“Weeping, Kneeling is a mysterious solo entity operating out of the dense wooded area that marks where Connecticut spills over into Massachusetts. It sleeps while the sun is high. By night, it waits.” This is all that it is possible to know about this one man band; these profound, evocative words are the answer of the shady guy behind this project to my request for biographical information, after he had contacted Unholy to submit a review request. As far as I could find out, Weeping, Kneeling released a digital full length album in 2013 titled Effigies, a split with Life Has No Meaning in 2013, another split in 2014 with Vacant Sea and then the full length Blood of Ritual.
The music of Weeping, Kneeling can be described as an interesting ambient drone doom black metal. To give you an idea of what the music of Weeping, Kneeling is, I quote the presentation of the album on the band's Bandcamp:
“Just as reality is a falsehood perpetuated by human sensory perception, Weeping, Kneeling’s Blood of Ritual is itself a reflection of a thousand reflections.
Channeling the broken spirits of black metal, doom, minimalism and noise, Weeping, Kneeling’s despondent second album weaves a hypnotic mirage of sound that drowns the listener in solipsistic self-loathing.
Blood of Ritual is a warning spoken too late:
You are alone.
You are dying.
There is no truth but the pain you feel.”
Weeping, Kneeling uses mainly screamed voices and guitars, sometimes percussions and keyboards; I cannot hear a bass and often the songs lack a rhythm. The drone guitars are much reverberated, which creates a unique atmosphere, almost as if these sounds were piercing screams from another dimension; the screaming increases the pathos of these eerie compositions. The evocative and melancholic touch makes one dream of that wooded landscape described by the mastermind of Weeping, Kneeling. Blood of Ritual is not intended as a beautiful and attractive album, but rather as an alienating and painful experience that squeezes one’s soul to the last drop of desolation. The listener arrives tired, exhausted to the end of the album with a feeling of being hit and hurt in the depths of the soul.
The lyrics reflect the general mood of the album; they are often hermetic, in a couple of cases they only consist of a verse of two or three words in all, as if they were carved with pain in the soul. For example, the text of “Tremulant Skin” is in its simplicity full of significance and unrest:
“No sleep
No...”
The eponymous song of the album, the longest one, is a profound reflection on emptiness and hypocrisy; the text ends with an evocation of love:
“Why do we pretend
When we know
It's empty
Now, in unceasing toil
We cling to the lies
Living, searching
Love: Take us with you”
Blood of Ritual is one of the darkest albums I have heard in recent times; it is an intense and disruptive album, but it is amazing.
Notes:
Blood of Ritual was released in 2014 on hand-numbered cassette limited to 25, courtesy of Girlfriend Party Records, and self-released digitally. The digital album can be bought on Weeping, Kneeling’s Bandcamp and you can name your price. Here is the link https://weepingkneeling.bandcamp.com/.
The music of Weeping, Kneeling can be described as an interesting ambient drone doom black metal. To give you an idea of what the music of Weeping, Kneeling is, I quote the presentation of the album on the band's Bandcamp:
“Just as reality is a falsehood perpetuated by human sensory perception, Weeping, Kneeling’s Blood of Ritual is itself a reflection of a thousand reflections.
Channeling the broken spirits of black metal, doom, minimalism and noise, Weeping, Kneeling’s despondent second album weaves a hypnotic mirage of sound that drowns the listener in solipsistic self-loathing.
Blood of Ritual is a warning spoken too late:
You are alone.
You are dying.
There is no truth but the pain you feel.”
Weeping, Kneeling uses mainly screamed voices and guitars, sometimes percussions and keyboards; I cannot hear a bass and often the songs lack a rhythm. The drone guitars are much reverberated, which creates a unique atmosphere, almost as if these sounds were piercing screams from another dimension; the screaming increases the pathos of these eerie compositions. The evocative and melancholic touch makes one dream of that wooded landscape described by the mastermind of Weeping, Kneeling. Blood of Ritual is not intended as a beautiful and attractive album, but rather as an alienating and painful experience that squeezes one’s soul to the last drop of desolation. The listener arrives tired, exhausted to the end of the album with a feeling of being hit and hurt in the depths of the soul.
The lyrics reflect the general mood of the album; they are often hermetic, in a couple of cases they only consist of a verse of two or three words in all, as if they were carved with pain in the soul. For example, the text of “Tremulant Skin” is in its simplicity full of significance and unrest:
“No sleep
No...”
The eponymous song of the album, the longest one, is a profound reflection on emptiness and hypocrisy; the text ends with an evocation of love:
“Why do we pretend
When we know
It's empty
Now, in unceasing toil
We cling to the lies
Living, searching
Love: Take us with you”
Blood of Ritual is one of the darkest albums I have heard in recent times; it is an intense and disruptive album, but it is amazing.
Notes:
Blood of Ritual was released in 2014 on hand-numbered cassette limited to 25, courtesy of Girlfriend Party Records, and self-released digitally. The digital album can be bought on Weeping, Kneeling’s Bandcamp and you can name your price. Here is the link https://weepingkneeling.bandcamp.com/.
| Tracklist: 1. Bones Thaw 2. Blood of Ritual 3. Tremulant Skin 4. Derealization 5. Second Sight 6. Visual Snow | 04:23 06:45 02:46 07:04 03:58 12:58 34:04 |
Personnel:
One man band. The identity of the mastermind is unknown up to now.
One man band. The identity of the mastermind is unknown up to now.
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com