Prurient - Rainbow Mirror

Prurient isn’t exactly an explicitly metal project, and in fact its mastermind Dominick Fernow has spoken about trying to reach for abrasive sounds that metal doesn’t much utilize. Nevertheless, the metallic timbre of his 2015 project Frozen Niagara Falls caught my attention and its ambitious approach to industrial noise, drone, and dark ambient music held it for its entire hour and a half duration. The subsequent Unknown Rains last year felt somewhat more restrained, albeit trimmed down, but still adherent to the main goal of the project. I was still hoping for a more aggressive type of ambiance, and this time Dominick has definitely gone aggressive simply with the length of Rainbow Mirror, twice as long as Frozen Niagara Falls, plus another 20 minutes. A more drawn out but not entirely halfway diluted product, Rainbow Mirror clearly is not meant to serve the same purpose as most albums, even metal albums, even dark ambient/noise albums, even Prurient’s other albums. With a much more apparent drone character, it is the echo of the induced thoughts of terror and doubt that Frozen Niagara Falls wordlessly whispered and shouted. It’s a little bit more conducive to meditation than the mind-beating Frozen Niagara Fallsdelivered, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its moments of dark fire and heavy sonic battery. Being such an enigma of an album, it’s something that will hardly be experienced the same way every time, and each track should probably be listened to outside the album’s track listing to appreciate each vast valley of sound with fresh ears, which I’m honestly still not done doing. As it stands, it is an exhausting listen to try to pay deep attention to for three hours and twenty minutes, but it’s not really designed for a single sit-through, it’s a background catalyst for meditation of whatever sort, but its layers are worth peeling back, and with so much surface area to uncover, it’s a pretty rewarding piece of art for its majority.