Vatican Shadow

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 [RoviLink="MW"]Death Is Unity with God[/RoviLink], 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, Rovi