Heralds of the Pestilence
Outermost Abyss
Slaves of the Blind Archon
The Malice of Choronzon
The End of Heaven and Earth
Mad Voices in my Brain
Eleventh Aethyr
The Watchers
To the Wilderness I Wonder

Being the second self released CDR for this new Finnish project (formed in 2003), I would really consider this album as a showcase of a group in its formative demo stages. This perception appears to be reflected by the band themselves given that this is limited to a mere 30 copies.

As for what this release has to offer, with 9 tracks that span 50 minutes I’m afraid to say that it serves up reasonably standard and pedestrian dark ambient. Likewise the press sheet reads: “the goal was to generate the most unnerving and effectual sounds”, which although commendable, unfortunately for these ears has not been achieved.

Generally speaking, the tracks utilise a minimalist and subdued approach, where a few synth generated sonic layers have been heavily manipulated to achieve a somewhat low-fi & old school atmosphere. However as the album progresses the tracks tend to merge one into the next, not really capturing that certain engaging essence that dark ambient music specifically requires. Yet ‘The End of Heaven and Earth’ is one of a couple of tracks that bucks this trend, being a static noise drenched power electronics piece bordering on free-form noise.

As mentioned earlier, this release should really be treated as a demo of a group learning its equipment and establishing itself. Thus on this basis it will be interesting to see how quickly they progress in creating a stylised sound they can call their own.

RJS