Cassette Review // QOHELETH "Mark It Well, All Roads End in Death" (Philip K. Discs)

$5 //
Edition of 20 //
https://philipkdiscs.bandcamp.com/album/mark-it-well-all-roads-end-in-death //

A guitar loop puts me into a trance as a darkness swarms behind it.   You can feel the clouds that are bringing upon the storm, the thunder looms and the lightning is certain to follow.  There is this build and it becomes more intense as this first song goes on.   As it builds I imagine these guitar sounds as being like either time or life- both of which are running out- and the doom, that rumbling behind it is simply the sound of death running us all down, destined to catch up with us one day.   It might sound bleak, but to me it serves as more of a reminder to cherish life, embrace what time we have left because you never know when that storm will catch up with you.

There is this sound like laughing and then the guitar begins to sound as if it is chipping away, digging a hole perhaps, faster and faster.   That darkness forever lurking in the background, a thief of life and time.   As it gets more isolated, it begins to sound as if this is a solo instrument in a large room.   The string slides up and down and there are a few points which sound like shots or something in a quick and abrupt way right before it comes to an end.   If you're really going to meditate, really think about this and feel it like a story then those final shots could be the gun shots of death.   It's kind of like "Final Destination", but in your own mind and maybe without Devon Sawa.

On the flip side we have this same idea of a guitar, but it's a little rambling, and these angelic piano chords form behind it.  To me, listening to this as many times as I have, I always like to imagine this as being the part of life after death- which is crazy because no one really knows what happens but here, in our minds, we are somehow trained to think that we go up and float on clouds with the angels and it's all rather peaceful and content.   For all we know, the chosen sounds in heaven could be polka, but alas, we are taught some time in our upbringing to think it would sound like this.

Desolate now, this one has grown from something which felt so heavenly to something which just feels like nothing.   It's that barren wasteland where you don't see anything for miles in any direction.  It's like those old Bugs Bunny cartoons where everything is erased around him by that giant pencil and all you can see is white.   It really does more accurately set the tone for the afterlife though as no one is really certain what it is and what if- maybe- it is just nothing?  I don't believe that, but it is something that you have to be willing to explore and consider in order to make an informed decision overall.   Through some sharpness there are waves and at the end the last wave just cuts off, which just seems so fitting for that end to what we don't really know.