Ruptured World Explores Northern, Eldritch Rituals in the Newest Album

The colossal swelling undulations of the ocean flow across the mind as indecipherable radio burst transmissions frequent the spectrum, as the listener’s mind is traversed to a colder, northern clime, of expanses of shores untouched by hands and feet of the faithless; dark ambient artist Alistair Rennie returns with his latest album from Ruptured World, Shore Rituals, a gently stirring evocation of the mysteries of the seas, and of the ritualistic meandering of the shore dwellers, who practice these rituals to appease the unknown, eldritch colossi to whom the rituals are offered.

Ruptured World’s previous three albums have been of the “-planetary” series, a narrative of deep space exploration and horror, and has now decided to take a more terrestrial approach to an album theme - a collection of esoteric exploration into ritualistic sea worship, of offerings to unknowable creatures and Mysteries fantastic and macabre. The hand of the composer is often unmistakable, regardless of the “stage attire”, and this album bears the image of Rennie’s inspired approach to cinematic ambience, including subtle piano flourishes - and the reverb undulations around them, swelling with the slow swell of the textured sounds, all while the ocean waves crash around the listener, taking them deeper toward the coastal mysteries and the macabre dread of the unknown.

Passages of narrative queue within the tracks, giving the sense of some lost account, a journal of introspection to which we are allowed the briefest of glimpses. Sounds of esoteric rituals performed just beyond the grasp of our “sight”, resounding their chants and percussives just out of reach of our minds eye - and yet, are these human? Or are they the chants and ululations of some sea-dwelling creature abiding by antediluvian ritual, paying homage to ancient times past, of times when the world was young? The radio signals interspersed between the sounds help to both add a human mystique, as well as carry the narrative forward - one left to the imagination, adding just enough mystique to the story without being too obtrusive.

Shore Rituals is a sui generis, tapping into an unconscious vein of seeming familiarity, as the composer slowly carries the listener along the northern shores of the imagination, and is available in CD digipak and digital format on the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page.

Read more within the Museum of Macabre Media here.