Band:	Current 93
Album:	The Light Is Leaving Us All
Style:	Dark ambient, Experimental, Neofolk, Post-industrial
Release date:	October 2018

01. The Birds Are Sweetly Singing
02. The Policeman Is Dead
03. Bright Dead Star
04. 30 Red Houses
05. A Thousand Witches
06. Your Future Cartoon
07. The Postman Is Singing
08. The Bench And The Fetch
09. The Kettle's On
10. Fair Weather
11. The Milkmaid Sings

2019 is now upon us, but before we truly embark, let's talk about why 2018 was a significant year for neofolk, one other distant relative of metal.

There's Current 93...

Neofolk is mostly known as that ominous acoustic guitar genre, but going back to the early 80s, a lot of the bands that spearheaded the genre were going closer to either post-punk or industrial. While Death In June and Sol Invictus were more of the former, Current 93 were heavy on the latter. The band's central figure, David Tibet, has been 'baptized' this name by Genesis P-Orridge, who you may know as the central figure of Industrial godfathers Throbbing Gristle. He also frequently collaborated with another industrial giant, Nurse With Wound. Slowing steering away from industrial territories into folkier ones, Current 93 has created an immense and diverse discography, so immense that one should not be ashamed to have second thoughts about diving in. But worry not, The Light Is Leaving Us All is a pretty good place to start.

I don't really speak from a position of much knowledge on Current 93's music, since their huge discography and their somewhat odd sound have been somewhat impenetrable. They released three albums this... I mean... last year, one of them a collaboration with avant-jazz band Zu, and none of them sound like one another too much. Despite Current 93 being somewhat the least popular of the big daddies of neofolk, they have the most ardent and religious following, and it's not hard to see why, with David Tibet being such a figure that evokes a mythical feeling, feeling less like a singer or even a poet and more like a prophet. You'll notice his vocals aren't bad per say, but... they're not exactly what you'd expect from a singer. Somebody wiser than me compared his performance to an NPC in some olden medieval RPG.

The Light Is Leaving Us All is one of his most concise and focused of the albums he released lately (at least the ones I've heard). More focused on the folkier side and the apocalyptic and magical vibe that it emits rather than overly experimental, the album is also revolving around its titular phrase, which you'll hear sung and whispered throughout the album quite a lot of times. Along with the repetition there's the usual lyrical tropes of horses, witches, and birds that have been found numerous times before in Tibet's music. The heavy repetition, reused themes and straightforward sound do make the album feel somewhat less significant in a discography spanning nearly four decades. But you and I probably have the privilege of not being overly saturated on Tibet's ramblings, thus as long as we suppress our disbelief, we can immerse ourselves in a truly hypnotic album. Because Tibet feels hypnotized too, he isn't inducing the spell, he is sharing it. Also we would be missing the absolutely nightmarish and tense buildup of "The Postman Is Singing", which does give me certain vibes I've felt before when listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Swans.

It's clear that The Light Is Leaving Us All isn't just an effortless and passionless "another release in the discography" as it still feels as strong as some of Current 93's best folk work, but thankfully it did not get totally drowned in the massive discography, at least not yet. The Light Is Leaving Us All is a clear example of why Current 93 is the most unique of the neofolk bands, so let it leave you too.

...And there was also Sol Invictus.