The Moonraiser (Natural Snow Buildings)

More from the dark side of Natural Snow Buildings.  The Moonraiser is an EP of music from the 2004-2005 period when NSB were recording The Dance of the Moon and the Sun.  Never released individually, it was disc 3 of Student of Decay's 2008, 6-CD, box set reissue of TDotMatS.

While covering the box set here, I saved this disc for last because I didn't think we were ready yet for Darkness They Call Him, the opening track. It jump-scares you right from the start with a fuzzed-out electric guitar with the reverb on max, and then quickly adds layers of overdub to create a sonic wall of harsh sound.  The track builds to a crescendo after about four minutes, and then mercifully backs down with some soothing long sustained notes.  While arguably not as confrontational as They Raise The Dead, Don't They?, the opening track from the companion Sundowner EP (Darkness at least backs down after four minutes, while Raise The Dead sustains the  attack for a full 11 minutes), it's initial harshness is no less shocking to the system. Here are the track listings and the starting times in the video above for the rest of the EP:

1. Darkness They Call Him (0:00)
2. Mounds (7:26)
3. Sunsnatcher (9:14)
4. Twinsalmon (13:10)
5. Shining Home (19:46)

The brief Mounds and the third track, Sunsnatcher, are NSB back in "pretty" mode again, while Twinsalmon sounds like it could have been recorded in a cathedral   Shining Home closes the EP with several familiar NSB motifs - a droning organ, strummed guitar, and some bells for percussion.

Another Aztec-theme cover, but other than that and the obvious satanic reference in Darkness They Call Him, I don't know the significance of any of the song titles.

And that, along with the original TDofMatS, the two Sunlit Stone albums, and The Sundowner EP, brings the nearly six-hour long, 6-disc box-set reissue of TDotMatS to a close. The discs included in the set were:

1. The Dance of the Moon and the Sun - Disc 1 (Moon)
2. The Dance of the Moon and the Sun - Disc 2 (Sun)
3. The Moonraiser EP
4. The Sundowner EP
5. Sunlit Stone - Disc 1 (Moon)
6. Sunlit Stone - Disc 2 (Sun)

If you made it through all six of these discs during the past couple of days, congratulations - you've beaten the pandemic!  You won!