Sanity is a Distinctly Over-Rated Attribute: Ahnenerbe

Label:	Autarkeia
Catalog#:	ACD 005
Format:	CD, Limited Edition
Country:	Lithuania
Released:	2004
Genre:	Electronic
Style:	Industrial, Dark Ambient, Occult

Edition of 288 copies

Review from www.heathenharvest.com -

Ah, one of the rare moments where I just look at something and let out a contented sigh. Ahnenerbe – An album based around the German National Socialist research facility, as founded by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, historian Hermann Wirth, and SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré.

“Nacht Und Nebel” (which of course translates into “Night and Fog”) is no less mythical in its hugely ambitious concept, than in its historical practice itself,whereas its aim in the dark ambient scene is not just to expand its “lebensraum” and secure its position on the hierarchy of this ethos of music, but to create an empire that answers to none. The comparisons are limitless.

Like the mysterious practices of the organisation, the music delivered by Ahnenerbe takes us through catacombs, skeletal walls echoing, and the general feeling of elitist Arthurian imagery and propaganda.

The oppressing structures deliver a theme of alienation, and when mixed with samples of no other than the Leaders of the SS themselves, it is in some cases exactly like listening to your own fate being discussed, while waiting for the first of many experiments to be performed.

The music draws from a rich tapestry of ambient and industrial collaborations and influences, and whereas its Germanic counterparts took much time and deliberation in studying the Bayeux Tapestry for evidence of Aryan Supremacy, Ahnenerbe takes the same dedication in spreading out the pages of this black grimoire for all to study and recite.

What we are essentially provided with, is nothing short of a ritual piece of Semi-Occultic and deliberately unsettling ambience. Wolfram Sievers (Reichsgeschäftsführer des Ahnenerbes) vanished after performing a death ritual, and it’s music like this that can push one over the edge.

Nacht und Nebel is limited to 288 copies, and at the request of the artist, will NEVER be reissued.

As if this wasn’t good enough, the CD is covered with a special lacquer which smells like almonds. What an explosive idea *wink wink*.