Pact Infernal is an artist whose personal identity lies hidden behind symmetric, monochromatic regalia, and who provides a listening experience that might be likened to indoctrination into some hermetic order, or a training session for some potentially terminal mission…or maybe both. His past releases on the Horo label – including the bracing career synopsis “Infernality,” released this year on double LP – have painted a portrait of determinedness in the face of life-altering ‘threshold’ circumstances, and this new suite of tracks is no exception to that rule. The project’s music downplays some elements from the ‘harsh’ music continuum (feedback shrieks, deliberate ‘red-lining’ of the sound mix, etc.), and chooses instead to build tracks around more widely applicable ideas: the idea that percussion is a universally recognizable condensation of willpower into audible expression, or that opening up a huge sound space can evoke simultaneous feelings of exhilaration and dread.