From ancient
history and forward into modern posterity, the name of Heliogabal a.k.a. Elagabal has become the symbol of the roman iron age’s vice and decadence as well as for how oriental influences were fatal to this culture. A massive conflict between conservative Romans and those who followed the Syrian religious traditions (themselves personified by the juvenile but extremely vain emperor himself) overshadowed Heliogabal’s reign. His rule disastrously failed due to the absence of a give-and-take philosophy and a lack of an understanding of the duties involved with wielding the power or a Roman Emperor. After the Greek mythology of his last album ‘nyx‘, Mathis Mootz took Heliogabal’s life as an inspiration for this release which marks the tenth anniversary of Squaremeter.
Mootz’ skills of creating unbearable tension and covering all bases between absolute silence up to vibrating choirs and distant industrial outbursts are clear on this album.
‘Heliogabal’ is an intermixture of hypnotic deep drones, haunting basses and disturbing soundscapes. cinematic field recordings, intermittent hypnotic sequencer loops and urgent eruptions of sound merge into an incredible collection of atmospheric dark ambient tracks. This album might be useful as an imaginary trip into a sable, a cruel past where man had the potential of being a god – before finally being disgraced. Released on ant-zen and available June 25th, 2010.
Tracklist :
01 the priests
02 winds & ruins
03 heliogabal I
04 relics of the undefeated guard
05 the sacred shrine
06 reign
07 deus sol invictus
08 whores, smoke & shadows
09 square-dimensional space
10 heliogabal II