Depravity Ends All Doings

The influence of music has always been present in my life, from my emotions to my personality. I enjoy music of all kinds, but I’m most fond of electronic music and its experimental subgenres. I began studying music theory during my teenage years, and soon enough, I became a musician myself. Many friends have told me I was good at finding faults in everyday music. These usually range from mixing errors to big mistakes that many overlook. And so I became a music critic in my early twenties. Additionally, I enjoy discovering obscure albums because underground music is underappreciated and sometimes surpasses today's hits.
About a year ago, a friend emailed me this video file of an obscure album that never released publicly, but he somehow got his hands on it. He knows how much of a sucker I am for obscure content, so this piqued my interest. The album was called “Depravity Ends All Doings,” and it was about a two-and-a-half-hour listen. It dates back to December of 2019. It’s segmented into three parts, so it was a triple LP. I don’t usually listen to multiple LPs in one sitting, but I had a lot of time on my hands back then, so I tried it out. It was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever endured.
The first part was overall a good listen. It was one of those albums that sampled ballroom music and classic rock samples from the forties and fifties. While I don't remember most of them, I can say that the first track was "In the Still of the Night" by Al Bowlly and Maurice Winnick. The album cover was a painting of a bouquet that was withering away. There were 13 tracks in decent duration. The overall production quality of the tracks could have been better, but I still had hopes for it. The track titles were also rather strange. One of them I vaguely remember being called “Times Like These Are Void of Null,” which made no sense in my opinion. The rest of part one continued like this and was an okay listen. I had low expectations for the next part, but that quickly changed when it began.
The cover for this one had what looked like red sludge pouring out of a thick book held up by strings. The artwork was a monochromatic red, which fit the album’s atmosphere nicely. The audio was more distorted and felt genuinely unnerving now. It almost sounded as if the audio had a conscience and told itself to become delirious. The quality was much higher in this part, likely to surprise the viewer after the first part. The six tracks were quite long but transitioned nicely into each other. The track titles this time around were one word. Stuff like “Denigrate,” “Insolent,” and “Traduce” were the ones I remember most. Unlike the previous part, part two was a good listen. I had high hopes for the last part but was a little nervous about what it would sound like since the tracks progressively deteriorated.
Part three’s transition was nothing smooth. The first thing I saw was the cover containing extremely grotesque content. But with each new track, the artwork, if I can even call it that, would change to something as gruesome as before. It depicted what’s best described as content from the dark web. The audio sounded recordings of homicide and even CP, well that’s what I considered. I told myself not to believe that, but the album cover further solidified that idea. I couldn't think of anything but people being tortured in every way possible when listening. It was all blended, making it impossible to understand what I heard. The track titles were nothing but spammed letters in all caps. The first part was likely of such quality that the listener did not listen to what the last part had to offer. Even though I felt sick seeing and hearing this, I kept watching the video. I had to sit through another hour of this, which felt devastating. Most of the time, it sounded like loud, droney noise or something similar. I wanted to click off, but something compelled me to continue forth. It was super captivating in the worst way possible.
While I miserably waited for it to end, staring into the album cover until everything abruptly cut to black. It made my heart drop with the sudden cut. There was at least 30 seconds of silence before the most soul-crushing melody I've ever heard began playing. I never heard of this melody before, so I assumed it was self-composed. It was barely audible, but what was audible made the track sound so broken. It played for the last two minutes of the project, with the cover still being pitch black. I anticipated a jumpscare, but there was none of that. The video ended, and it left me very distraught.
When I concluded my listening session, I immediately deleted the email so I could never experience it again. I don’t know how or where he could have got it from. If anything, he could have made it. The only reason why I could see this being made was that the artist underwent a mental collapse. It is still not appropriate for others to view such atrocities. You can see why I never publicly critiqued this set of albums. Hopefully, this project will remain lost until the end of time.
Category:Music
Category:Weird