If you’re like me and have sought the most nightmarish, grim, and bleak music available, you eventually hit a point where not much surprises you. All of the artistic malaise you can muster has been distilled into some frightening spirit in some way or another in the netherworld of metal, noise, industrial, and for lack of a better word, experimental music. Fortunately, there are others out there seeking to create the experience of a night terror in sonic form. Today, we welcome a premiere from Seattle’s To End It All that will rattle the very core of fellow seekers.
Experience the dark and hypnotic night-terror turned song “Of Blood And Memory” in the music video below.
An absolutely wrecked sample that sounds like a rusted metal door beckons us through the threshold to a liturgical procession paced kick drum and the rhythmic rattle of chains being pulled across some arcane machinery. Abandon all hope as the dour visage of a human skull and a creeping doom riff carry us into the plaintive dread that envelops us. Kaoru Okumura, a master of Japanese butoh dance provides hypnotic, ritualistic movement to the video with a mirror, the skull, and roses among billows of fog and scarlet. By the time we get our bearings, eerie synths and strings usher in waves of shrieks and clean singing.
If you could imagine what “Bros” by Panda Bear would sound like if it was reimagined by The Body and King Woman, you’d get a pretty good idea of what’s going on here. The sample that carries the rhythm doesn’t pivot the melody like “Bros” does, but instead drops out leaving the rest of the mix to send us off, like the final reveal of tragedy and fear at the end of an A24 horror film.
‘Aligning with the solemn expressions within “Of Blood And Memory”, we invited butoh master Kaoru Okumura to illuminate the visual element of the song. In collaboration with Anthelion Productions, we brought to motion the classic painting trope of the Still Life image. The austerity of this composition inspired a funereal approach to the maiden, mother, & crone archetypes, creating an emotionally charged yet focused theme.’
To End It All is a project by sound artist Masaaki Masao and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Joy Von Spain who, since 2016, have crafted this blend of drone, neo-classical, doom metal, and noise into their avant-garde masterwork. “Of Blood And Memory” is the title track of their forthcoming LP due April 19th via Roman Numeral Records. Of Blood And Memory also features cellist Lori Goldston (ex-Earth and live accompaniment to Nirvana) as well as guest guitars and vocals from A.K. O’Neill (Serpentent). A companion LP of remixes will be released the same day.
Of Blood And Memory will surely be an exhilarating album to digest, and I am beyond excited to check it out. Follow To End It All on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, and their website. Pre-order Of Blood And Memory here.
