Daughter of Darkness - Disc 5

Here we go again . . . .

The fifth tape, Tape Ø, of the original, cassette version of Daughter of Darkness consists of two very long tracks, the 43-minute Devil's Fork and the 41-minute The Invisibles.   For the CD box set, The Invisibles was moved to CD-6 and Blood In the Ground Linking Us All from Natural Snow Building's follow-up cassette release,  Daughter of Darkness V, accompanies Devil's Fork on CD-5.

The vinyl version doesn't include any DoD V material, and somehow managed to fit all of Devil's Fork onto the B-side of Disk 7.  It must be a shorter, edited version, as the vinyl set splits other tracks longer than 30 minutes over two sides or even two discs, and the version of Devil's Fork on Spotify is 45 minutes long.  But I can't find track times for the vinyl set anywhere on line, so all I can do is guess.

A shorter version of Devil's Fork may not necessarily be a bad thing.  For the first half of the track, it's a true drone and doesn't really go anywhere.  After all of the elements are introduced in the first 15 seconds or so, the track just abides in that space for the first 22 minutes of the track.  Like a long meditation, it's a pleasant enough experience but you pretty much get the idea after 5 minutes or so. Halfway through, however, several of the elements drop away, and the predominant guitar loop gradually gives way to a harmonium, which in turn yields to some heavily processed voice.  Random noise elements creep into the mix, and after about 39 minutes, some percussion is introduced in NSB's usual 1-2-3, 1-2-3 rhythm.   Then, just as the long drone threatens to start to get interesting, it's over.

Blood In the Ground Linking Us All from DoD V is a more dramatic, more cinematic, track.  There are more elements at work than on Devil's Fork, and it builds up to a nice crescendo at about 10 minutes, followed by a dark, nihilistic drone.  Percussion arrives at around the 15-minute mark (1-2-3, 1-2-3) and slowly builds the track back up from the ashes left behind after that initial crescendo, only to have the track collapse under its own weight once again.  Another soundtrack to another imaginary horror film.