Scott Michaels is a musical visionary. The list of instruments The Indiana (USA) native commands at his will include Erhu Violin, Guitar Viola, Cello, Keyboard/Synthesizer, and guitar. These are all combined with a deep classical orchestration to craft a cinematic soundtrack. Joined by the haunting eastern flavored operatic vocals of Laylah Naashiif, Ex Tenebris is an album that crosses over from the dark ambience and its blackened aesthetic into original orchestrations that are sparse, minimal yet full of dark declarations and a restless spirit.
‘’Whence the Celestine Embrace Their Final Abode’ begins the journey with its off-kilter keys and string sections. From the hidden subtleties that hide within the tension that is ‘’Mutiny of the Profane’’ or the lurking darkened ambience of ‘’Void of perdition” that pervades the senses. The female led innotations of ‘’Victory from the Forges” and the chants that underly its Ex – Tenebris offers little sanctuary. This is a cinematic experience that is vast and riddled with hidden nightmares, its passages dark and foreboding, the tension at times relentless, yet it is hard not to get swept up in the string led vison that is ‘’Fallen” and the beauty of ‘’Exile” the landscape is vast yet lonely punctuated by building tension, its majesty truly epic in scale yet at others painfully intimate. Unbound by any genre definition this is music that is defined by its soul and the declarations of its creator, Avant Garde art, which is ethereal and hypnotic.
Ex Tenebris is not so much an album as it is a musical experience, it is the soundtrack to a nightmare, a darkened symphony that haunts the mind and lingers long on the senses. It is a lurking atmospheric experience that becomes eminently darker upon each visit, all pervasive and consuming in its wildly explorative vision.
Scott Michaels: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: USA
Reviewed by Sparky
