The most excellent rendition of the Kabbalah on the cover is already thick with semiotic luggage, so further elaboration may confuse the elegance of this CD. Suffice it to say this is just damn good music that’s on fairly heavy rotation here at the Reign of Toads Headquarters. For all you Thelemites and purveyors of the Western Magickal Tradition who will obviously be attracted to this release, I consider this one of the best musickal excursions within this vein of arcana. There are eleven songs, with the last being a slow tribal hymn to Nuit which decays beautifully into nothingness. --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

Shades of Caroliner, this is unambiguous personal lunacy and neo-mud-psychedelic weirdness that succeeds by being what it is: spooky, hypnotic, and aggravating. The sound of Ash Castles is like an inept incantation that accidentally looses some Cthulhoid entity--the inevitable result of an all-night chaos magick jam session conducted on the Solstice with little regard for personal safety. Because of this, I find it reassuring to wear my blessed helm of telepathy when listening. I suggest you do the same. (A Fleece/Wholly Other co-release.) --K.S.

(review date: 12/29/96)

Tibetan bells ring, opening this slow dive into a mellow hypno state. The music, like the cover art’s desolate sand dunes, is rhythmic and wavering. We don’t witness the presence of this wind, this atmosphere, this erosion except through the act of beholding its residue. The emptiness seems to be in the foreground, driven by the background’s subtle, catchy acid beat. --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

last update 1/17/97

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