Cassette Review // The Flesh, Full of Black Sand "Do You Feel Cold Hands Grasp at Your Throat as You Start to Fall Asleep?"

 




This begins with chopped up words but then says: "Welcome to a new dream".   I definitely enjoy how this already feels like it's going to play back and forth between the dream world and reality.   There is an eerie drone within here while the percussion pulsates behind it.   If this didn't feel so close to being scary, it could be quite relaxing.   A ringing comes through as well, and this makes it feel like we're in the movie "Psycho" as there is a great suspense.

As it grows louder, it begins to feel as if some strings are being strummed.  It feels like a harp with how they come out sounding, but they aren't as heavenly as a harp might sound.    We continue on with this feeling as if we're trapped in a basement somewhere with the only sounds we can hear are of someone sharpening their rusty knife.   The sound of heavy breathing and scraping come together now.

After a great deal of heavy breathing near the end there, we are told "Good luck", which comes out louder than everything else and can be a little bit of a jump scare since it interrupts the flow.   A brief pause and then the music returns as it fills the dark harbors like a mist, creeping up on us.   The sound comes through in waves, but then begins to build a steady pulsing beat.   The way that this moves now just feels like something out of a horror film.  This whole second half of the first side is just such a dark mood.

On the flip side we begin with these pianos of doom and then there is this mechanical back and forth which goes with it.   This is dark.   It feels desolate, barren.   Sounds like heavy breathing as this grows intense.    This is slow moving, like we're slowly sawing away at something which we wish to not be there any more, but it feels more metal than a tree.   This sound is as ambient as it is haunting.  
There is that way about this as well where it feels like footsteps echoing down the hall.   A little trill of the drumming takes us to an end of that piece.   It feels as if we might be done, as the silence takes over, but then we return with a bell tone with spoken words.   This drops off into a quieter drone which still can feel haunted and it's like we're in this place we're not sure we're supposed to be in.  

A sort of whirring / beeping comes through and then vocals in a Transformers type filter come through as well.  I'm not sure what it says, but it seems like a message from a machine so I can only assume it's dooming us all.   After a brief pause we return with that spooky air.  Wind chimes can be heard, normal at first but then they sound as if they're breaking.   They sound like they could be glass bottles now and they are back.   These are the only sounds breaking up the quiet, droning whirrs.

The sounds which come through next are these loud roars and it has me confused in a funny way.   To some extent, it has that scream like a baby makes because they are unable to communicate with words.   But at the same time, I just hear it like the type of primal sound a dinosaur would make.  Funny how those two sounds can be so similar, right?  This takes us to the end of this cassette and if you're certain that sound is either a dinosaur or a baby then you are probably wrong.  Maybe it's a baby dinosaur.  










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