* En anglais uniquement
Vatican Shadow is the military-inspired industrial techno project of Hospital Productions' label boss
Dominick Fernow (
Prurient). Drawing upon and manipulating images of the harrowing realities of modern U.S. warfare,
Fernow created his shadowy, harsh electronic sounds by using stems and tracks and then separating them onto cassettes, which were then re-layered and distorted.
Vatican Shadow's hypnotic and sometimes sinister noises debuted in 2010 on the limited-edition EP
Byzantine Private CIA in 2010. Ten more of these limited releases would follow between 2011 and 2012 on his own Hospital Productions label. His first long-player was
Kneel Before Religious Icons in 2011. It received a rapturous reception, with critics lauding
Fernow's unholy amalgamation of an intelligent and thought-provoking concept with brutal and despondent sounds. In 2012, he released two albums (Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition and Ghosts of Chechnya) on his own label, and
Ornamented Walls on Modern Love. He also made guest appearances on other labels by releasing the 12” September Cell on Bed of Nails and Iraqi Praetorian Guard on
Blackest Ever Black. It was during this year that he embarked on a European tour, pummeling audiences with some powerful and unforgettable performances. The following year saw the release of the EP
When You Are Crawling and the full-length
Remember Your Black Day.
Vatican Shadow was much more prolific in 2014, with
Fernow issuing a series of six EPs that were collected as
Death
Is Unity with God, and
Games Have Rules, a full-length collaboration with
Function.
Fernow opted for a more streamlined approach on 2016's
Media in the Service of Terror, which stripped away some of the noise of
Vatican Shadow's earlier releases. After releasing some music as
Prurient,
Fernow returned to
Vatican Shadow with 2018's
Rubbish of the Floodwaters, the project's debut EP for the techno label Ostgut Ton. A barrage of releases followed over the next year including
Kuwaiti Airforce, American Flesh for Violence, and Church of All Hallow's Eve. ~ Aneet Nijjar