Children Of The Black Sun is an immensely dark drone album where producer Boyd Rice attempts to create a recording that is as emotionally disturbing as possible. First off, the liner images and track titles are just over-the-top cheesy, with images of sculptured tombstones, pagan ritual images and a sketch of a statue of a man's torso attached to a goat's head. Let the music speak for itself already. Pieces such as "Black Sun," "Serpent of the Heavens" and "Serpent of the Abyss" have a sustained quality, as if made by a vast chorus of brass horn instruments, or a chorus of stuck car horns, for that matter. These drones are quite sinister and unsettling, a sonic ode to paralysing cataclysms. Just when the listener thinks that Children Of The Black Sun is all doom and unfathomable gloom, Boyd Rice serves up "The Fountain of Fortune," a lighter and more positive drone piece that couples the sound of running water with a choir of youthful voices. With this piece, it is as if Rice attempts to wash away the dreary impressions of the past tracks. The final piece, "Son of the Sun," an orchestral piece that belongs as accompaniment music to the Emperor from Return of the Jedi, soundtracks a man reciting Latin text in a diabolical tone, but is a tad on the cheesy side. This release also comes with a DVD version of the CD tracks without visuals but made for 5.1-enhanced audio sound only. Without the aforementioned kitsch elements, this release serves as very good abstract drone pieces.
(Mute)Non
Children Of The Black Sun
BY I. KhiderPublished Dec 1, 2002