Having released opuses from Bong, 11Paranoias and Ghold, Ritual Productions are one of the prime purveyors of all things possessed by both the primitive and the magickal, so there couldn’t be a better home for double bass-wielding Finnish psychonauts Horse Latitudes.
Coming four years after the dense and claustrophobic Awakening, Primal Gnosis immediately speaks of the lessons learned and the experienced gained during that period of steady touring and regular EP and split releases.
Their familiar, long-form blackened doom still provides the foundation, but the addition of ‘Antti’ on Moog and the ever greater emphasis on ritualistic chanting and Winter-like, slow crawl of riffs – as particularly evident during the nearly 19-minute opener Incantation – their sound has unfurled into something entirely more consuming.
However, their penchant for bouldering, land-slide assaults is still punishingly apparent, not least on the space-doom of New Dawn, which features some typically booming spoken word input from Bong’s Dave Terry, harnessing both their earthy and newly astrological proclivities to brain-frying effect.
