Vatican Shadow

We've been following Dominick Fernow's rise as Vatican Shadow and so far the releases have been consistently good, but he takes a leap towards something seriously substantial on VS' first album release, Remember Your Black Day for his own Hospital Productions. The album, as with pretty much all of Fernow's Vatican Shadow material, centers on US military practices and their consequences abroad. As such the tone is remarkably bleak, but where some of his earlier works were scratched with noise and beat with a similar black heart, here he's thickened the production to a swampy thickness that rolls down your back. Bass pools in inky coils around chain link beats and the entire record perches twitchily on a fraught nervousness that can't help but evoke the dread and stress of occupied territory. The tracks rain down like accusations, reminders, hauntings; there are very few moments over the course of the LP where light seems to break through the atmosphere. It seems in Fernow's view the atrocities are numerous, coolly chaotic and always at night. Whether or not you feel the political objectives of Remember Your Black Day sink into conciousness, the album stands alone as an excellent piece of biting goth electronics that will pair perfectly with the Leyland Kirby release from yesterday. Cue them both up and draw the shades.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE