ia: http://www.HeathenHarvest.com/article.php?story=20080129171639874

A review of the 'Nimheil - Contemplation' album, that has made me very very happy:

If you have ever wanted to hear what desolation and emptiness sound like, then I suggest you grab yourself a copy of this third album from Perth, Western Australia’s Nimheil. This is the sound of finding yourself, alone and friendless, in some vast cold battlemented castle somewhere, situated in the middle of a deserted boulder-strewn and tree-less plain or atop a craggy precipice, with the freezing winds blowing through the arched windows and where the only things stirring are the time-worn brocade curtains. A place where not even a roaring log fire brings any warmth to deeply chilled bones and your only companions are the spectral shades of dead ancestors, unwilling to let go of the earthly glories they once possessed. One can also imagine massive lightless subterranean chambers echoing with the scurrying of troglodytic albino creatures and the dripping of water into bottomless pools. This is the world that Nimheil invites us to explore and contemplate through the medium of the sound-pieces on this album.

All fourteen of these pieces are quiet and very understated, and tending towards doom-laden gothic territory. However there’s more dimension to the music on here than just the dark and gloomy - above all this album explores the relationship of scale between the environment and the human; to be more precise, the vaster the landscape the more insignificant the human becomes. Nimheil utilises washes of gently susurrant washes and whispers, cold electronics, slow mournful percussion, waves of echoing sound, inhuman voices and the whistling of cold ice-bearing winds which together conspire to create the illusion of vast boundary- and border-less spaces and landscapes, capped by skies that are nothing more than huge roiling masses of restless boiling grey and black thunderclouds; where indeed anything on the human scale is completely overwhelmed and the sense of loneliness is heartbreaking. Across the distances creatures banished from the company of men howl mournfully and at length, issuing both a call and a warning; ultimately they are singing a dirge to the utter singularity of their endless existence. Vast places where, clothed in darkness, shapes become menacing and threatening presences; where imagination can spur the soul to depart the earthly realm.

There is something of the tragic here; this music describes places where the human is often unwelcome and out of synch; where sadness and loss clings to every surface and infuses every nook and cranny. Only the most malign, lonesome and loathsome of creatures would ever want to make their home here; certainly only the most misanthropic and sociopathic of people would even contemplate an existence here. And that’s the particular beauty of this music; what Nimheil has crafted here expresses these ideas and feelings most succinctly and perfectly – after all, the measure of these kinds of soundscapes (and concomitantly the artist who created them) is the atmospheres they evoke. Certainly by any criterion of success, the tracks on this CD definitely measure up and do so in buckets. For any of you out there that enjoy atmospheric and isolationist sonics this is essential listening I feel.
Unknown " PAN" Seductive - 16 years, 10 months, 7 days ago

Thoughts upon initiation

Not sure where this post will go, but it will be amusing to write something purely from the streams of my conscious. Have had some interesting discussions with various wondrous people recently. Brethren especially, too many names that I will not mention for privacy and so forth, some local, some a wee bit more distant.

Some of the most interesting discussions have been about the transformation of self at the follow up to any initiatory action. Whether that be a 'typical' (is there such a thing) initiation within some group structure, or less obvious ones as a result of path working, or personal internalized ones as a result of birth of awareness on a subject. I see so many of my dear ones around me going through trials of the mind and heart and emerging from the other end, more learned and transformed into a grander form of themselves. Glowing and with more awareness and consciousness.

The only side effect as a result of such self awareness I have found in myself, is that it can result in a more animalistic side to be released. I can become overly protective of my dear ones, to the point that I have been known to end up growling and bearing fangs when I see them being threatened. But in turn, I also never desire to restrict them from their choices, so it can seem quite complex from the outside. And through my lifetime of initiatory actions, awareness of space has occurred. I see and sense so much around me, unless deliberately damped with alcohol (and even then it only works so well). Side effect of this is that I always feel like I am in heat, breathing in the scents of sex and lust that floats on the air, and at times makes mediation very very difficult. Shutting down the mind is hard at the best of times, harder still when you hear the faintest noises, and the touch of fabric is like a firm caress. On the flip side of that, intimacies are always quite mind blowing, and powerful. But never enough.

It is strange, reading over the last paragraph, I sound like a depraved fiend, whereas, I am merely feeling happy and comfortable in my physical shell.

Looking at a spiritual sense, I am greatly attracted to the violently passionate feminine energy. Whilst me, myself, am masculine. In my day, I had a great devotion to the concept of Lilith, and the crimson sexual essence she represented. Even now I hold her in great respect. And now, is the the Morrigan and Babalon, that are closest to me. Morrigan, forever etched in my skin upon the back of my neck. And Babalon in my words and dreams. Perhaps all three are there. Perhaps that is why in my ideal partner (of which I have) and my play things, I prefer woman that are sexual, dark, powerful and in turn choose to submit to my action, with a struggle, yet do not give up without a challenge to me, and who are not aware of their own scarlet role. And from there, those that need entire forcing do not appeal to me, because it suggests fear and lack of strength in their trust of me.

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABALON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH"
Unknown " PAN" Seductive - 16 years, 11 months, 6 days ago