Review Summary: An excellent dark ambient soundtrack for modern times.
It takes only one look at the cover image of Seven Horses For Seven Kings for the potential listener to realize that something sinister, oppressive is in grooves (or bytes) Black To Comm alias Berliner Marc Richter has prepared for his listeners.
Those unfamiliar with Richter’s extensive catalog (Richter has been on the scene for over 12 years now), might be in doubt whether to expect so really darks electronics or any form of the shape of black metal. Even the title itself might lead them in the latter's direction.
Dark, oppressive, sinister, yes, Seven Horses For Seven Kings has more shades of black and horror than any album in quite a while, but there’s no sign of metal around. Unless, you take into consideration Richter’s ability to turn any sound, including that of a metal object into any shape or form he pleases to suit his musical goals.
The thing though is, labeling this music as ‘ambient horror’ or anything similar would be too simple. From the opening salvos and trumpets of some sorts of “Asphodel Mansions”, to the closing complexity (including the title itself) of “The Courtesan Jigokudayu Sees Herself as a Skeleton in the Mirror of Hell”, Richter, like Max, that other German modern composer that shares the last name with him, can bring into his sounds all the nuances the combination of electronic and classical music can.
In many aspects, compositions like “Lethe”, “Fly on You” or brilliant “Rameses II” with its incessant drums (of war?) and bursts of electronic explosions and brass seem to reflect the dark and oppressive times in which Marc Richter came up with Seven Horses For Seven Kings. In many ways, it is an album that would be an ideal soundtrack for a deeply dark horror movie. Of today.
