Noctilucant is a cinematic dark ambient project hailing from Wisconsin and 'Back to the Mud' is Noctilucant's debut album. The name is sort of derived from (noctilucent) night clouds with a ragged edge of brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer in the upper atmosphere visible in deep twilight. It appears that the musician behind Noctilucant wishes to remain anonymous, at least for the time being. Adds to the mystery I suppose. Noctilucant is a rather recent arrival on the scene, this album having been created over the summer of 2015 and released in September. I can say without reservation that 'Back to the Mud' is some of the finest, chilling, smooth (as opposed to the noisy, abrasive kind of) dark ambient music I heard of late. The thirteen tracks on this disc explore various aspects of Noctilucant's somber and gloomy world (or the destruction of it), but it flows together as a complete work.

Of course, there are drones galore on 'Back to the Mud' but I wouldn't necessarily call it a "drone album". Right off the bat on "Befalling Silence" there are shades of Raison D'être and Lustmord , with a haunting, mournful, wordless vocal (courtesy of Kara Philips of the
Epic/Majestic/Power/Symphonic Metal band Magma Dragon), underscored with sustained strings and a delicious mix of drones, from deep rumbling to discreet whistling. It ends with what sounds like a train passing by in the distance. Noctilucant introduces a high, delicate
melodic component in the following track, "The End (It's Near)" over the rumbling, with brief spoken words (the title) at the end. "The Upheaval of Society" is a truly chilling piece, apocalyptic, like anguished souls swirling around in a blender. Kara returns in "The
End (It's Near) Part II" with a typewriter as if she's the correspondent in this cataclysmic horror story, of what man, not some unseen god has wrought. The melodic element from the first "The End" reprises as well. "TwoFiftySixAnteMeridiem" is a heavy and oppressive industrial-tinged dark ambient piece with a certain sense of motion. "The Deep Dead Hour" introduces a death knell bell tolling into its doom-laden atmosphere, and then we get a clipped and staticy broken radio transmission by someone on the scene of the disaster, and succumbing to it. A little too Walking Dead/Blair Witch Project for me. Fortunately, it's fairly brief. Things get better on "Dawn / The Feast." the second longest track on the album at 11:35. The light touch used on the sonics of most of this track serve to heighten the creepy factor immensely. It ends with a rainstorm that breaks the tension a little. What you might have thought was rain morphs into vinyl record ambience on "No Light To The Sight That Cannot See" but quickly dissapates. A brief spoken word ("one day we're gonna look back on all this, and we're gonna say...do you remember when the world ended?") with a cloud chorus of mysterious angelic voices as the gates of heaven close. "Signals From The Sky" seems to be a transitional drone piece. "Are We Safe Now?" gives the impression of a campfire out in the woods; some type of brief respite from what may have happened in a world gone to hell. "The Cusp Of Catastrophe" features vocals and electronics by Jeremiah Messner (HollowHecatomb, JM Sundown) with a weird mechanical melodic loop over the dark drones. This is a very disturbing piece that builds in intensity until it sinks back into the miasma. I don't know where Messner's vocals were in that piece, but the credits say they were there so I guess they were. Title track "Back to the Mud" is the longest on the album at 14:01. It begins very, very subtly and low key, and dwells there for a good long time. Kara again provides some wordless vocals briefly, that add an interesting texture to this bleak soundscape. Later in the piece her vocals return singing "New York, New York" (yep, THAT song) in a deeply chambered environment until the needle rips across the record. Perhaps the last remnants of humanity. I'll leave the short spoken vocal that heralds the final track, "Tender Womb|Callous Tomb" a surprise for you, but the way it all ends dissolved in droney ambience and childish hiccups of laughter shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

For a first outing Noctilucant has created a fantastic album that rivals the work of Peter Andersson, Lustmord, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, Desiderii Marginis, and other big names in the genre. Malignant ought to sign this project right now! What I didn't like on 'Back to
the Mud' is so minute compared to the whole. I also have the feeling that this can grow on you over time. The album is packaged in a sturdy 6"x6" black envelope and sealed with wax. The CD itself is held within a slimline case with double-sided inserts. Limited to 100 copies, hand-numbered in metallic ink. The cost is a measly 7 bucks, but if you act NOW you can get it for $4.00 until the end of the year (December 31, 2015). WHAT? Is that insane??? It must have cost more than that to make it, and it's worth several times the price. You'd be a fool not to buy this. Highly, highly recommended.