Kerovnian — Far Beyond, Before The Time
This reissue gives the original albums six tracks a 2015 remastering, and adds in four unreleased tracks from the same recoding sessions. The reissue also replaces the albums original crude, grim, yet slightly muddled artwork of skulls & a crypts, with sections from various Hieronymus Bosch paintings- and these very much fit the dark archaic & grim hell bound feeling of the sonics with-in.
As dark ambient albums go this is fairly varied in both its sound palette & the structure of tracks. We go from lose & drifting mixes of slow-mo drone, wonky harmonics, and stretched 'n' guttural alien demonic mumbles. Though to blends of hovering & dark vocal choir samples, murky & dragged-out vibe/ synth tones, and sudden deep demon vocalising. Onto mixes of watery & alien stretched-out chatter, whistling & baying lo-fi electronics, and sudden sustained doomed synth simmers. Through to slow mournful yet harmonic ambient drifts, which are ebbed with moody dragging & slipping’s. Onto slow moving & horror filled church organ weaves, which are ebbed with all manner of dungeon like chain knocking, dragging & weird guttural vocalising. As well as a few dips into slightly more intense & noise moments too.
Like any form of genre dark ambient has own it’s trade marks, genre traits (and sometimes clichés). And while Far Beyond, Before The Time does adhere to many of these, there is something fairly uniquely & distinctive going on through-out this album. So if your a fan of darker ambience, and haven’t already heard this, its well worth checking out. And even if you picked up the original version of the release there’s enough here to make it worth picking-up again