Trepaneringsritualen – ᛉᛦ – Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave (CD Album – Cold Spring)
Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient & ritual.
Background/Info: Trepaneringsritualen is back on track, unleashing a new cryptic work ‘constructed from a series of rituals designated to guide the last ceasing of ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ — T × R × P is manifest in its most obscure form. Sonically minimal yet devastating in emotional impact, this working lets the listener grasp the last vestiges of Nifl and Múspell, and with them as weapon and beacon traverse the Night. ᛉᛦ reveals a barren landscape where crooked paths lead onward, through soot black veils to a point of radiant light where all that is is Union & Dissolution.’
Content: The album features 2 cuts; each track takes you in its grip for 19 minutes. The opening piece takes off a rather old-styled dark-ambient way and progressively injects ritual sound treatments and heavier noises. The next cut moves on a similar way and reveals a new obscure exploration in sound and mystery.
+ + + : Trepaneringsritualen remains a very unique experience in sound; at first sight it’s maybe not that strange, but the ritual elements emerging progressively lead the listener into a dense web of visual hallucinations. This is the kind of music to discover by using headphones and it will become nearly impossible to say what reality is and what is not. You get the impression less is happening and yet, the multiple little noises and obscure sound treatments progressively contaminate the human brain to transpose you into a world of fantasy and horror.
– – – : There’s not a lot of diversity between both cut, and the climax is found right at the end of the opening piece.
Conclusion: Trepaneringsritualen holds on to its mysterious and ritual approach, which is once again accentuated by this new production.
Best songs: “ᛉ”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: https://www.de–za–kh–a–da–sh–ba–a–ha–v.se /
www.facebook.com/Trepaneringsritualen
Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq
About Trepaneringsritualen
Trepaneringsritualen is a death industrial and ritual ambient project founded by Swedish artist Thomas Martin Ekelund in 2008, initially based in Göteborg and later relocated to Berlin. The project’s debut full-length, “Deathward, to the Womb”, followed in 2012 on Cold Spring, with “Perfection & Permanence” arriving on the same label in 2014. Trepaneringsritualen released “Kainskult” on Tesco Organisation in 2017 and collaborated with MZ.412 on the live album “Post Industriale / Rituals”. Ekelund also paired with Henrik Nordvargr Björkk on the collaborative album “Lidaverken Del I: Att i Vådeld Förgås” (2021). Cold Spring repressed “Perfection & Permanence” on limited vinyl in 2026.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
