News and reviews on all macabre melodies: Metal in its many manifestations, dark and synthwave, audio dramas, soundtracks, ambient, and dungeon synth.
Composer Pierre LaPlace has delivered a bleak, immersive world not only of despair and violence, but also the intrepid and indomitable human spirit… Opening with speculative vocals pads, and tremulous string drones that foretell the audio diorama unfolding before your eyes, the movie of your mind begins to coalesce into establishing camera shots of vistas of warfare below, the crumbling ruins of near-future Rome below your field of view, embroiled in war.
Read MoreI love this album. It is the soundtrack to a movie I wish had been made in that magical ‘85-’90s era of films. Each song has a body of imposing aura, as each song expands upon the story BtG has crafted, yet every song stands alone and can be identified by their individual sounds (many times this is a difficult task in this particular genre of music).
Read MoreIt is remarkable how certain artistic flourishes are an aural fingerprint to an artist, how certain moods, with the mere use of one particular sound, are the calling card for a particular music project. In this instance, I am referring to the new Beyond the Ghost album, The Last Resort, the latest soundscape journey from Cryo Chamber.
Read MoreI would like to open this review with a candid missive, if you would indulge me: this album is brilliant. The timbre of such a tale, one exploring such a time period as Victorian London, as well as the potential for steampunk and dark fantasy inflection within my mind was immediately compelling.
Read MoreEternal Drift, the new album from Beyond the Ghost opens with the track, "Aphotic Black"; subdued, percussive strings, slowly fading into the drone of the atmosphere that begins to swell as you notice your surroundings. The narrative to this ghostly analect reveals you are trapped in a time loop, lost in a world of shadow - a city of there-and-yet-not; empty, void, and lifeless… even you, and your transom is constantly glazed with a filmy blur. This album is a constant, ghostly reminder of the thematic presentation: you are a wandering ghost, lingering in twilight - the Between, some may call it.
It is a narrative of searching - for someone, something, perhaps? However, the ethereal qualities of the album act as a means to distract you, to distract your spirit. It is a display of being timeless. This is the soundtrack to the Half-World, a Purgatory of not only being, but of the mind.
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