Upon opening Summon Thrull’s CD we’re greeted with some wonderfully grotesque artwork. When you fold it out, the back cover forms an almost ouroboros-like figure, complete with dragon/serpent imagery. The inner-fold is equally representative of occult renderings, though I’m not the authority to impart what the symbology means, but the rendering is an apt reflection of the sounds inside. I wish I were privy to this esoterica, but, hey, I’m not. Then again, it may be meaningless. I couldn’t say one way or the other. In any case, it lends to the mysterious and sublime sounds one discovers upon playing the music.

The disc opens with a fairly standard approach to rich, layered noise, but rather than being alienating or battering, Summon Thrull employ clashing atonal organ sounds combined with crystalline, water atmospheres and disruptive digital distortion adeptly avoiding the trappings of rote ambient sounds with just enough buzz and hum to keep the compositions moving along in absorbing, psychedelic waves of daunting anomaly, and, dare I say grace. It’s quite seductive.

Debacle Records made a wise choice in issuing this document which is sure to appeal to fans comprising a spectrum as broad as Monos (though less minimal), Mirror and Double Leopards. At times chilling, and I say this in the most benevolent, anti-genre way possible, there are hints Gothic tendencies which cannot be ignored. However, we also find those present in some of the music of the highly-touted Nurse With Wound. I cautiously raise NWW because ST doesn’t quite reach (and who knows if they even care to do so) the absurdist heights Steven Stapleton achieves. Nevertheless, what I find here is an exhaustively varied disc employing distorted voice, the full power of the mysterious elements of surrealism via electronics and found sounds. If that’s your candle, it’s well worth your time to burn its wick repeatedly. 9/10 -- P. Somniferum (12 August, 2009)