Neptune Towers - Caravans to Empire Algol
In the mid-90s, some of the more intense black metal dudes decided to get all ambient, and we’ve been seeing repercussions of this ever since. In fact, it seems like half of the new black-ish bands that come out of Northern and Western Europe and the States are going for a vibe that fuses post-rock-style ambiance with piercing black metal aesthetics (Eastern Europe and the rest of the world still seem pretty content with Darkthrone style brutality, and more power to ‘em). This is sometimes forgettable, and sometimes great. England’s Fen and the several projects of France’s Neige (Alcest and Lantlôs in particular) in particular are fantastic. But a legend of this, the OG-save one (and Burzum is really another story altogether) is Neptune Towers.
In 1993, Fenriz of Darkthrone and a million other bands (because this is black metal we’re talking about) got himself a keyboard and pumped out a couple albums of pure heavy spaciness. There is little music to it, it’s almost all texture, which in itself is very much in keeping with some of the better aspects of black metal (I’ve often said that the best bm resembles nothing so much as wolves on a mountain howling during a storm).
I was upset when at first I saw that these albums on Amazon start at $30 and the second doesn’t seem to be available for less than $75, but then I saw that iTunes had it for the standard $11. Thanks again, Steve!
Incidentally, Neptune Towers is also the name of my favorite song on the first Darkthrone album.
