The eclecticism of Patrick Brown, once the soul of the acclaimed HOWLS OF EBB and now active under the HERXHEIM moniker, finds a new relief valve in MANASSEH, which debuts with "Tunneling To Paradiso." Wrapped in a suggestive cover by Gerard Trignac, the album is a descent towards an upside-down Paradise, an initiatory journey passing through 10 mainly instrumental musical stages.
Dark ambient, dungeon synth and neo-folk blend and mingle into profoundly dark music, sometimes acoustic and medieval-like, elsewhere simply disturbing and evocative. Dante's Inferno finds in the music of MANASSEH a refined and sinister soundtrack made of ebony melodies, rarefied guitar riffs and catacomb synths.
Released at the same time as HERXHEIM's “Contrapasso”, “Tunneling to Paradiso” is its acoustic and ghostly counterpart, the fresco of a nightmarish nocturnal landscape that fascinates and terrifies at the same time.