Kerovnian: Far Beyond, Before the Time Kerovnian: Far Beyond, Before the Time (Cold Spring - 1999) If all the sunshine, birds and flowers of springtime are getting to you, perhaps you'd be interested in going Far Beyond, Before the Time with Kerovnian. This bracingly dreary 44-minute outing catapults itself to the forefront of dark ambience with its relentlessly ominous moods. Nothing drastically new, but a masterly invocation for the horrors that lurk within the darkness of the listeners' mind. Very effectively executed for your dark listening pleasure. The cover art uses modern graphics effects for an enticingly grisly collage, and, inside, reanimates Hieronymous Bosch's work in lovely duotones. The track titles sketch a bleak image of the haunted sonic imagery from within this dark jewel. Blending subsonic shifts and rumbles with organ-like drone passages, Those Beneath the Moaning Castle dwell in a state of darkness and half-hidden vocal mutations. Eerie synth strings hang like a grey veil over Far Beyond, Before the Time; unknown things seem to be uncomfortably near as sparse musical gusts from deep tones stir the dank midnight air. The impending murk becomes denser and is visited upon by (strangely bubbly) demonic intonations. Less musical, more gothically abstract, The Godless Keep swelters in phantasmic soundshifts and seismic subsonics. A soft, yet menacing atmosphere surrounds and holds you. Plenty of howling wind effects and a distorted monster voice comes From the Lands Where the Winds Die (5:27). Smoother synth strains shine like a few slender streams of pure light cast down from above, offering a brief respite from the encroaching horrors of Kerovnian's dungeons of sound. Deep, pulsing monotones are accented with mechanical-ish clunks and patterns in As They Dug Their Way Out Into Machinery of Death (11:25), a prolonged visitation within threatening passages. Another dense, gaseous drone occurs Before the Oblivion; tiny warbling effects twist within the mist, which thins. In the track's closing moments, horrific growl-like sounds are alluded to, in a final warning. While I can't say that Kerovnian has completely out-Lustmorded Cold Meat industries, I can say that Far Beyond, Before the Time is a heart-chilling descent into a monstrous void of blackness. If that sort of thing tugs at the tattered remnants of your soul, then you should quite enjoy this little slice of Hell. Certainly it's a break from the gleaming spring sunlight and burgeoning green growth outside my window. An 8.3 descent! This review posted May 26, 1999 AmbiEntrance © 1999-97 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).