Plaguecourier - Scirocco (2016)

Plaguecourier is the maligned, dark ambient brainchild of Harley Burkhart, the Oakland-based drummer of prog-metal heroes Wild Hunt and Dimesland. Under the grim and gloomy guise of Plaguecourier, Burkhart culls endlessly foreboding and thoroughly unsettling rifts of dark ambiance. Using a mix of processed samples, disfigured narratives, and haunted, metallic clatter, 'Scirocco' plays out like some dystopian sci-fi classic that never was. Opener "Invented Madness" kicks things off in a flurry of vaguely horrific visuals. You're left slightly broken, disoriented, and primed for the abstract events that follow. "First Divine Permission" and "Vein to Inferno" squall and wail into the ether like some cursed, malevolent spiritual cousin of Ben Frost and Tim Hecker. "Second Divine Permission" and "Scirocco" show the more fragile, somber side of Burkhart's compositions. Each track emphasizes negative space and fringe beauty over forward, superficial shock tactics. The two-song suite "Fatamorgana" and "The Devotee" continue the action with eerie curiosity, while "Shadow of the Wind" closes 'Scirocco' out with elegiac finality.