Tuesday, October 13, 2020

EP Review: Mors Omnibus "The Final Prosthetic Program" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Project: Mors Omnibus
Location: New York
Country: USA
Genre: Ambient, experimental
Format: Digital album
Label: Independent
Release date: November 4, 2019
This solo project hasn’t appeared here since a sampler for the 2018 full length “Circus Verses” was reviewed in December 2017. To my knowledge I didn’t get a chance to stream the full length since I lost touch with Danny Ryan, writer and composer of all of Mors Omnibus’ material (six releases since 2012). Not only that but I had to refresh my memory of this project and give the sampler another listen, along with the 2015 full length “Nocturnal Carnival” also reviewed here, before giving a careful listen to “The Final Prosthetic Program”. It seems a popular consensus that Mors Omnibus is blurring every line between acceptable approaches to composing music and approaches to composing music that should not be tried since they’re just plain too disturbing. It’s another consensus that Ryan’s compositions for this project are well suited to independent horror or psychological thriller movies. As someone who was a fan of “The Blair Witch Project” before the media hype following its premiere and the release of the promising but convoluted sequel “Book of Shadows” I would think Mors Omnibus would be a most fitting soundtrack. Another example of what I am talking about is an ambient project I was doing from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s called Agamemnon. I released one CD over this time period and one reviewer wrote that the songs traveled to a place that was no longer human. Listening to Mors Omnibus gives me the same intuition of going somewhere that is gruesome, revolting and nonhuman. Unlike Agamemnon which was simplistic and minimal, Ryan makes use of a variety of different instruments to construct this distant place where most would fear to tread or even consider in his worst nightmares. Being that this is a four song EP with shorter songs you invariably spend less time in this place, something for which you might be grateful depending on how much fortitude you have to experience the sonic darkness Ryan summons forth on his recordings. Of course this doesn’t lessen the impact of “The Final Prosthetic Program”. This EP includes quasi futuristic cyber keyboards and effects that compound the utter absence of light and sanity, making it seem you’re traveling through realms of horrific darkness and nightmare while under the influence of acid or ecstasy. There are even jump scares in these songs that shove you farther still into these realms. If you thought Burzum or Abruptum were capable of writing disturbing ambient songs, you are heartily advised to listen to this or any of Mors Omnibus’ previous outings on Bandcamp. –Dave Wolff 

Track list:
1. Unclear Fears
2. Radiation Vapor
3. Hammer Head
4. Schizotypal Anesthetic

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