Haare – New Age of Death

Haare – New Age of Death – Aussaat – Aussaat 15 – CD – 2020.

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      1.    Thunderbolt Gate Invocation.

      2.    Phowa.

      3.    New Age of Death.

      4.    Maitreya.

I have been extremely impressed by the work of Haare, particularly their Brain CD also released on Aussaat in 2020. Haare has a prolific discography and the project stretches far back to 1999, not 2008 as I had said in a previous review. I believe Haare to be amongst the absolute best in the history of guitar noise and Ilkka Vekka to be one of today’s leading lights in that field.

The Psychedelia of the sound resonated as Thunderbolt Gate Invocation begins as a dark dreamscape. The sound is slow and rolling, it falls to near silence at times. But in the quieter area’s sound quirks become apparent, I had it in my head that this would-be big guitar noise with shattering psychedelics, yet it demonstrates impressive, intricate details that play off each other – these form atmospheres that make a track.

Phowa is more foreboding, it starts of quietly as small details build up and the sound eventually radiates and pulsates. Phowa seems to psychically lift after it levels out; the sound seems to take the mind on a trip. The balance on the track is impressive, elements really work together well as if the sound is one complete unit, there is less play off here. Feedback is distorted with harmonics and they lead the track to its end.

The longest track on the album is the title track New Age of Death this combines playful tinkering and deep, dark atmospherics. As a listener I felt trapped inside it as if I were stuck in a nightmare and couldn’t wake up. I like that the sound has such an effect beyond being just a display of sound which the work is strong enough to get away with due to the detailed textures that it displays, but here and with much of the rest of the album it transcends, literally.

The sense of tropical hallucination that runs through parts of the album shows on Maitreya. Silence and interruptions of its state occur as the beginning as things pull back to low sound with a small palette of sounds interacting. There are distinct shifts in sound to Maitreya, as if there are several separate passages within the track. I like the quirks and atmospheres that the track presents throughout these shifts.

New Age of Death is excellent, Haare is a top tier project without a doubt.

Army of One 2021.