Transmaniacon – The Darkening Plain (2014)

[spoiler]the novel. Some preliminary work was done, like minded musicians were gathered and some hard and heavy music, was created for the film’s soundtrack. Sadly that concept lies stillborn.
However projects breed concepts, and a band was born to re-imagine, remould and reanimate the idea. A band fuelled by a burning love of 70’s hard rock and proto metal, science fiction and excursions into the dark side.
Transmaniacon take the blueprint and soundworld laid down by Bloodrock, Mountain, Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult and Alice Cooper, and add a hefty
slab of dark doom, hard riffs, punk attitude and stoner metal to ramp it up for the 21st century.
The vibe is steeped in 70’s rock, but the sound is definitely ‘NOW’
From the Sabbathian sludge of ‘City Of Chaos’ to the Dead Kennedy-esque ‘An Eye For An Eye’ and the stoner moves of ‘Chasing The Insane’ the album is shot through with twists and chock full of riffs.
This is hard rock at its hardest and heaviest set against an expansive post apocalyptic backdrop.
Nothing encapsulates the cinematic darkness more than the album opener, which grafts a progressive approach to hard rock and doom.
‘Quintessence of Dust’ is a 24 minute monolithic mindfuck of epic proportions, the now completed score to the stillborn science fiction horror story possibly.
An intense listen that features the spoken word talents of punk poet Lydia Lunch, and as the album’s opener; it’s also a pretty bold statement of intent.
‘Quintessence Of Dust’ is a grim eco warning, a tale of alien invasion and payback time for a future Earth’s corpulent consumerism, rampant waste and self centred greed. A hideous flesh and metal robot army, hybrid humans inadvertently created by man himself, invade, take over and consume the Earth.

“Even in the most gruesome horror and far beyond the setting sun. Everything dies, dust to dust” says Lydia Lunch.

And she’s right. It’s sonic Armageddon, a six movement riff-fest that musically shifts through doom, organ fuelled groove outs, psychedelic electronica, hard rock and metal, to an exhilarating ‘Boston meets The Who’ style power

chord ending. It’s a progressive wall of rock that batters, yet sucks you into the bleak story concept.

As with all NHS releases we have another very special LP package. To visualise this apocalyptic tale for the sleeve, we have enlisted the Truly awesome talents of one of the real legends of horror, sci-fi and fantasy

illustration, Ian Miller. From the 70’s to the present day, his beautiful, intricate yet dark and unsettling style has realised in pen and ink, the horrific creations of H.P. Lovecraft’s warped imagination, as well as a whole host of demons and nightmares that have graced (if that’s the word) myriad book covers, comics, films and games. Who better to animate the true terror of Earth’s robot conquerors. Believe us when we say that the artwork is truly amazing.

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