The ungainly tonnage of Nyogtha's third record yields bare ounces of revelation alongside slagheaps of wasted promise. "Turns to Dust..." and "The Third Eye" idle in drone saturation and despondent female chanting, recalling the shamanic conjuring of Bloody Panda. "Feedback From the Human Void" spews blackened, deeply reverbed screams of dire anguish, summoning images of infected souls careening through the abandoned halls of a labyrinthine hospital. Half-hour closer "The Birth of Consciousness" reprises earlier ideas to diminishing effect. Tracks occasionally end in curiously Merzbowlian fashion, which is to say that they don't finish so much as get snapped off clean, scarring the pieces' undulating logic with fresh breaks.

_The Origin of "I"_ is not ungood. Seductive textures worm through the drones, and note combinations pulse color through the gloom. The meditative ego-dissolution vibe threading through the work declares its unambiguous mission, and Nyogtha seem to have delivered on their intentions. Illicit substances may react with _The Origin of "I"_ to spark a throbbing excursion into the universe. As a journey in itself, though, the album takes 70 minutes to deposit you a couple feet from your own front door, and you gaze around bewildered because you could have walked that far in way less time.