Astral Mantras Of Dyslexia (Dunkelheit Produktionen)

 This album is an split effort between two underground Sri Lankan bands, Funeral In Heaven and Plecto Aliquem Capite. Both bands, besides of sharing a member and an obscure devotion for the ancient and rich Sri Lankan occultist culture, delivers at this album two very different forms of Black Metal. The first three tracks on “Astral Mantras Of Dyslexia” belong to Funeral In Heaven, this mysterious band formed in 2003 delivers at this work, their sixth release, an esoteric blend of Sri Lankan traditional music and what could be labeled as Depressive Black Metal, the results are quite eclectic; the opening track “Transmigration Into Eternal Submission (Of Altered Consciousness)” is an exotic instrumental piece of Sri Lankan tradition music, a really beautiful and intriguing eleven minutes track, which being much more than a mere intro sets the overall mood of the forthcoming compositions. The second track, “Bandhana (Gatahaththey Kathaa Wasthuwa)”, is a slow paced, monotone and oppressing Black Metal piece, full of dramatic riffs and tortured vocals, nothing really innovating but definitely well executed and nicely composed, the subtle inclusion of traditional folkloric elements into this quite generic form of Depressive Black Metal is definitely what makes this piece stands out from the average DBM sound. The third and latest track of this half, “Buddhang Saranang”, is cover song of a ritualistic Sri Lankan rock band called Thapas, an interesting track, but quite discordant with the preceding compositions on this record, the Rock sound of this song seems to diminish the obscure tension created by the first two tracks… Anyway, these three compositions are an interesting an assorted sample of the esoteric and obscure proposal of this band… The second half of this split album belongs to Plecto Aliquem Capite, which delivers here 3 tracks of exotic but also chaotic Black Metal. This half starts with a ghostly and arcane instrumental track entitled “Lament”, but after four minutes of obscure and meditative calm a storming and devastating blend of Black and Death Metal brakes in, “Stoned Guru Rambling” is a chaotic piece of blurry and dirty Black Metal, full of cyclic and noisy riffs, a disgusting and demented vocal work, complemented by some background movie like sample speeches, and a pummeling yet simple drumming that creates  deranged and violent as hell atmospheres of nightmarish destruction… The next track, “Cemetary Of The Deep”, follows the devastating path of its predecessor with almost five minutes of down-tuned chaos. The closing track of this album, "Crestfallen: Immolating Shakthi" is one of the most interesting of this entire work; this composition is a collaboration between all members from both bands and encloses the unholy spirit of these two underground act in a single, punishing Black Metal piece, that sounds pretty much in the same vein of Plecto Aliquem Capite but slightly more structured than shown at the previous three tracks. Overall “Astral Mantras Of Dyslexia” is a very intriguing release, a controversial album that will easily catch the attention of anyone into the most esoteric and occultist side of the Black Metal audience. Talking about esoterism, this album is limited to 550 copies; first 100 copies (die hard red vinyl version) include some exotic items used in occult Sri Lankan practices… definitely an appropriate extra for such a mysterious album… (AP)