…another chapter within the saga of the Emperor and the King… I ended my series of reviews with the two first releases of the U.T.R.Y.N. set; part three and four were prepared yet never finished because of a lack of [my] time, and the overwhelming productivity (an excellent given for sure, yet in the case of a reviewer it can be a disastrous venom) of Mister Ghafur, that held me back, and so on, and so on… But the story still goes on, through Greed (Vrozlyd), Cruel (Themis), Wound (Obsidian Mirror) and Dread Enveloping Agonizingly Timeless Hereafter; the latter being recorded under the Zebulon Kosted banner.
Both Utryn and Zebulon have grown into semi-psychopathic, delusive, narcistic and autocratic rulers, and as we all know, might and importance create, and enforce, paranoia and apprehension [and I am trying, so hard, not to refer to the current world’s happenings – not really happy-nings]. Dread Enveloping Agonizingly Timeless Hereafter , aka DEATH, is a report about both leaders’ current state of mental being, if you want to. It’s a five-chapter narrative, extremely lengthy once more (every ‘song’ lasts about forty-two or forty-three minutes!), coming with the typifying artwork courtesy of composer Rachid Abdel Ghafur himself.
Sound-wise, this five-track album especially follows Cruel and Wound - Greed came with a rather entertaining, experimental and diversified approach. Like sort of indicated, this time it lasts for more than 214 (two hundred and forty) minutes (!)… Everything was written and composed by Rachid from January to March 2026, being recorded at the Michigan-based Zond Studio (close to Lake Superior, more specifically).
The five tracks are quite comparable in structure and sound-scaping. [[[“Dread (43:10) fills every new paranoid and psychotic delusion Vrozlydian Emperor Zebulon Kosted dreams up as his realization of what may come to pass after abdicating his throne truly sinks in. Enveloping (42:17) each living nightmare is the thought of King Utryn of Synthos surpassing him in leadership so thoroughly that all his subjects grow to despise their former ruler. Agonizingly (43:03) endless nights of tossing and turning in bed with arguments inside a troubled mind evolve into laughing then screaming that can be heard by the servants and guards on the other side of the Imperial sleeping chamber door. Timeless (43:26) suspicion and fear plunge the palace into weeks then months of baseless accusations and petty retribution all in the name of a revenge the synthetic, bio-mechanical, beloved King will never see or feel. Hereafter (42:19) this human ruler of alien subjects of all shapes and sizes will have no peace as he destroys himself from within.”]]]
These five chapters bring a form of rumbling, pseudo-industrial Noise with an Ambient-laden melodicism (whatever that may mean). It’s an overpowering experience of droning, and turbulent sound-sculpting, with Arctic old textures and flaming hooks. Ice and fire, resulting in a smoky dimension of celestial grandeur. One might call it repetitive; well, it surely is. Five time more than forty minutes of a monotonous sound-experiment indeed is repetitious and asking for endurance and persistence. Yet then again, once you plunge into the troubles waters of this inter-galactic ocean, it is like floating in awe and suspense through dimensions both scarifying (remember the mental battle of the king and the emperor) as manifesting. Dread, expressing anguish and mania through droning discomfort; Enveloping delving deeper into narcotic, incantatory levels of visionary agitation; Agonizingly offering a reflection of confrontation, like mirroring one’s mischief alter ego through semi-claustrophobic and vexation-laden noise-patterns; Timeless sort of ‘sinks’ into a transcendental and introspective, though enfacing hypnotic dronework, injected by eerie additions; Hereafter then again sounds more retrospective, I think, for it balances in between genuine, unadulterated tone-painting and a culpable, even flagitious embodiment.
As said, all five ‘individual’ ‘songs’ [I admit, a lot of ‘x’-things going on] are monotonous, but sort of distinctive too. And as a whole, Dread Enveloping Agonizingly Timeless Hereafter indeed is a harsh, burdensome adventure once more. Give it a try; you’ve been warned, but you might get carried away by this sense-disturbing tumult essay…
https://zebulonkosted.bandcamp.com/album/dread-enveloping-agonizingly-timeless-hereafter
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/zebulon-kosted
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/zebulon-kosted-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/act-entropy-zebulon-kosted
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/utryn