Dark Ambient Review: Infernal Beyond

Review by Casey Douglass

When people study the notion of becoming “enlightened”, it isn’t unusual for a variety of religious and spiritual systems to refer to the energy involved as being like a fire or a flame. This flame can be fuelled by many different things, even tipping someone over into madness. If you base a dark ambient album around the concept of a fire at an asylum for the insane, and then hint at sinister occult forces driving the whole thing, Flowers for Bodysnatchers’ Infernal Beyond is where you might just find yourself.

The album description says that the asylum fire killed almost everybody inside. The small town in which it happened is rife with rumours that “something unnatural and otherworldly” now resides there. It’s possible that the fire might have been some kind of occult mass murder, and that something dark has taken up occupancy of the fire-blackened walls. Personally, this led me to ponder if screams might still echo from the brickwork, but ones that are now fuelled by an energy quite different to that of insanity.

The overall feeling I got from Infernal Beyond, was one of whimsy and carnival. That’s not to say it isn’t a dark album, it certainly is. But there is a playful malevolence to many of the tracks, like a rigged fairground game that looks winnable, but in which you are actually risking your life rather than your money. One of my favourite tracks was Of Shadowed Horror, and I think that by describing it, I can explain my point a little bit better.

The track opens with jaunty notes, possibly from a melodica. Crackles of deep fuzz rub against the notes, accompanied by a kind of “fingernail running along plastic comb teeth” sound. The mental image this gave me was of a puppet master, but maybe one with humans dangling on bloodstained strings. Everything is smooth in the first half of the track, the puppet master revelling in their control. Then we hear a kind of groan, and the soundscape turns into a bassy, rasping space. It feels tight, and frustrated. It made me wonder if the puppets are beginning to realise that they are trapped, starting to struggle and twist in the air. The puppet master’s whimsy clashes with the puppets’ despair.

The track that follows was another favourite of mine, as it holds on to this rasping, guttural feeling and runs with it. Lurkers opens with juddery strings and a jarring high tone. It also has tones that sound like they might have been made by the sound of metal manhole covers sliding open. This kind of set the scene for me. There are echoes, hissing sounds and knockings. I wondered if I was listening to some sewer dwelling creatures rising up through the streets, moving slowly towards the nearby church. Things deepen and become more ominous once they are inside, but just after the midpoint, a silence falls, punctuated by the almost sleep-like hisses of slumber. Maybe the creatures only wanted to pray, and once on their knees, they found some kind of peace? Gentle tones warble over the scene, seeming to lend a peaceful darkness to the tableau.

Underval is another track I really appreciated. It starts with a lone piano note and a beat. This repeats a couple of times before a piano melody begins. There are rising and falling string notes and a whining in the air. A crystalline whistle emerges later too, alongside what sound like cries, and an insect-like buzz. Around the midpoint, the soundscape feels like it has “inverted”, for want of a better word. You know if you look at a photo in an image editing app and invert the colours? For some reason, I just felt that this track did the same. The second half is an airy, chimey, howling space. It quietens again and the listener enters into an echoing space of metallic impacts and dripping. A deep tone vibrates, a rainstorm rumbles, and distant dogs bark. The strange thing about the dogs though, is that they sound more like humans acting like howling dogs. Or something else... A great sinister track.

Infernal Beyond is a dark ambient album that gives the listener the run of a town in trouble. Some of the tracks are stark and brutal, hinting at strange treatment chambers and echoing vaults. Others seem to have an almost luxurious feel, like an orgy about to take place in a plush Victorian mansion, but one in which the beds are covered in blood and the platters of food don’t really contain the kind of meat that you think they do. This is all wrapped up in the “carnival” feeling that I alluded to earlier. If you enjoy dark ambient that skirts on the edge of worlds, realms and insanity, you’d do well to check out Infernal Beyond.

Visit the Infernal Beyond page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also check out the track Underval below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Infernal Beyond

Album Artist: Flowers for Bodysnatchers

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 01 Dec 2020

Dark Music Review - Locus Arcadia

Dark Music Review – Locus Arcadia

Review Written By Casey Douglass

This album takes us on a voyage across the stars to the Locus Arcadia Space Station as it follows a lone protagonists questions into what happened after loss of contact.

"I can barely hear them now, their thin reverberating voices quickly fizz in and out. The crackling sounds of half garbled transmissions dance erratically in my ears, desperately trying to break through a crunching wall of distortion. My last connection to home is quickly disintegrating. The only thing I could muster from the broken transmissions was that there used to be a prison on this station and also some kind of archaic cyborg research facility. As I struggle to hold back the closing walls of helmet induced claustrophobia, I soon fear everything will be buried underneath a smothering film of my own sticky breath. I hate the feeling of being trapped in this glass prison. My attention shifts, and I begin to notice just how cold it's become. It's dropped 30 degrees since my initial inspection; the meter now reads -87 Fahrenheit. Ahead of me awaits a mammoth of a station. A rust colored metallic structure with hundreds of slits like eyes peering out into open space. I slowly slide a vigilant gaze along its seemingly endless perimeter, and in complete awe of its massiveness the reality of what awaits me firmly sets hold. A fine pointed sting of uneasiness slowly climbs through my sternum and into my throat. Now just twelve meters from the entrance, my steps turn deliberately cautious. I hesitantly raise and press my boots into the ground, compressing the tiny granules beneath me. The closer I get, the quieter it all becomes, and the more alone I begin to feel. As the distance between us diminishes, the anticipation grows feverishly tall like the dozens of rectangular glass lookouts adorning the otherwise dilapidated station. The main entry hatch now within arms reach, I punch in the code: 7-5-1-3. The door opens..."

How’s that for an album blurb? If that doesn’t set the tone for the feelings and visions that Locus Arcadia provides the listener, I don’t know what will. A collaboration between dark ambient artists Randal Collier-Ford, Flowers for Bodysnatchers, Council of Nine and God Body Disconnect, Locus Arcadia is a bleak dose of sci-fi infused dark ambient that stifles and frees in equal measure.

I must admit that my favourite moments contained in the four longish (about 15 mins) tracks often were the ones that featured the sound effects associated with the text above. These might take the form of beeping controls, the clanking of airlocks opening, or more intimate sounds such as the breathing or heartbeat of the exploring astronaut. This is where some of the stifling claustrophobia comes from, the closeness of someone breathing inside a helmet as strange sounds loom in the distance.

A couple of the tracks stood out for me above the others though, and these were Black Echo of Morgues and Memory, and Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia. Black Echo of Morgues and Memory starts with a muted rumbling and see-sawing strings that build into the kind of sound that wouldn’t be amiss as a horror flick builds tension, alerting the listener to an incoming threat that they are unaware of creeping up on them. Metallic thumps and chimes boom and clang, soon to be joined by swelling horn-like sounds that put me instantly in mind of the Alien films’ scores. This is always an instant win with me. Also featuring in this track are other sounds like juddering static-like interference, rattling hulls and a little later, wet “blips” that seemed to channel a motion tracker, for me at least.

Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia starts with the calm breathing of the astronaut inside a helmet, with button beeps, mechanical clamps and hisses of air giving plenty of audio cues as to what is happening. Once inside whatever it is, a drone moves in with quick beeps and rushes of air. A female voice whispers as a pulsing machinery sound begins to rise. There are footsteps, metal clanks and distorted radio chatter. A little later, things progress to a quieter soundscape that features an echoey, low grade fuzzy static that pulses and more than a little puts me in mind of insect wings. Later still, something is triggered and a warning alarm begins to sound. Something opens and an avalanche of sound rushes out. Something then closes, hinting at the entry of the astronaut into that other space. The listener hears the heartbeat of the astronaut slowly become still and the soundscape eases into a calmer, lighter feeling until the end.

Quite a listening experience. I enjoyed the other two tracks as well, but the two mentioned above just really grabbed me and had more for me to latch onto as being particularly interesting for me.

Locus Arcadia is an alluring dose of sci-fi flavoured dark ambient sound, and does a very good job of transporting the listener into some interesting places. If you find yourself hankering after some sci-fi inspired feelings, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you check it out. I give Locus Arcadia 4/5.

Visit the Locus Arcadia page on Bandcamp here for more information and check out the video for Prisoner's Sacrifice Facing Arcadia below:

I was given a free copy of this album to review.

Album Title: Locus Arcadia

Artists: Randal Collier-Ford, Flowers for Bodysnatchers, Council of Nine, God Body Disconnect

Label : Cryo Chamber

Released: July 12, 2016

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