Grails / Pharaoh Overlord

While many splits come to be conceptualized as a coin — two different designs or faces that make up the whole of one object — Black Tar Prophecies Volume 5 is much more akin to a moon, with both a light and dark side. Grails contribute the first "side" of the split, with four tracks that bubble and smoke, giving off their own weird, incandescent light. "Wake Up Drill II" seems to dapple and percolate, and it's difficult to get a grip on its shifting, alien radiance. The dark side of this spectral moon is the work of Pharaoh Overlord, from Finland, made up of three members of the group Circle. Their two tracks, collectively called "Palmu," are darker and more urgent, shivering like something wet and newborn. They are oddly solider as well, with sharper edges. Together, both halves of Black Tar Prophecies Volume 5 create a fascinating, but chilling lunar landscape.