Necronom IV — Becoming
I’ve very much enjoyed most of Mr Strand’s various projects thus far, as they've moved from grey/ dark ambience, to churning walled noise & beyond. I’m also a huge fan of the Alien moives too, so I had very high hopes for this release. So does it deliver on it’s promise/ potential? Well the answer is yes & no.
The releases two discs each feature just a single track of unmoving dark ambience/ drone matter. And I’m afraid to say that the first track/ first disc did little or nothing for me. The one hour & sixteen minute track is built around two maybe three vibrating & juddering drones which Strand feds out at you in a very much fixed state. The whole track just conists of these rather dull bass bound drone judders that sort of purr 'n' ebb around you in a rather bland manner. Oblivious he’s trying to create a feeling of fixed & all engulfing dread, but to me it just all became very boring & repetitive.
The second disc is a completely different story, the track on offer here is entitled “Worming Parasite”, and it comes in at the one hour five minute mark. This track consist of a droning & boring sustained ambient tone, and this creates the feeling of something continually worming or burrowing it’s way into your body & very being. The drone is both bleak ‘n’ stark, yet there is an entrancing brooding sort of harmonic bitter glow to it too. With this track Strand has really managed to create the feeling of the Alien’s cold DNA slowly but surely contaminating your mind & body.
So “Becoming” is very much a game of two half’s- with the first disc leaving me rather bored & uninterested, yet the second disc offers up a very compelling slice of dark drone matter that does have that Alien edge/ vibe to it. This is worth picking up for the second disc alone, and who knows you may even get on with the first/ disc track too.