So 07:15am I plugged in my Sennheiser headphones in my Xperia Z and hit play. The first ringing notes of what will be my second (full) encounter with the 11hours, 16 minutes and 54 seconds Drone/Doom track by Sabazius emerged from the silence. These minimal screeching, droning sounds will morph, mutate, become music, dissolve and start a new droning, morphing, mutating state. I know what I’m in for and I’m looking forward to it, strangely enough.
I can already now say (1h46m18s in) that it is much more enjoyable this time and I reckon it is due to 2 things: Better sound quality (The mp3 from the USB skull) and better headphones. But maybe also because I know what awaits me in the hours ahead.
And when I publish this blog post I’m already 2 hours and 25 minutes in. During this time I’ve both heard drums, some vocal and lowered the volume once.
That droning sound at the 2h30m mark is really comfortable to listen to, just saying!
Ahhh… almost, almost 3 hours in and I just finished listening to a very enjoyable part. Now drum solo!
Ok my first longer break is coming up as I’m going to see my son perform some songs at school in about 15 minutes and I need to get something to eat before that too. The clock is now 11:26am and I’m 3hours and 33minutes into the song…
Ah back on track! I have had something to eat and listened to my sons class doing a little lunch performance, I witnessed both singing, dancing and performance art to a poem. So now I’m ready to take on some more of this drone/doom madness. Something that has occurred to me during my lunch break, is that I’m enjoying it much more this time around. I can not explain why, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the sound quality…
There are still parts that isn’t kind to me ears and I have to lower the volume, just to get rid of the tickling sensation the droning prolonged vibrating sounds gives my tympanic membranes.
13:46pm and 4hours and 20minutes into ’The Descent Of Man’.
Ooooohhhh 4h39m!!!! Air-strike-alarm is going off now…
New break coming up, need to pick up the kids from school and the dreaded 5th hour is only 12 minutes away!
Back again, 4h53m into the track and I’m a bit worried that I’m not going to make it in one go this time. I have some things I need to do today that will take some time, where I can not wear headphones or listen to music.
Ouch!! That note scraped like ragged fingernails on the inside of my skull… (Yes the 5th hour is just minutes away)
OK I must confess that I thought I would be more prepared for the 5th hour and I have wondered in the year that has passed if it really was that horrible. I can now honestly say: YES! It is horrible!!! The extreme prolonged screeching, high-pitched feedback, trembles in frequencies not suited for the human ear and it does not help that, what I think is the bass, just hovers in the lower regions, like a numbing hum underneath the guitar screeching… (I’m not a musician, so I can’t point out exactly what it is I’m hearing or the correct therms for it either, so forgive me for my weird explanations).
New break is coming up, need to make some errands. Don’t know when I can pick up the listen-through again, but the 5th hour is almost over! Wohooo! And there the screeching stopped! A pure joy to experience!
15:57pm:Break, paused at: 5h56m01s
Back on the horse and I’ve just passed the 6hours and 22 minutes mark and I just cranked the volume high! There are things happening, I did not notice the first time I listened to it, I’m just in awe that I didn’t hear it back then. The pulsating rumbling and the fine undercurrents that I barely heard at first but caught my attention… Sadly I know it will end at some point…
Yes, as you can see my break got a little longer than expected and I’m hopelessly behind my planning. I’m not going to be done before midnight.
Oh at 6h37m I hear something new again that I did not hear last time either, interesting to say the least.
I urge you to try and get a hold of the track as an mp3 and not stream it through Youtube as I did the first time, because I have missed so many small details it seems.
You can buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-descent-of-man/id624607470?i=624607557
There you will also find a ’radio-edit’ (3m02s) and an ’extended radio edit’ (5m59s) but what’s the point in that? You will miss the whole experience then!
And there I am at the 6h51minutes mark and the music dies out and a new chapter emerges: different sound, different mood.
7hours 24minutes and I’ve hit the groovy spot, it is just as good as one year ago, but the sound quality is so much better making it just perfect!
Got a telephone call which has put me even further behind planning…
Drum solo time again and this time it is the groovy one! (7hours 43minutes)
And yet another telephone call, what is wrong with the universe today? I usually don’t get any phone calls during the evening…
8h04minutes: massive rumbling sound, like gigantic Hercules planes in the distance, where the sound tremble as it travels to it’s final destination: the ear.
Oh sweet sounds of the 8hours and 40minutes mark we meet again!
And there I’m past 9hours and I know the extremely enjoyable part soon will be over! The time is 10:34 pm…
9 hours and 55 minutes… the end is near… haha!
1 hour and 10 minutes left and I’ve made it through ’The Descent Of Man’ twice in my life! I know I said I would never do it again the first time I did it, but also pretty much immediately afterwards felt the urge to listen to it again, so there might be a third time too, but I need to plan it for a day where I don’t have other things I need to do.
So sitting here in the dark, kids are long asleep and the clock is right now 00:22 am the 20th of February. I’ve got less than 30 minutes to go and I know these last minutes will be over before I know it. I found myself pretty bored with the last hour, nothing much going on, repeated riffs with little variation, musically it is just fine, but it is extremely monotone and the late hour has made me really sleepy.
Right now I’m 3 minutes away from the 11th hour…
Just before I sat down I poured a small glass of red wine to accompany me during my last minutes of Sabazius’ ’The Descent Of Man’. Earlier during the late evening I did some laundry, folded laundry and gathered the ski equipment my kids need for tomorrows skiing at school. Such things a mother does.
Less than 15 minutes to go, and I’m kinda looking forward to it. I know I didn’t have to listen to it again, I know I didn’t have to listen to it in one go again, but I did, because I wanted to do it again and what better day to do it than yesterday?
There at 00.50 am: Silence….
Now start your own ’The Descent Of Man’ journey….
OH! How could I forget to post a link to the track:
More Sabazius here:
Website: http://sabaziusdoom.wordpress.com/
Bandcamp: http://sabazius.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sabazius
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sabaziusdoom
More Earache Records here:
Website: http://www.earache.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earacherecords
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EaracheRecords
More Josh Harker here:
Website: http://www.joshharker.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joshua-Harker-Artist/19506221847
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoshuaHarker
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