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One From The Grave: Electric Doom Synthesis

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 February 13 2009 at 07:58:28 AM



The highest sense of the mind speaking?

Influential in its determination more than actual points of composition, the early turning away from Black Metal by its legendary forefather, Beherit came at the expense of both name and reputation. shedding style and skin as a band reduced to one as frontman Marko Laiho, then roughly twenty years old, reshuffled the deck in moving back his toxic guitar in favor of a John Carpenter era Casio. The daemonic appellation remained intact presumably because the ideas remained the same; the occult themes previously dealt with so explicitly retained their potency in abstraction, mutating now into phantasmagoric trance invocations, "Ritual", as plastered on the back of one album, (where possibly the expression began as a now popular seal.) All contributing in part to the commercial and critical shadow over this album, which fits uneasily into any one camp.

Because self-understanding is the only palatable excuse for art in the first place, the uncharitable tone often dolled out over these later recordings exists more as a validation of its early vision. In this context, pandering to no one, alienation uncovers actual power. The album remains transitional, not definitive. An exit only in the technical sense. Now alone, Laiho imparts the feeling that the “end” has already passed or else waits further off, as indeed was true. Improving on the amateur, Midi sound of his previous _H418ov21.C_, this last official release utilizes a broader range of effects with only occasional appearance of heavily distorted guitar. At worst, it amounts to a kind of new age aerobics tape, but at its best and most often, Electric Doom Synthesis captures the essence of horror through nine impressive aural portraits, fragments of sound-as-scene, at first received like a mind made vulnerable in sleep, episodic as in dreams. The sound inching in spider-like, a dragline of keys that trickles down through the ear, building fear and unease, released in sirens that cry above a groaning breath  which demands, “Say.You.Love…Satan”

Moving into electronic dance through upbeat rhythm loops ("Drawing Down the Moon") reiterates a kind of magical arch - accents of wonder and tension that evoke a quaking picture of man in the grip of syzygy, though tracks do become more hushed as the time passes. The fractional warps and beats brought into less abrasive ambulation in contemplative wanderings such as "Sense", with astral drifts comparable to Norway's Biosphere. Or  "Temple of Lykos," which ends ends the disc with a procession of ghostly snarls teased out on the bounce from groggy beats on a sleepwalking drift hinting at the final stage of transformation, the end of Beherit: Suri Shaamani.

[Todd DePalma]


Beherit
Electric Doom Synthesis
1995
Spinefarm

[This piece originally published in slightly altered form for  the "What We Missed A Decade Ago" feature in Chronicles of Chaos webzine]

type: reviews    keywords: black metal, ambient, one from the grave,   

Comments (3)

  • 19 comments
    Fat Paul
    4:24 PM on Feb 14, 2009 // reply »
    Good to see this stuff still getting attention somewhere. This album's reputation is no substitute for what's actually there. Fine work on the LHP as always.
  • 1 comment
    Alex Blume
    8:25 AM on May 05, 2009 // reply »
    I think "H418ov21.C" is pretty lame (which sucks cause it took me years to find the damned CD), but this one is pure evil ritual!

    When I'm in a really black mood, playing this really loud in a darkened room always does the trick. Totally hypnotic.
  • 36 comments
    TD
    9:05 AM on May 05, 2009 // reply »
    Have you heard the new album yet? A couple tracks, especially the last one, pick up pretty much right where EDS left off.
 

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