I had previously reviewed INFELIX's "Abyssal Despondency" and "Eternal Hymns of Entropic Darkness" and found them to be every bit the feel good party anthems that one would expect from such titles. I also enjoyed them, so I was interested to see what this installment had in store for us. The label describes the album as "a sinister harbinger of noise grinding and fracturing with dread. A hallucinatory, menacing collision of primordial analog darkness embracing a bleak, dystopian landscape of crushed circuits, and cosmic errors. INFELIX continues to forge into bleakness and alienation." Sounds like a good time, so let's dive in.

We kick it all off with “Nocturnal Desolation,” which features heavily processed voice over a grinding industrial soundscape. This is dystopian and the echoing voices only reinforce this. It is difficult to make out what the voices are saying, but it doesn't sound cheerful at any rate. The mix of drone and machinelike static make for an interesting counterpoint. This is what is left when the world has ended. “Gutted” keeps this feeling going, and acts like a continuation of the "Nocturnal Desolation." This has a bit more feeling of things falling apart. If the previous track was the end, this is the decay. In “Sanctum Obscurum,” the machines have completely taken over, with pounding percussion that sounds like a wrecking ball hitting a building with steel siding. The oppressive drone is still present and accounted for. “Crushed on the Shores of Hope” is a bit more spectral, with distorted voices and pulsing drone, making it not quite as industrial as previous tracks. “Echoes of Agony” has a slow, plodding beat and a static sawtooth drone keeping it all together. There is a lot going on in this track, which keeps everything interesting. “Apeirophobia” takes a different approach, with the droning synth pads coming to the forefront and the static moving to the background. Apeirophobia is the phobia of infinity or eternity, so the slow moving drone works well to embody that concept. “The Dreaming Dead” is a bit less industrial and more ethereal, like listening to a chorus of screams of the damned over the sounds of a derelict factory that has long ago lost its workers. Finally, “Weltschmerz” closes it down with a cinematic piece that would work well in an old sci-fi movie soundtrack with its heavy use of analog sounds. But it is the kind of movie where the hostile aliens win, leaving a charred landscape in their wake.

Overall, if you like it dark and gritty, this will be right up your alley. This is heavy and INFELIX manages to make it ominous without trying too hard. If you are looking for something bleak, this is one to pick up. Well done. This album weighs in at around 41 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.