->''With the scream of the air raid siren I know, I know I'm finally coming home...''
->--The Axis of Perdition, "Heaving Salvation in the Paradise of Rust"


An Axis of Perdition (as they are currently known) is a band formed in England in 2001. Originally they were known as Axis of Perdition, but they [[SpellMyNameWithAThe added "The" to their name]] in 2004 to indicate that the band is a specific entity; most of their albums were released as The Axis of Perdition. While their music is predominantly BlackMetal with large doses of [[{{Ambient}} Dark Ambient]] and {{Industrial}}, they consider themselves to be primarily an {{Ambient}} band that uses metal as a "texture".

The band's music, lyrics, and artwork are inspired heavily by the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series of video games; their demo and first album also included references to Creator/HPLovecraft and Creator/StephenKing. The Axis present themselves as a hellish psychiatric hospital of sorts, with their albums as "treatments" and listeners as "patients".

The separated in July of 2013, citing mutual agreements with Johnson and Blenkarn. In January 2019, they announced via Facebook that they would be reuniting to record new material under the name ''An'' Axis of Perdition.

The hospital's current doctors are:

* Brooke Johnson - vocals, electronics
* Mike Blenkarn - guitar, keyboards, programming, electronics
* Ian Fenwick - bass
* Dan Mullins - drums
* Chris Walsh - guitar
* Richard Brass - guitar
* S.B. - electronics
* Leslie Simpson - narration

Treatments:

* ''Corridors'' (demo, 2002) - actually a split release with the band's Dark Ambient "mother", Pulsefear; limited to 20 copies; re-released with live bonus tracks in 2013; remastered & re-released through Bandcamp in 2020 without bonus tracks
* ''The Ichneumon Method (And Less Welcome Techniques)'' (full-length, 2003)
* ''Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God)'' (EP, 2004) - first release as ''The'' Axis of Perdition; introduced the band's current concept; limited to 666 copies
* ''Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital'' (full-length, 2005)
* ''Urfe'' (full-length, 2009) - a double album consisting of the first two parts of the Urfe trilogy, ''Grief of the Unclean'' and ''The Great Unwashed''
* ''Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh)'' (full-length, 2011) - conclusion to the Urfe saga
* ''Effluvia'' (EP, 2020) - ambient EP of re-arranged and remixed material from the ''Urfe'' sessions; recorded in 2012

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!!Tropes from the Dark Red Other:

* AbandonedHospital: ''Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital'' is set in one, as is part of the ''Urfe'' saga.
* AlbumIntroTrack: "Interference from the Other Side: Pendulums Pray" essentially serves this purpose on ''Physical Illucinations''.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[http://hospitallounge.proboards.com/ The band's forum]]. [[MindScrew Somewhat]].
* ArcWords: 'Womb' apparently. 'What is the Axis?' in ''Deleted Scenes''.
** "I broke myself" off of ''Urfe'', which is revisited in ''Telements''.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: The conclusion of ''Tenements'', after a fashion.]]
* AudioAdaptation: The words for "Forms on the Other Side of Silence" are excerpted almost verbatim from the Creator/StephenKing short story "Crouch End" from his collection ''Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes'', though there are omissions of text here and there.
* BedlamHouse: Where much of the band's story takes place.
* BodyHorror: The Flesh Spiral, and most of the creatures encountered by Urfe. For that matter, even the album title ''The Ichneumon Method'' qualifies. Those with weak stomachs are advised not to look up the eponymous wasps that give the album its title.
* BoleroEffect: "Interference from the Other Side: Pendulums Pray" is a particularly terrifying case of this, building from dark ambient to almost HarshNoise over most of its five-minute running time.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:"It began, and ends, with Pylon."]]
* CallBack: The lyrics for "Disintegration" reference ''The Ichneumon Method''.
* ConceptAlbum: Everything from ''Physical Illucinations'' onwards for sure, possibly their earlier releases as well.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Than even most other BlackMetal, although their music is not ''quite'' as dissonant as it seems to be on first listen; although their music is frequently dissonant, melodic passages still crop up fairly often. The hellish production is really the primary reason their music stands out as so impenetrable.
* DigitalPiracyIsOkay: The band put ''Corridors'' up on file-sharing sites for free.
* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Urfe''. Disc 1, ''Grief of the Unclean'', consists entirely of ambient and industrial music; while disc 2, ''The Great Unwashed'', is about half ambient and half metal. Add in the mostly metal ''Tenements'' and the whole Urfe saga is a Distinct Triple Album (and a TwoPartTrilogy).
* DownerEnding / GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: At the end of "Awakenings" off of ''Tenements'', Urfe's [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascension to a Higher Plane of Existence]] results with the complete corruption of the world, or ''something'' like it]].
* EldritchLocation: The Axis itself, and by extension the locations inside it such as Locus Eyrie and the Transition Hospital.
* EpicRocking: Only natural for a fusion of black metal and ambient music. A pretty good chunk of their tracks are upwards of 10 minutes long: "Heaving Salvation in the Paradise of Rust" (10:22), "Deleted Scenes I: In the Hallway of Crawling Filth" (10:37), "Deleted Scenes II: In the Gauze-Womb of the God Becoming" (12:40), "Grief of the Unclean VI" (14:21), and "The Great Unwashed II" (10:05). "Disintegration", at 9:57, just barely misses the ten-minute mark.
* FanDisservice: ''Loads'' of usage of this trope. In fact, you can say [=TAoP=] is FanDisservice in the form of a black metal band.
* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: The ending of ''Tenements''. As Urfe [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence]], it implies his SanitySlippage and corruption ''itself'' will corrupt the world]].
* HarshVocals: They generally go for a high pitched shriek, though death growls and clean singing are also used.
* HeavyMithril: Albeit it's for cosmic horror instead of fantasy, but this still applies. Some songs on ''Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara'' even directly sample dialogue from ''VideoGame/SilentHill3''.
* HumanoidAbomination: Pylon, the shadow in the library, the Kelifoth, and ultimately [[spoiler:Urfe himself]].
* IndecipherableLyrics: They don't publish their lyrics (except for the first album, the demo, and ''Tenements''), and ''good luck'' figuring them out by ear.
* LongestSongGoesLast: "Disturbance in the Perpetual Screen" (7:47) from ''The Ichneumon Method'', "Heaving Salvation in the Paradise of Rust" (10:22) from ''Physical Illucinations'', and "Deleted Scenes II: In the Gauze-Womb of the God Becoming" (12:40) from ''Deleted Scenes''. If ''Grief of the Unclean'' is counted as its own album, its sixth and final track, at 14:21, is also the longest; however, it's the first half of ''Urfe'', which is a DistinctDoubleAlbum.
* LoudnessWar: The early albums are particularly egregious examples because the band didn't know much about mastering (the début is actually ''worse than Music/IggyPop's ''Music/RawPower'' remaster''). The last two albums avert the trope completely, both coming in at [=DR11=].
* MetalScream: Mostly of type three, as is commonly the case with black metal.
* '''MindScrew''': You have ''no idea''. Not including ''The Ichneumon Method'', nearly everything they've released is a concept album. ''Urfe'' is a prime example, being split into two parts and ''Tenements'' being a continuation of the ''Urfe'' saga. The problem is however the band has '''always''' been against releasing lyrics to their albums, the only two being ''The Ichneumon Method'' and ''Tenements''. You'd have to either figure out the words from ''Deleted Scenes'' and ''Urfe'' somehow.
* MoodWhiplash: The middle of Pendulum Prey (Second Incarceration) takes a sudden and unexpected change into calm lounge music.
* MotiveRant: "One Day You Will Understand Why".
* NothingIsScarier: The quieter passages of their albums are frequently cases of this. A particularly good example of this is the {{jazz}} interlude (seriously) at the end of "Pendulum Prey (Second Incarceration)". On its own, it would probably feel quite chilled out and relaxing, but in the context of the album (particularly given the radio static it's overlaid with), it's ''terrifying''.
* PsychologicalHorror: True to its ''Silent Hill'' inspiration, the band's storyline is this with a healthy dose of SurrealHorror and CosmicHorror.
* {{Sampling}}: Often used. As mentioned under HeavyMithril, ''Physical Illucinations'' features samples from ''Silent Hill 3''.
* SelfDeprecation: Much of the band's promotion of their albums seems to consist of calling them awful, but of course the fans just don't listen...
* ShoutOut: In addition to the obvious ''Franchise/SilentHill'' and Creator/HPLovecraft references in their work, they stuck "Cygnus X-1" into the title of one of the tracks on their demo when they reissued it on cassette. This is presumably a reference to a saga by Music/{{Rush|Band}} (specifically, from ''Music/AFarewellToKings'' and ''Music/{{Hemispheres}}''). There is also an actual black hole by this name, but it's difficult to imagine the band weren't aware of the Rush songs.
* SingerNameDrop: The band name appears towards the end of "Nightmare Suspension"... and probably some other places as well, but good luck deciphering the lyrics.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: From ''Physical Illucinations'' through ''Tenements''. Now it's a case of "Spell My Name with an 'An'".
* SpokenWordInMusic: Mostly on ''Urfe'', but every album has some. ''Urfe'' in particular has been compared to a radio play by many listeners, as it consists largely of narration of the story with dark ambient/industrial musical backing, with some additional creepy sound effects thrown in throughout.
* TwoPartTrilogy: ''Urfe'' is a weird variant in that the first two parts of the trilogy were released together; most cases of this trope have the last two parts grouped together instead.
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->''Am I dead?''
->''"Of course not, Mr. Urfe. This is only the beginning..."''