The packaging
Pretty simple artwork with various "artistic," if you will, photos of the bands equipment, plus a photo of the band which consists of two guys. At first I felt the cover wasn't really appropriate, it just didn't seem to fit, but the more I think about it, the more it does...the sun is setting and the menacing horizon is simply the black outline of mountains.
The music
In a sentence: The soundtrack to a bad horror movie which has yet to be made. If you've seen some of the works of Italian horror masters like Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci, just imagine some of that music. On the one hand, it's cheesy...on the other, it's brilliantly done so that you can get past the fact that it's synthesizers...elements are legitimately menacing and creepy. I would bet that if you playing this while alone, driving down a two lane highway in the middle of the night, you'd get creeped out.
Put this on when you're housesitting for your boss...in a large, empty house that you're not familiar wtih...you'll be tempted to flee the house in terror.
Of course, I am saying this as a casual fan of Italian horror. Yes, those movies are hokey, but they focus on things like mood and tend to be a bit more deliberate than the modern shock-a-minute style many are used to. I can appreciate a slow moving film if there's an eerie environment...and this music reminds me of those movies.
I'm playing this over headphones as I write this. I am in my apartment, the lights are on, the TV is on, and the misses is sitting fifteen feet behind me...track 7, "Andromeda," is playing and I have to tell you, I'm feeling a bit uneasy. I can't explain why...I don't know if it's because I am reminded the creepy boarding school in "Susperia" or if the beat, sound effects, and instrumentation creates a mental image of a homicidal maniac walking down the hallway outside my door...or maybe it's because I can picture looking out the window and seeing a body fall from the sky only to be devoured by rabid dogs right below my apartment...
Whatever it is...it's working.
The music is very simple, it is the style of a low budget movie score...low budget in the sense that someone wrote it FOR the movie but they didn't have the funding to get an orchestra, so they hired a guy with a synth to record it. If even the mention of the word "synthesizer" makes your skin crawl, perhaps this isn't for you. It is electronic music...that's not to say it's techno or industrial or dance...it's electronic...some of the instruments are organic, the drums and bass are real, but most of the "music" is not. It's a taste thing...if you can't stand anything like this, this isn't for you. Personally, I'm open to "electronic" music...however I think the technology is being used improperly by whatever the whole "jungle" or "trance" rave bullshit is. This uses it properly. Go rent the newly remastered "Susperia." Love or hate the movie, if you like that music, you're going to enjoy this.
If instrumental music that creates a creepy mood doesn't sound like fun, then skip this one. If this sounds interesting, you're going to like it.
The "songs" on here, aren't really songs...they're movements to go along with a story in your mind. So, don't expect verse-chorus-bridge-verse...it's music that should create some sort of a picture in your mind...sit back, let it work, let your imagination flow, and enjoy it.
If I wanted to write a horror story, I'd put this on and create a story based on the music. Maybe when I get the urge to write I will.
