Fog of Death

This noisy release opens up with a minute of sound effects, loops, and feedback. This music is definitely experimental. In terms of what this release sounds like in respect to other bands that adopt similar styles, it is a cross of Merzbow and Neptune Towers. There is psychedelic/noisy effects that constantly overlay the more funeral doom-ish keyboards and sound effects. To say the least, this is a pretty stimulating set of tracks.

You can hear where Dictator tries to go with this - the thematic sounds begin to progress forward by intensifying, building and releasing, pitch shifting, and a lot of other techniques I am noticing. These are reminiscent of other ambient/metal artists I have thoroughly indulged into, such as Neptune Towers, some of the more sludge-based stoner doom bands, Lustmord, Aghast, and others.

Within the last two minutes of track two there are ominously sounding fragments of vocal samples, that I am assuming come from Dictator. Though they are brief I mention them because it seems he doesn't want a purely instrumental first demo. It adds nicely and doesn't overwhelm the music, like I notice in many other ambient/metal artists.

The guitar parts pick up over time, and you can hear the technicality that is being put into some of these progressions. This is when I really knew I liked this release, as track three comes on, it drops the noise/doom side and starts out with plain ambience. About a minute in, the noise/doom sounds come back. They come on light, going up and down (through chord structures or just plain atonal progressions I cannot tell), but this is when I am reminded heavily of Blut Aus Nord and the similarity of the heavy effects upon the guitar and keyboard parts. And, as the third track finishes, the volume ever so slowly drops out, like a lot of Blut Aus Nord songs.

The final track offered much in terms of creativity, it didn't drone about like certain parts of the previous tracks did. It is a bit more forward and active than the other tracks were. There is a heavy push forward, the music rips onward as notes clash with each other. There is a considerable amount of looping within this last track. The contents of the loops fascinate me, they remind me of an individual's mind-breaking struggle. This would make a fantastic soundtrack for the right scary movie. I don't quite know if I'm right, but I definitely also here spliced vocals within 3 to 2 minutes remaining of the last track. I like the fact that as the music loops forward that vocal splices are added in, this adds complexity to the music, but at the same time due to the relatively few splices added, this leaves a large amount of room for Dictator to grow forth.

This was overall a pretty impressive release. I liked the meticulously crafted sounds Dictator created here. It is ominous, hollow sounding, solemn in shape, and is full of doom, wonder, and noisy progressions. I can't have imagined a better first release for this band (seeing as I have heard "The Pain Sessions" first), while I am impressed how minimalistic this music was. Though it is deep and expands over quite a bit of material, it isn't as fully utilized as his later work, "The Pain Sessions" is. I have yet to hear Dysangelist, hope it is exactly what I wanted to hear. A final note, this is significantly different than the second Dictator release. I could write a review contrasting the movement from "Fog of Death" to "The Pain Sessions", but I won't continue much about it here. Overall, I very much so suggest you listen to this release if you're a fan of noise, ambience, funeral doom, stoner doom, ambient/black metal, or psychedelic music of any sort. This is a release that proves you can incorporate many genres and pull it off with style, something few bands are willing to try out.