Band of Pain — Through the past Darkly(1994-2006)
Most of the tracks are based around slow moving eerier synth patterns, that stretch and yawn out creepy melodies. Mixed over the top are other sound elements like ;voices, rumbles, industrial clattering, breathing, and all manner of other unnevering sounds, that really do give the track a great jumpy element. Which you don’t usual come across in the dark/ black ambient genre. The other thing is when dialogue samples are used there picked carefully, there not just regionisble clichéd horror film samples, there also not looped again and again through out the material, and they are placed for maximum effect. Though some of the material dates back to 1994, none of it sounds dated.
Some of my favourites from the first disk are: You wont meet again from 1999’s reculver album, it rolls out of the speakers with such a chilling tone. The deep cinematic drones seem to murmur of trapped air and darken hospital corridors. There’s also a sadly eastern feel to the track, it’s like something very special is broken never to be fixed again. The eerierness of the track are added to by what sounds like someone breathing through a ventilator,and chanted voice's hover just to the very edge of the sound field. Funhouse(for Karla) is an unreleased track from 1998, it starts off with a sinister industrialised drone/ponding, with vocal samples of a woman talking about a execution room, and the sound of birds. Later on it’s builds into almost the feeling like a Plaid track turned to the dark side, as throbbing beat work is met by creepy music boxes like melody. The erosion of beauty comes from the 1996 album you’ll miss fortune, and feel’s just like it’s title suggest, it opens with a sweet feather like melody that is swallowed up by a sinister clouds of creepy synth work. The track feels like a beautifully bird flying into a strange darkness and as it gets further in, it's flight becomes less easy and in the end it’s wings give up as it plummets into the endless dark.
The second disk takes in singles and outtakes, again the quality is of an amazing high standard; Driven takes us into a more active ,almost noise like environment, sinister loop melody is played out on what sounds like altered guitar, as more loops of muffed dialogue and eerier sound stretches area added. The whole track conjures up perfectly a nightmare like soundscape, where peoples faces are melting into other peoples faces and body parts, flesh membrane stretching and tearing in the cold light. Soaked with the blood of the creator opens up with strange backwards speaking, then a pounding rhythmic elements starts up, sailed under by eerier cinematic melody, sounds of strange chanting or screams can be heard, they have a very strange guttural quality to them. A deeply disturbing and chilling track, where nothing really seems defined or real.
So a must buy if you have even a vague interest in dark ambient or electronica or soundtrack work. Get ready to get serious creeped out, my advice is don’t listen after dark. Band of Pains website is here , you can buy Through the past darkly direct here