Joe Preston and Daniel Menche - Cerberic Doxology

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4...according to our Ant on Fri 17 Oct, 2008.

From one lord of heaviness to another... Joe Preston (Thrones, High On Fire, Harvey Milk and one time Melvins bass twanger) has collaborated with Daniel Menche on 'Cerberic Doxology' which is a new fangle "Dual Disc" which means that it is double sided. A CD on one side and a 5.1 DVD on the other. As The Buggles said "This Is The Age Of Plastic". I really like the idea of having an album to play on CD in the motor and then you can get it home, flip the disc and watch the film in full 5.1 glory which is what I'm doing now. The visual element is footage that the two filmed at Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood and Stonhenge Memorial in Goldendale washington in the cold winter of 2007. What you see is some black and white footage of the Pacific North West Landscape and its weather systems with a soundtrack of deliciously dark vocal chants and dare I say it drones. There are also fabulous slow motion monochrome scenes of dudes just hanging about rocks. Sounds like watching paint dry I know but this has really captured my attention. It sounds like hordes of druids re-claiming the earth armed with didgeridoo's and some seriously high grade psilocybin. I was kind of expecting a tribute of sorts to their metal heroes as they're both huge metal freaks but this has very much defied my expectations. I can well imagine Julian cope being into this. It's an epic work that resonates around my cracked skull with slow gloopy drips of sweet syrupy honey finding there way inside. There is a particularly beautiful and breathtaking scene where the sun is peeping through moving clouds framed from below by a dark woodland. For me this is what I want Sunn O)) to sound like instead of being so image conscious and having pictures of themselves wearing their Dungeons and Dragons cloak hooded dressing gowns on their sleeves.

A single piece statement from Joe Preston and Daniel Menche, and an epic tome carved from some form of primordial stone. As an album containing a regular CD audio side in addition to a DVD audio/video side, this release breathes life musically and visually on three different planes of existence.

First, as a 25 minute audio recording, which is born of a vocal chant evocation from both Joe and Daniel, of which layers expand, contract, and weave within each other in an otherworldly, mysterious dronescape, in a way that feels like a moment of mystical/mythical creation akin to Gyorgy Ligeti’s introduction to the monolith, in the film 2001 (or Ash Williams' mispronunciation of the Necronomicon and it’s results, if you prefer); second (on side 2 of this CD/DVD dualdisc), as DVD audio, specifically mastered for this intent, which enables the absolute full range of the recordings high and lows to be acutely present, thus expanding an already head shrinking experience; and third, as the DVD audio with a full length video, culled from footage of the mysterious landscape of the Pacific Northwest, exibiting its terrain, vocanic activity and atmospheric disturbances, from obscure locations throughout the region, in addition of footage of Sam Hill's Stonehenge memorial located in Southeastern Washington State.

The visuals, combined with the unusually forceful sublteties of the audio makes this an experience to behold a multitude of occasions, with different effect, depending on one's mindframe. Cerberic Doxology is presented as a CD/DVD Dualdisc, packaged within a standard CD jewel case, with a large front sticker stating each artist's name and affiliation, along with a clear descriptor of the format's regular CD as well as DVD capabilities. Points of note: Joe Preston is a veteran of so many exponential acts, he should have a game named after him called "Six degrees of Joe Preston". a few of these include Melvins, Snakepit, Earth, Thrones, Sunn, High on Fire, & Harvey Milk. The last of which has just completed a highly toughted release on Hydra Head, along with a comprehensive US tour. You could play "Six Degrees of Daniel Menche" as well.

Some of his recent collaborations include an album on Mego with Kevin Drumm, an album on BetaLactam Ring with Andrew Lilles, and and an album on Alien 8 with Zbniew Karkowski. This is only an accounting of the last 12 months in a carrer that goes back to the 80's, containing scores of individual releases.

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