After a prolonged absence, Italy's Eidvlon re-emerge into the harsh light of day for the first time in seven years with Idolatriae, a heavy trove of dark mutterings and arcane rumblings extracted from the deepest recesses of both the human psyche and the dankest caverns of earth.
Francesco Gemelli, the High Priest of these hidden currents, leads a guided sonic exploratory tour of the dark occult catacomb spaces of the world where the shades of the dead wander aimlessly through barren landscapes, a place where even spirit no longer sheds its numinous light. EIDVLON is a Greek word denoting an insubstantial shade, an image that possesses no depth; Gemelli here uses it as a pejorative, applying it to the empty spirituality of the modern world, where the substituting of the idols of materialistic culture for the spiritual values inherent in the quest for the occult and spiritual is now a commonplace; where even the major religions have become nothing more than items in the superstore of beliefs, where the potential adherent can pick and choose a nice cosy belief-system to suit his/her needs and preferences. The spiritual landscape is bleak and uninviting to those who hear the true seeker's call; inevitably they must pass on to other pastures.
Consequently, Gemelli utilises the bleakest and darkest of catacomb sounds to describe this hollowness of the soul, where the spirit constantly mourns for the loss of its supremacy among the milling masses; the sounds appear to have been seemingly dragged from the belly of the beast itself. Granular crackling, the tolling of bells, tectonic crunches, subterranean rumblings, slow pounding reverb-soaked percussion, the lowest of prolonged bass grumblings and drones—these are the elements that Gemmelli conjures with to bring us his pessimistic vision of the slow ritualistic death of the soul and the supercession of the materialistic. The atmosphere is heavy and bleakly oppressive; it feels as if the velvet cloak of darkness abounding is completely impenetrable, and should any sliver of light dare to show itself it will be immediately snuffed out of existence. This is where hope ends and darkness begins.
For me, one of the strengths of this album is its very pessimism and cloyingly claustrophobic atmosphere, plus the sentiments expressed here tally quite closely with my own views on the subject; moreover Gemelli's use of his material expresses fully and clearly the ideas he intends to convey. He drags us down into the depths of the subterranean void to become participants in and witnesses to that final extinguishing of the light.
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