Aldebaran (Disc 2)

Disc 2 of Aldebaran consists of five tracks that continue the challenging noise-drone of the last track (The Blind) of Disc 1.  Basically, we have two extended drones here (Horror In Clay and Algaes' Figurines) with some shorter tracks in between.

Horror In Clay lives up to its title.  It's basically 22 minutes of fuzzed out sustained guitar notes, with occasional percussion or other sound effects randomly thrown in, one of those brutal monolithic, drones reminiscent of the hellscape trilogy.

Sandy Cult plays with elements of folk drone, but amplifies and distorts the sounds into something else. Particularly notable are the squeaking sounds of fingers on the guitar strings, which are amplified louder than the sounds of the guitar itself and make the fingerwork sound brutal or even cruel.

Providence's High Priests sounds like a (mercifully) shorter version of Horror In Clay, although at 10 minutes, it's still a long-form drone.

Carreta Del Muerto (Cart of the Dead), the shortest track on Disc 2, opens with some chaotic percussion before settling down into a sustained, one-note drone and ending with what sounds like a pan's flute. 

Algaes' Figurines is to me the most interesting track on Disc 2, in that it seems to abide in a precarious balance somewhere between Natural Snow Bridges' space-drone and noise-drone modes. Anytime you think you've got it pinned to one particular sound or another, something new emerges to change your perception of the track, which helps sustain interest through it's nearly 25-minute length.

It's clear after two discs that with this album, their only release of 2016 and their last album to date, that NSB are not content to settle back exclusively in the folk drone sound of their classic 2005 Dance of the Moon and the Sun, and are revisiting the more challenging, harsher sounds of the 2008-2009 period, the sounds of Night Coercion Into the Company of Witches and Daughters of Darkness. It's clear that the "horror drone" of that period was not just a phase they were going through at that time and have forgotten, but a specific form of drone they cherish and revisit when the mood strikes them.

Here's the track list for Disc 2:

1. Horror In Clay (22:25)
2. Sandy Cult (7:09)
3. Providence’s High Priests (9:48)
4. Carreta Del Muerto (4:55)
5. Algaes’ Figurines (24:48)