Excavation (studio album) by The Haxan Cloak

From JoaoMoreira 08/04/2019 01:28

Makes for a really nice live experience that it's hard to replicate on record.
It's reminds of some videogame soundtrack from the late 90s, like Doom or similar FPS. The sounds and textures are nice but most of the time it does not transcend the sound effect category.

Need a decent set of cans to truely appreciate this badboy

I need to listen to Drizzy to get back

From Mophos 11/16/2013 18:13

Impressive sound, it sucks you in and makes you feel insignificant.

The production/sound design on this is pretty impressive, lots of disorienting blips running around, huge bass sounds ect. I think though, as far as constructing dark scary music, the sleekness works against the album. The best dark atmospheric music for me sounds a little rough around the edges, a little dangerous, and a bit cryptic. Once I get used to the "whoa lots of bass" aspect of this album, it gets rather dull, so polished it sounds sterile instead of scary. Its far from bad, but its not great either.

From RockyRaccoon 07/09/2013 19:59

Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre" is one of my favorite pieces of music because it musically represents death so incredibly well. You listen to it, and it just sounds like death, it sounds like the music of the dead. Every sound in that piece sounds like it’s coming from a ghost itself. Not since I heard “Danse Macabre" have I heard a piece of music that so accurately represented death as this album does. It’s really quite astounding. Bobby Krlic (aka The Haxan Cloak) has created an album that sounds like death. With it’s seemingly bottomless bass and incredible orchestration, this album is death itself, it’s being scared of death, it’s the process of death, and ultimately, a feeling of redemption, that maybe it isn’t so bad. That’s what you go through listening to this album.

At first, this album sounds like the soundtrack to a horror film, the first couple tracks make you anxious and just sound straight up scary. I mean, it’s just frightening. Then things slow down and become calmer, and ultimately, with the album’s longest song, “The Drop", you feel better about everything. It’s still slow and it still sounds like the end, but it has a bit of a lighter sound to it than the rest of the album, like the end of the end, redemption in death. This album really is put together so incredibly well, I am very impressed with it.

It's spooky and has a few really interesting bits, but there is also a lack of variety that occasionally makes it difficult to stay engaged through the entire duration. The final track suffers the most from this, because while it does contain some great material, spreading it out over twelve minutes kind of causes it to wear out its welcome. Still, good album, would recommend to anyone who likes their music to be either creepy or atmospheric.

From ButterThumbz 05/01/2013 08:52

Comfortingly claustrophobic and reassuringly oppressive, like drowning in your favourite beverage.