Tunnels Of Ah - Iron Speaks [Hypershape Records 013]

Released via Hypershape Records as a beautiful limited metal box CD edition on October 22nd, 2k21 is "Iron Speaks" - the formerly abandoned and now reworked fifth studio album of Stephen Ah Burroughs' musical project Tunnels Of Ah which is now officially regarded the outfits sixth full length longplay piece, standing a total of six tracks and 49 minutes runtime strong. Drawing inspiration from the tales told about the origin of iron shared in the holy koran "Iron Speaks" embarks on a journey into a realm of haunted and surely vantablack Dark Ambient, filled to the brim with threatening, claustrophobic tension felt from the very first seconds of the unsettling, ever moving opener "Wardens" which builds up to a maelstrom of screamingly cold and scraping Noize which is followed by humumgous low end movements accompanied by screeching, yet subdued loops caused by metals bent under stress in "Iron Law" whereas "Every Hour Wounds" fully indulges in hollow, soul-eating DeathAmbient resembling indifferent thunder blown over from afar, crossing desolate wastelands and dystopian plains stretching out over miles and miles. Furthermore "Seize Arhats" provides a deeper, slightly droning amalgamation of Cold- and DeathAmbient textures characterized by dynamic changes and a stark contrast between organic sine pulses and icey midrange movements whereas "Abattoir Sutra" pairs comforting nightly subs with stinging, poisonous atmospheric swaths and otherworldly hisses before the final and aptly named cut "Terminus Est" caters a brittle, yet carefully arranged array of long, layered loops as well as stretched and subdued, klaxon'esques drone sequences for a closing. A meditation on eternal darkness that's not meant for the weak and depressive spirits out there.

Album box artwork on Instagram!