07. Naraka

[Glen_Glog]

This sounds like it was made a while back its dryer than a lot of the other record, has olson3 synths and maybe an Infinity bit in there.. 2005?

[pepster70]

This sounds like it was made a while back its dryer than a lot of the other record, has olson3 synths and maybe an Infinity bit in there.. 2005?

This jibes with my new favorite conspiracy theory which is BOC have been hoarding their absolutely best songs for the last 35 years in order to release them on one album, and that album is Inferno. I may or may not be stoned as I type this. [Narrator: He is.]

[boredoms]

This sounds like it was made a while back its dryer than a lot of the other record, has olson3 synths and maybe an Infinity bit in there.. 2005?

This jibes with my new favorite conspiracy theory which is BOC have been hoarding their absolutely best songs for the last 35 years in order to release them on one album, and that album is Inferno. I may or may not be stoned as I type this. [Narrator: He is.]

It's definitely possible... I'm sure, at a minimum, that some of the songs on Inferno were initially written/recorded years ago, even 15 or 20+ years. Like Introit, for example, could easily be from the late 90s/early 00s. Or You Retreat, the synth melody that comes in halfway thru sounds of a piece with the Hi Scores/MHTRTC era. Some of the guitar-heavy tracks, like Prophecy, could partly come from the Campfire sessions. And so on... More than any of their other records, Inferno really feels like a summation and combination of everything they've done to date. Like a best-of compilation, but with all new (to us) songs. I love it.

[Widmerpool]

This song has been haunting my waking life for a good week.

The sinister chord progression bores at me —and so does its acutely syncopated rhytmic pattern. Like someone out of a feverish nightmare, emphasized further by the Hare Krishna chants infused with so much pathos and polyhedric meaning. Like a ladder unto madness bar after bar, ghastly and gleeful at once.

Maybe not as alien or goosebump-inducing like You Could Feel the Sky, but hands-down one of their most disturbing cuts.

[noveltywave]

Just played the album again and keep thinking about those poor Hare Krishna’s burning in hell.

Is it a joke? In hell the Hare Krishna’s keep on chanting.

Or is it a philosophy: In hell, when your body is in pain, torture, fire, is chanting a mantra like Hare Krishna is the only thing to save your mind?

[The Dookster]

So far Naraka is my favorite track off the album. Kinda reminds me of palace posy.

[Redd Panderson]

Just played the album again and keep thinking about those poor Hare Krishna’s burning in hell.

Is it a joke? In hell the Hare Krishna’s keep on chanting.

Or is it a philosophy: In hell, when your body is in pain, torture, fire, is chanting a mantra like Hare Krishna is the only thing to save your mind?

I think the latter is close. Chanting is intended to aid meditative focus and quiet the mind. It wouldn't have to reference literal hell, but the hell of our racing thoughts that the chanter is practicing transcendence of.

[GeoDose]

This sounds like it was made a while back its dryer than a lot of the other record, has olson3 synths and maybe an Infinity bit in there.. 2005?

This jibes with my new favorite conspiracy theory which is BOC have been hoarding their absolutely best songs for the last 35 years in order to release them on one album, and that album is Inferno. I may or may not be stoned as I type this. [Narrator: He is.]

Absolutely, more than half of the tracks on this album remind me specifically of other albums of theirs.

Most remind me of Geo, but a few others remind me of TCH (Into the Magic Land, Blood in the Labyrinth), and Tomorrow's Harvest (Memory Death, Deep Time).

[turquoise70]

That goddamn chant gets stuck in my head like you wouldn't believe. This morning I woke up with it in my head.

[lyingtransferred]

Just played the album again and keep thinking about those poor Hare Krishna’s burning in hell.

Is it a joke? In hell the Hare Krishna’s keep on chanting.

Or is it a philosophy: In hell, when your body is in pain, torture, fire, is chanting a mantra like Hare Krishna is the only thing to save your mind?

Naraka is purgatorial. They may pass through one hell with their deliverance chant at the end, but they aren't escaping.

[TyphonBaalHammon]

This sounds like it was made a while back its dryer than a lot of the other record, has olson3 synths and maybe an Infinity bit in there.. 2005?

This jibes with my new favorite conspiracy theory which is BOC have been hoarding their absolutely best songs for the last 35 years in order to release them on one album, and that album is Inferno. I may or may not be stoned as I type this. [Narrator: He is.]

It's definitely possible... I'm sure, at a minimum, that some of the songs on Inferno were initially written/recorded years ago, even 15 or 20+ years. Like Introit, for example, could easily be from the late 90s/early 00s. Or You Retreat, the synth melody that comes in halfway thru sounds of a piece with the Hi Scores/MHTRTC era. Some of the guitar-heavy tracks, like Prophecy, could partly come from the Campfire sessions. And so on... More than any of their other records, Inferno really feels like a summation and combination of everything they've done to date. Like a best-of compilation, but with all new (to us) songs. I love it.

Reading the interviews, you get the sense that they're perfectionists and not particularly well-organised. I think there's one where Mike outright says "we get easily bored". So on one hand we more or less know they have a ton of sketches, half-finished stuff lying around dating back to the 1980s for some of it, and on the other hand, I strongly doubt that they just stopped composing or playing 20 years ago, though it is a hilarious idea.

I feel pretty confident both that some of the tracks on Inferno have roots in stuff they made 10 or 20 years ago and also that if we heard those early sketches they would be fully unrecognizable to our ears.

Am I qualified and do I have enough information to diagnose ADHD ? Absolutely not. But...

[EHL]

So far Naraka is my favorite track off the album. Kinda reminds me of palace posy.

this. to me this is the naraka is the same to inferno as palace posy was to TH. imo

[Mexicola]

Naraka is what Cold Earth should have been. Yeah, that's right.

[Goiter Sanchez]

The mix on the layers of percussion in Naraka is astonishing. So punchy yet so subtle and nuanced. Aspirational and inspiring! Mike's shaker game is out-of-control.

[TaoTapeTao]

Just played the album again and keep thinking about those poor Hare Krishna’s burning in hell.

Is it a joke? In hell the Hare Krishna’s keep on chanting.

Or is it a philosophy: In hell, when your body is in pain, torture, fire, is chanting a mantra like Hare Krishna is the only thing to save your mind?

I don't think the 'Hare Krishnas' are physically in Naraka, I don't think it's literal. Naraka is a version of Hell, which is to say it doesn't have the same implications as the common western perception of Hell. As far as I understand, it's more of a purgatory where one must reconcile their past, and face their inner demons (which may be projected or perceived as outward, evil forces) before they can move on. I believe it ties to the Bardo and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Hare Krishna is a mantra.

I think these 'evocations' are just a function to make the listener wonder about what they're listening to or have their own think on it. Nothing is directly laid out, or paved for one finished statement. That's my take at least

[Redd Panderson]

Just played the album again and keep thinking about those poor Hare Krishna’s burning in hell.

Is it a joke? In hell the Hare Krishna’s keep on chanting.

Or is it a philosophy: In hell, when your body is in pain, torture, fire, is chanting a mantra like Hare Krishna is the only thing to save your mind?

I don't think the 'Hare Krishnas' are physically in Naraka, I don't think it's literal. Naraka is a version of Hell, which is to say it doesn't have the same implications as the common western perception of Hell. As far as I understand, it's more of a purgatory where one must reconcile their past, and face their inner demons (which may be projected or perceived as outward, evil forces) before they can move on. I believe it ties to the Bardo and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Hare Krishna is a mantra.

I think these 'evocations' are just a function to make the listener wonder about what they're listening to or have their own think on it. Nothing is directly laid out, or paved for one finished statement. That's my take at least

Agreed, I think this is pretty much it.

In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, the energies in us associated with our inner demons are called kleshas. The Buddhist eightfold path is like a map for engaging with these energies to cultivate a more positive relationship with them.

Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems is like a modern secular version of this process. His book No Bad Parts is a good read IMHO, really was positive for me.

[rd1994]

the main melody synth reminds me of Pete Standing Alone!

[b0qurant]

The mix on the layers of percussion in Naraka is astonishing. So punchy yet so subtle and nuanced. Aspirational and inspiring! Mike's shaker game is out-of-control.

yes. came here to bring attention to the tambourine buried in the mix which is accented fantastically.

that tambourine & the shaker in Blood in the Labyrinth are two of the most 'human musician' moments in their discography for me.

it'is rare I listen to their material and am compelled by the sounds to picture one or both of them in their studio (it'is often difficult to picture what they are doing), but the tambourine and shaker are such grounded/tactile instruments.

[Den]

There’s so much live percussion throughout the album - I love the consistent percussion part that sounds like it’s being played on a piece of metal in All Reason Departs. Shaker on Arena Americanada too.

[Wildfire]

Most remind me of Geo, but a few others remind me of TCH (Into the Magic Land, Blood in the Labyrinth), and Tomorrow's Harvest (Memory Death, Deep Time).

Really? Wow, Deep Time feels like the antithesis of Tomorrow's Harvest for me - it's so rough and ready with regards to the mix, like it's all played live, it feels so analog and huge, Tomorrow's Harvest felt very digital and clean and compressed to me.