There are times when dabbling with mind-altering substances (all legal, by the way!), that I go somewhere else in my mind and feel like reality is something that doesn’t have to be a part of who I am at the moment. Music is a great accompaniment for that (I spent a week listening to nothing but the song “Southern Cross”), and when everything clicks, it makes the experience so much richer.

I have yet to tackle “P.R.I.S.M.,” the new collaborative work of Sutekh Hexen and Funerary Call, in that condition, and it’s only because I’m not sure I’m ready to experience it in that environment. We’ll get there. Anyway, we’ve long loved the black metal/noise experimentalists in Sutekh Hexen, but this is the first time encountering Funerary Call (helmed by Harlow MacFarlane who specializes in field recordings and soundscapes). The combination of these two for this recording sounds like a match made in drug heaven as they create something that’s perfect for that mental journey to somewhere beyond yourself, when you have the comfort of the darkness and home and nothing else to do but wonder. And wander.

“Meridian غ ” opens and swelters with spooky wooshes, the sounds dripping down walls, keys enveloping as voices warble. Wild cries pay off the psychological torment, keys increase, and hissing howls peel back flesh. Strange feelings makes your mind explore as organs swell, and static spits with force. “Infernal Folly” brings guitars lurking and howls creeping, the whispers aching with ghostly force. Black chaos emerges from there, sifting and chilling, moving seamlessly into “Perilous Shade” where the steam rises and slips into cavernous expanse. The voices feel like they’re mouthing curses as the playing gets more immersive, the ambiance obscuring your vision, the slithering sounds dissipating. “Towards the Eastern Gate” is unsettling as cries resonate in the darkness, slipping into ghoulish territory, spreading frosty static. The fury builds and sizzles, the sound crumbles like mountains falling, and things melt into the stratosphere, jarring before bleeding out.

“Fractal – Void” crumbles as a furnace force explodes, the sounds ringing in your head so forcefully, you reach for something for balance. Barometric pressure gets gnarlier, shrieks emerge, and everything spills into psychosis. “Æscend Obsidia” runs 12:07, and it hovers for a while menacingly, hideous shouts scathing, your breathing heaving and threatening blackout. Whispers and yells mix, keys drip as if from a cosmic icicle, and warbling decay swims in the waves, shifting the power back and forth. A dream state is achieved, making you feel sufficiently drugged, directing unnerving pressure down your spine. “Pangæa Ultima² (Dread)” lets rumbling spread, voices swirl in the miasma, and animal-like growls feel feral and threatening, coming for your safety. The poisonous fog gets thicker and deadlier, wooshing through and icing your wounds. Closer “Shores of Purgatory” unleashes troubling noises, vibrating notes, and a steam rising, making it even more unexpected when the slicing shrieks drop. Watery playing softens the ground, noises pierce and scrape, and everything fades back into the endless void.

‘P.R.I.S.M.” is an experience likely best digested with the benefit of some kind of mind-altering substances, though it can be pretty effective if you’re stone-cold sober like I was when taking notes. Sutekh Hexen and Funerary Call create a perfect marriage of psychological torment, making the record feel like a slow loss of your reality into something else that takes you over entirely. It’s giving yourself over to the void, letting these noises and pieces sink into your blood and change you permanently.

For more on Sutekh Hexen, go here: https://www.facebook.com/sutekhhexenofficial

For more on Funerary Call, go here: https://www.facebook.com/p/Funerary-Call-100063517452891/

To buy the album, go here: http://sentientruin.com/releases/sutekh-hexen-funerary-call-prism

Or here: https://www.cycliclaw.com/music/sutekh-hexen-funerary-call-prism-cd-2lp-dl-114th-cycle

For more on the label, go here: http://sentientruin.com/

And here: https://www.cycliclaw.com/