“A Dirge for What’s Dead” is a new sonic ritual by Lizbeth Poirier (synth, drums) and Hex Evans (cello, voice). We returned to our Blood and Dust roots with this song, carving out the hollows of our hearts and turning emotional extremes into sound. Imagine rocky shores, the raging sea, a grieving figure suspended in time, emerging from the water to understand their pain, take back what was taken, and lay their soul to rest.

Featured in this song is a sample of traditional Irish keening (caoineadh), an ancient form of grieving that was practiced until it was erased by the pressures of the Catholic Church and British moral imperialism.

You can’t bring back what’s dead, but you can return it to the earth with dignity, and then destroy the foundations that both birthed and silenced the misery.

A Dirge For What's Dead

Can you hear it calling you? The sweet voice calling you through the trees, calling you to come and rest. That sweet voice—it has a way of getting into your head. It knows what would bring your soul to peace. But it wants to devour you, you know. The whole forest wants to devour you. Bliss is a lie, death is not gentle, and the bloody steel jaws await you.

“In the Dark Dark Woods,” the second song of Blood and Dust’s second EP, is a siren song of the forest. It is the sound of false angels luring you deeper, and later, it is the forest screaming in rage through a hungry, infected body. Hex used their voice and cello to create an angelic and ominous choir that transforms into a demonic snare. Lizbeth mixed the samples and programmed the drums to relentlessly drive the listener from one auditory/emotional realm to another. The result is something akin to encroaching dread, tinged with the sorrow of contemplative helplessness and imminent doom—as well as redemptive rage.

This song was heavily inspired by the art and music of Acid Wizard Studio’s survival horror masterpiece, Darkwood. For all our listeners who find meaning (and perhaps comfort) in simulations of intense darkness and anxiety, we can’t recommend this game enough.

In the Dark Dark Woods

“Around Your Grave I’ll Light a Ring of Fire” is a brutal sonic dance ritual fuelled by grief and memory and rage and flames. Banishment, purification, agony, ecstasy. We mix ritual singing and spoken word with elements of techno, metal, and industrial. And we go hard, making this by far our most “danceable” song yet, which is very exciting for us—for what is a ritual without dance? Without movement? We’re curious to explore this connection between the raw emotions of ritual ambiance and the propulsive force of danceable beats.

This track is available as a single on Bandcamp here: https://blood-and-dust.bandcamp.com/track/around-your-grave-ill-light-a-ring-of-fire

For those who have walked through personal underworlds towards the black mountain and the unknown beyond, this song is made in solidarity. For anyone who enjoys it, we hope it helps you move/dance out whatever you might need to.

Synth, drums, and production: Lizbeth Poirier
Cello, voice, and arrangement: Hex Evans

Mixing and mastering: Blkk Bones at Blkkwave studios https://www.blkkwavestudio.com/

Around Your Grave I'll Light a Ring of Fire

“Litany for the Hopeless” is the first track by Blood and Dust, a collaboration between Lizbeth Poirier on modular synths and Hex Evans on cello, created during a one-hour jam session and reworked in software.

The best way we can describe / genre-fy this track is “horror drone”—i.e., slow-burning dread. And as “litany” suggests, there is a prayer-like aspect, echoes beneath arched ceilings, repetitions and calls and answers that rise up to devotion and descend to despair.

Litany for the Hopeless

“Dead Tongues,” the second song in a forthcoming EP, was inspired by one of the most feared and reviled forms of black magic in history: necromancy. Necromancy works upon the bodies of the dead, conjuring apparitions and subterraneous spirits to provide knowledge from beyond the earthly plane. In this song, we explore the stages of a necromantic ritual: the quiet setup of the ritual space; a droning meditation upon death; the infernal invocation; the sonic chaos of the spirit’s appearance and the performance of its assigned “business”; and the tense stillness of its release.  In these kinds of rituals, you may not be sure if you have bargained correctly or closed the gate completely. 

Enjoy this uneasy, ritualistic, auditory possession by Blood and Dust, with Lizbeth Poirier on synth and Hayley Evans on cello.

Rites of Blood and Dust

Dead Tongues

The third song of our forthcoming EP explores new sonic territory, going deep  into the backcountry, to a recluse community where strange folk rites are still performed. This time, a flute, antique bells, and field recordings join the cello and synth in a disturbing procession. "In the Hollow of a Hill" is influenced by the film genre of folk horror (e.g., the 1973 "Wicker Man," "Midsommar," and "The Witch") and is our take on the idea of evil coming not from supernatural forces, but from the minds of normal people.

Follow the bells; they might lead you to a strange place.

In the hollow of a Hill

A bloody interlude for our forthcoming album.

Interlude

Our newest song has finally emerged from the darkest depths, out of hell and into the light. “From Blood to Dust,” the titular song of our upcoming EP, is inspired by vampiric folklore, the German Nosferatu in particular, which depicts the vampire as a spectral creature—i.e., ravenous darkness incarnate—rather than the seductive American interpretation. Herzog’s 1979 remake of “Nosferatu” inspired the more . . . existential tones. Cello and words by Hex, synth and software editing by Lizbeth. Rain sounds provided by Montreal’s increasingly erratic weather patterns. And many, many thanks to Dawn (creature_five_fingered on Instagram) for providing the haunting bouzouki samples we implemented; they became the foundation upon which this lonely vampire’s crooked castle was built. 

Best listened to with headphones, ideally while standing at the top of a stone tower at night, staring out a window at the driving rain.

From Blood to Dust

The unnatural and graphic transformation, degeneration, or destruction of the body: the themes and images of body horror evoke visceral fear and repulsion, causing us to ask questions. What does it feel like to lose your identity? To become alien to the people around you? To feel severed from your own body?

Our newest song, "The Void, Transmuted," explores themes of body horror and gender dysphoria, inspired (sonically) by genre classics from the likes of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, and (more personally)by Lizbeth's own transition journey, venturing into the void, only to reemerge more connected than ever.

Lizbeth on the synth; Hex on the cello.

The Void, Transmuted

You can feel the bloodless face of death peering at you from the hollow, wet places of the city.  Do you face it in hopes of mercy, or do you turn away and pray?

No Exit, our newest song, is a good summation of our feelings in 2020. It has been difficult to create, but here it is. This song is about feeling trapped, it is about being surrounded by immanent danger, it as about facing feelings of helplessness, it is about the white noise of terror that cannot be muted. 

This song is terrifying and we don’t blame you if you don’t want to listen to all of it. it was hard for us to even edit it. But I will say there are some sick drops.

Thanks to https://www.instagram.com/thirdsteven/ for making this incredible sculptural bone mask.

No Exit

"Burn it down" is an angrier, more doom-like auditory ritual, the first one done with our dread distortion pedal. Grab a torch and walk with us.

Burn It Down

All our hands to bury you deep.

This new song is a funeral march, dedicated to the heads—real and symbolic—of white supremacy and cisheteropatriarchy, celebrating their demise while not ignoring the very real suffering, rage, and sorrow perpetrated by their abuse of power.

All Our Hands To Bury You Deep

Blood and Dust is a collaboration between two dark queerdos inspired by horror cinema and occult mythology. Part horror drone, part spookfolk, part post-rock, their music blends modular synth, cello, and field recordings into nightmarish auditory rituals. It is the music you hear while wandering a cursed manor at night, calling you to the basement where your lantern is extinguished and dreadful things happen. Remember to bring your salt, and stay safe while communing with the dead.

Blood and Dust

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