Shibalba is Acherontas V.Priest (Acherontas), Karl NE/Nachzehrer (Nåstrond) and Aldra-Al-Melekh. Their music is saturated with the mysticism of the East. It's richly detailed and multidimensional, while layered with chanting and broadly defined elements of traditional ritual and shamanic music. Apart from contemporary synths and guitar drones, the band makes use of bones and skulls as percussion instruments, Tibetan horns, Tibetan singing bowls, bone and horn trumpets, darbuka's (goblet drums) as well as ceremonial bells and gongs. The band's intention, in their own words, is to "guide the subconscious of the individual to dream beyond the skin of matter & to dream in ecstasy and exult". The album was recorded by the band themselves in Greece and Sweden, and the label itself describes this as meditative dark trance / ambient / shamanic music. I know I haven’t heard anything quite like this before. I did find myself being reminded of Negură Bunget in some ways, and Burzum in others, with Gregorian chanting also making an entrance in what is an album where voices are used as another instrument.
It is hard to explain the depth of this album – when it is playing it is as if no other plane exists, and that darkness has taken over the world. There is a drone-like feel, and the listener is taken to a place that is alien in nature, a dark monastery in the Himalayas where the monks aren’t exactly wanting to bring joy to the world. This is a compelling album, one that I really did enjoy, just because it was so different to anything I have ever heard before. It won’t be to everyone’s liking, and is as far removed from the mainstream as anything I have ever heard, but I feel musically enriched by coming across it.
