artist who specialises in all things on the grey end of the scale. Infernality is the artist's second LP for the imprint and, compared to his debut CD album, this dwells on much vaster, more cinematic landscapes that remind us of Prurient's top material. The A-side, a cavernous stretch of earth that goes from "Purification" to "Meditations", has been constructed with the notion of tribalism very much front of mind, and this builds at a constant rate to reach the climax of the B-side. "Principles" heads back to the nether zone with its eerie swarms of bass, while "Infernality" drops the listener into a thick swamp of loose beats and mind-bending background effects. The second vinyl follows the same steady path to all-out doom, dipping and rising at every turn with the help of powerful bass recipes floating in mid-air. It's an album of gloom, passion, dread and euphoria, all at the same time. Excellent stuff.