From the industrial end of dark ambient
music comes this menacing, reverberating passage of sinister
atmosphere. Leipzig, Germany's Hyios is a talented one-man
noise-maker, and on Consuetudines he brandishes an inspired
army of electronic ambiance and expansive field recordings, evoking
familiar adjectives such as hellish, cavernous, and subterranean.
Indeed, this is a definitively cave-like record; its tracks boast a
grisly, hollow rumble adorned with the echoing, mechanical sounds
of, perhaps, underground excavation equipment. A potent mood-setter
that might have been the score to The Descent, the disc's
most intoxicating portions come when Hyios toys with ebbing layers
of sound -- the elevator-to-Hell of "Algor"
and multi-textured "Aquila"
are fine examples of devilish excellence, and accordingly deserve to
played loudly through good speakers. As his musical style and
MySpace page attest to, Hyios idolizes ambient hero Lustmord,
and fans of Brian Williams' more industrial exploits will
find solace in the demonic whir of
Consuetudines. All in all, a solid debut from
the brooding ambient scene.
