Entry 1611 - Bergtatt - Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages

Style: ambient, dungeon synth

Thoughts: I wasn't sure what I thought of Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages the first time I heard it. Traversing Celestial Realms was an album that I immediately took to with its subtle melodies and deep reverence for the stars, however Bergtatt's album extoling the underworld was not so instantaneous with me. 

Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages is a subtle album. There are long stretches where there are little to no melodies taking place and we only have droning ambience. When the melodies do come, they are at the same slow monotonous pace as the droning soundscapes. It has the same tamber and tone as you would find in a dirge. 

Here's the thing about music: just because something does not immediately click upon first listen does not automatically make it a bad album. This is the case with the Subterranean opus from Bergtatt. Everything stated before is still true: the monotony, the dirgelike feeling, the large swaths with nothing of note happening. The difference is that those elements began to come together and make sense.

Silence. Silence is the driving factor of this album. It is so quiet, so subdued, so deep that no light can possibly breach these deep caves. Within this depth comes a strong reverberation of everything that takes place within them. The melodies echo off the walls until they decay into the depths. The soundscapes fill the endless corridors of this labyrinth. Everything is beholden to this reverberation, and ultimately this silence.

There is a resignation to the music, like this is the last moments of a persons life. They have accepted this fate and merely wait for the end. The melodies, when present, paint a dismal picture, a slow moving fate towards an inevitable doom. The melodies are sparse enough that this feeling of inevitability is not overwhelming, but it is ever present - even in the backing soundscapes and ambience.

The ambience itself paints a dark and painful picture of a land forsaken by all, and its inhabitants are forgotten to time. There is no hope here, no life, only a cruel end. Yet somehow, in all this gloom, death and dreariness there is beauty. There is a stillness that nothing can touch. There is peace here that is not present in the waking world. There is a sense of contentment that is not found elsewhere... a sense of finality and completeness. 

Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages is an album that took me quite a few listens to fully appreciate. It's a subtle album that requires a lot out of the listener and does not do well from casual listens. I find myself drawn back to it the more I listen to it, and every time I dwell within it's caverns I am welcomed by a dark yet peaceful calm.