Written by Barlovv
> Ammothea – Terminal Burrow
> Ambient Doom
> Released July 7th, 2022
> Bandcamp
** droning ambient chaos and the squeals of Barlovv loving this album **
I can not emphasize enough just how much Terminal Burrow is absolutely my shit all over. This ambient doom/black gazeyish piece of art has rocketed into my favourites of the year almost after the first track. Ammothea gives a hell of a musical gift here, and it’s one that you should just go and listen to right now, even if you don’t finish this review (but also, finish it… multitask like an adult come on).
This album creates such a wild trance-like state in my brain, settling somewhere into the wrinkles in my grey matter and just vibrating around in there in a way that manages to be disorienting and beautiful all the same. It’s also shockingly chill for what is, ultimately, a pretty heavy album. With screaming vocals way down in the mix, shouting to you across a blizzard.
That little vocal trick is truly on display in “Spiral Den”, where there is a shift between the vocals and the sound of the wind and you’re not really sure where one ends and the other begins. It’s a fascinating piece of work – and honestly it could be vocals the whole time and I just heard what I wanted to hear. It’s clear though, that front – to – back this is a very deliberate and focused piece of work. Spanning almost an hour, and 6 songs, Ammothea is not fucking around in the slightest.
Despite my glowing reviews of hilariously short albums, this one manages to be almost the opposite, with almost ten minutes per song, and yet it feels just as trimmed and clean as any seven minute punk album. Nothing here feels superfluous or wasteful, the experience isn’t self-indulgent on the artists behalf. It all feels important as you listen to it. While this does mean that I don’t recommend just listening to a single song on the album, but putting it on and taking the entire trip, the songs do work on their own. I’d rather you hear them than not.
The Bottom Line
This is almost my exact kind of thing, almost to the degree that I’m assuming Ammothea made it for me specifically or I made it in some kind of fugue state. Both seem equally reasonable and likely. I adore the thing and I hope that you do as well.