Leaderboard

This is the first, and in my opinion best, Proxeeus album. I like it best because it drips with spirit juice and is true to Goa trance. After this album Proxeeus' albums are best described as neo-Goa, and whilst "Weird Tales" and "Non-Euclidian Geometry" are both quite good, they are a bit hectic for their own good, a bit too laden with layers - almost as thought they are trying to outdo each other, instead of embracing the simpler powers of harmony and structure. By the time of "Perversion & Insanity", Proxeeus has abandoned Goa and embraced psytrance and that album, probably the darkest so far, has galloping horse and machine gun basslines galore - I personally struggle to listen to more than a few tracks in a row as a result. But back to "At the Mountains of Madness": I like it that this album has the direct simplicity of original Goa - it does not try to achieve too much, using economical means to summon up a mysterious, slightly ominous atmosphere. It is not nearly as dark as Xenomorph, but there is some eeriness on offer here - appropriately for an artist obviously influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft with his cosmic materialism and great old ones - ancient beings and elemental forces, many of them malevolent. There is a certain minimalism in this album that appeals to me. One of the things that particularly strikes me about this album is that there do not seem to be any weak tracks. That is a very good thing, obviously. However, by the same token, there aren't really any obvious stand-out hits either. This record seems to be more about the plateau than about the peak. Nevertheless, I think that probably my favourite track on the album is the closer "The Sea of Tranquility" - tranquil, sure, but with a hint of the sinister about it. I think this album and "Celephais", a psychill album, are the best of Proxeeus - at least so far. We wait to see what the future will bring (along with the great old ones, that is...). ~*~