It seems like a farewell, this title: The End Of It All. For a part, that’s correct, since it’s the last chapter in another trilogy by Swedish duo Beyond Sensory Experience. They had a first trilogy during last decade, being done via defunct Cold Meat Industry, and there was a second one that was released via Old Europa Café. Then the band signed to Cyclic Law, a collaboration that did result in a third trilogy, preceded by Modern Day Diabolists (2012) and Faint (2013).
I surely hope it is not their eternal fare-thee-well to the world, but I might be too anxious, too paranoid – but as for now, we can enjoy this project’s ninth album, which consists of eleven titles.
The End Of It All brings, evidently, dark-atmospheric and ominous Drone-Ambient, but like before this isn’t of the monotone kind. Actually, as from the opening sequence one reaches almost immediately an ecstatic and hypnotic state of mind. Occult and ritual soundwaves bewitch, or poison, the listener’s mind, accompanying you into hidden and forbidden dimensions. Everything is filled with secret (sacred) and subtle layers of sound, sometimes ominous, then again dreamlike, esoteric, sensitive, sensual and even melancholic / desolate.
Calm (though that’s relative: see [(*)]) synth passages get permanently injected by vocal samples of the most chilly kind, yet without being scarifying or forced. They’re rather like lost tape recordings from outer space, like decelerated astronauts’ voices, or like hidden radio messages. The subtlety of the different aspects, modestly mingled into those post-dimensional structures and melodies, is almost unheard, and quite a contrast to, let’s say, a project like MZ.412 – though the blackness in atmosphere might be comparable of course (PS: I do mention MZ.412 for Drakh is in that project too, amongst others).
[(*): sound-wise, this might appear like ‘calm’ and tranquil, but you permanently feel a somewhat threatening, obscure, even suffocating presence wandering around]
And there is so much more to experience. What about the Saltarello-alike melodies in the title track (am I right, or is it a coincidence?), the hidden layers of IDM (like in Thinking Time), the use of some acoustic guitars, (grand) piano and violin (or something that sounds like violin or viola), or the breath-taking whispers and visionary melodies in a track like The Unfolding (with those post-martial and post-apocalyptic elements, it could probably be my favourite composition on this album, for what it’s worth)? And then, the production, which I cannot but praise. It’s quite clean yet oh so appropriate to the semi-mechanical and, at the same time, organic waves of sound…