One of the most fascinating turns of events in avant metal in recent years is the push towards ambiance. A circle has been drawn (perhaps not by any one person) from the 1960s of AMM and Black Sabbath and meeting again at the other end of the orbit with a wave of experimental metal bands (typified most exemplarily by the Spanish band Like Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere) who retain the darkness and electric energy of metal while shedding the trappings of rock.

This may not have much to do with the Satanic Abandoned Rock & Roll Society, a new sound art outfit comprised of Tetuzi Akiyama (resonator guitar with samauri sword), Naoki Miyamoto (electric guitar), Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer) and Atsuhiro Ito (optron). But it might, which is what makes it so interesting. If metal has been stripped of its blues-based foundations, leaving only energy and darkness, then we are left either trusting band names and logos to tell us what's metal, or in the highly subjective position of trying to decide what makes music "black" (not the race, of course, but the perspective — cue Killswitch Engage track here).

Or it might be all be a joke, in which case none of this has much to do again with the Satanic Rock & Roll Society, who's first album — Bloody Imagination — is 52 minutes of slowly undulating, mid- to high-range drone. All of the players save Akiyama are assigned frequency ranges with Ito's optron (which uses fluorescent lights to source sounds) given the low end. It is, perhaps, almost tautological to say that it's the guy playing light bulbs who keeps the music from being dark. His frequency rumbles dominate the disc with more a deus ex machina than a Deicide feel. It's a disappointment if the title is merely ironic (as it seems to be), because these guys could have done some all-out outré blistering. Akiyama made tsunami waves several years back with his solo rhythm guitar excursions and Kawasaki could probably play some screaming slowed synth leads. That is all projection, of course, wishful thinking. They didn't make that record, they made this one. But they made that record cover, so buyer beware.

What Bloody Imagination is is a dense piece of improvised sound with earsplitting highs and eardrum pounding lows that exists mostly in a single slab with variations primarily happening under the surface. While there are two guitars present (one electric, one acoustic), there is never a recognizable instrument sound; Akiyama and Miyamoto seem primarily to be playing feedback or using e-bows. There are prominent events (just before the halfway mark is something that sounds like the Psycho shower theme played on a weed-whacker), but for the most part the sound is too big to move and too thick to move through. At the same time and rather surprisingly, the disc easily stands up to three or four listens in a row. It's a bit like an obelisk, unmissable, yet not asking for attention.