Electric Doom Synthesis

The last period of Beherit in nineties of the twentieth century caused a sequel to the "H418ov21.C", which gained a more normal title, i.e. "Electric Doom Synthesis". Similarly to the previous time, it's in fact the solo period of Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance entitled as a Beherit, when the Finn stubbornly strove to do music against the orthodoxes, deepening his growing fascination of electronic music. Surprisingly, it didn't go curiously like album from 1994, although it's simultaneously hard to say about drastic improvement over previous cd.

Second part of ambients presents a bit better than original, though you can still get the impression, that this album was not entirely created seriously. Well, the 8-bit melodies kind of disappeared, whole cd gained more professional sound and in songs like "We Worship" and "Drawing Down The Moon" (contrary to the title, unfortunately, nothing related to the debut album) appeared real instruments. However, the point is that these advantages are of any greater importance only when combined with the content of "H418ov21.C". Generaly, "Electric Doom Synthesis" is - to a similar extent to its predecessor - dark ambient "mumbling", which it's definitely more associated with having fun with programming music than with something serious, which is to discover - according to the author - a new face of devilish sounds. While in the first part of the disc (let's say to the "Beyond Vision") there is some dynamics and quite a wide range of effects, from the second half, where Vengeance enters the regions of over seven minutes, the album goes aimlessly. Yes, tension is built up there, but nothing more than how long will it last? follows from it. Well, songs like "Ambush" or "Dead Inside", which are varied and captivate with their cool atmosphere, are completely different topic.

The third, and at the same time the last for many years, Beherit album brings a very similar atmosphere to "H418ov21.C". Okay, the sound of synth inserts and the general atmosphere have improved, although it has remained unchanged that the majority of Beherit in such a release is not addictive and cannot shock with such a climate as for example the ambients from "Drawing Down The Moon".

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

Beherits third (or fourth, depending whether you count The Oath of Black Blood their debut full-length) album continues where its predecessor H418ov21.C left off and ventures deeper into the world of dark ambient/electronic/industrial music. Like its older sibling, this album doesn't feature metal elements at all. This time, however, Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance seems to have had a proper vision on what he wanted to achieve on this album. If H418ov21.C was just Drawing Down the Moon with all the metal elements sucked out, making it just a dark ambient album, Electric Doom Synthesis feels way more inspired album.

The album starts with ritualistic track Ambush which includes NHV doing pitch-shifted summoning chants accompanied with out of tune sounding keyboard/guitar arpeggios, as if summoning the album and its music into existence. The next track worth mentioning is Dead Inside. It's my personal favorite track and it has a more traditional structure to it. The distorted keyboard chords create a really chilling texture to the song and accompanied with NHV's distorted vocals it really made the hair stand on the back of my head when I first heard it. I wish the rest of the album could pull this off so masterfully.

The side two has also two tracks worth mentioning, the first one being Deep Night 23rd. It's a grand sounding ambient track which starts with pitch-shifted breathing that yet again manages to pull off very dark atmosphere like Dead Inside, without the creep factor this time though. The second one come immediately after the previous one. Drawing Down the Moon is the only track featuring a real guitar. It has very strong industrial rock feel to it and the main riff wouldn't sound out of place on a Killing Joke album.

The album has very clean and mechanical production as you would expect from an electronic music album. The drums are your usual computer-generated ones which mechanically provide the backing for all the electronic ideas. It gives me the mental image of a satanic ritual happening in a well-lit sterile surgery room instead of a dark dank basement most satanic black metal bands would try to achieve.

This album as its predecessor were considered the black sheep of Beherit catalogue (and still are to some extent) and while I personally don't hate either of these electronic albums I can understand that many of the fans were pissed that two albums in row they didn't get another Drawing Down the Moon or The Oath of Black Blood back in the day. Not only that but the band pretty much quit after this one and would make their comeback in late '00s with Engram which was more to the liking of the old fans. All this said I think that these albums get way too much flak than they deserve, H418ov21.C being merely mediocre than bad, and Electric Doom Synthesis being the better one of the two thanks to the more focused songwriting.

I would recommend anyone interested into atmospheric/experimental music to give a shot for this album and its predecessor. If you are only looking for tremolo picked metal riffs with shrieked vocals (or metal music in general) it's better to just ignore Beherits experiments on electronic music and stick with the metal albums instead.

I have always liked the more "weird" side of Beherit. I find most of the demo work to be quite pedestrian Blasphemy worship and it never really interested me quite like the album Drawing Down The Moon did, and I feel that bizarre atmosphere that Drawing Down the Moon had is most present here on Electric Doom Synthesis. An apt description of this album might be that if you took all the metal elements away from Drawing Down The Moon and made an album out of the weirdness and atmosphere that results.

I have since grown to love Electric Doom Synthesis more than any other Beherit album. The feel is mechanical, much like its predecessor, and might seem cheesy upon first listen, but the atmosphere was best summed up by Holocausto himself: ritual ambient music. This is an apt description. Floating in the hallucinatory space between darkspace and proper ambient drone, Electric Doom Synthesis finds us touring many exquisite atmospheres, as tangible (if not more) than the notes and melodies played. A few songs bleed into each other, and compositions range from the rather sparse (Sense) to the inevitably dense (Deep Night 23rd) and the album closes with a haunting minimalist closer, that somehow brings us out of the trance induced by Sense.

While many seem to dislike the strange sounds and random arrangement at the end of Sense, I found the effect to be similar to the rest of the album; if there were ever a candidate for "music for out of body experiences", it would be this, and Sense represents the peak of dissociation. It also helps if Electric Doom Synthesis is listened to as a whole, since these elements are best fleshed out as one listening experience. The atmosphere is slightly jarring at first (especially We Worship) but this all plays into the atmospheric narrative present, going from jittered beta waves down to the nadir of delta somnulence. It all forms a stew of atmospheric delight that is perfect for relaxation, astral projection, and even simply driving around deserted areas during the barren hours of the late evening/early morning. Words are present during a few songs, but for the most part are irrelevant. Listening to this, vocals are no issue, since the volume and mix is never saturated or oppressive, but while listening I found words were not necessary, period, even with a group of 4 people. Such is the impact this music has on the listener.

Can I recommend Electric Doom Synthesis for everyone? No. Most people will simply not take the time to properly interpret the material, or it will simply pass over their heads. For me, however, Electric Doom Synthesis finds itself in a perfect niche in my music collection, and in the right mindset, is extraordinary and hauntingly dissociating.

In the history of music, we've come to know many bands well after their days of activity on the scene. A lot of us feel the same way, "how I wish I heard these guys when they were still around." Sometimes many of those bands take a few years to be truly appreciated by people. I found out of this band around five years ago. They had ceased to exist before my recognition of them. It all started with 'The Oath Of Black Blood'. I was hooked for some reason. It wasn't something that many people liked but it grabbed me.

After the fix I wanted more, as you listen to their back catalogue you hear a clear and definite progression in sound and ideas. 'Drawing Down The Moon' still had some rawness to it but it was cleaner, better written and more cohesive. Then came the 'Messe Des Morts' EP and then you start to hear glimpses of what comes on 'Electric Doom Synthesis', electronically aided vocals and drums. Then came H418ov21.C and it was a complete departure and in my mind a failure. Their most forgettable release by miles.

So comes 'Electric Doom Synthesis', an album that combines 'Drawing Down The Moon and H418ov21.C at once. But this time he puts in a better effort on his part and it makes for a remarkable listen. If you're looking for early stage raw black metal, this is definitely not for you. It's dark, industrialized, electronic based ambient music to be really precise. The title perfectly describes the music contained within. It's not necessarily frightening dark ambient as some other dark ambient releases by other bands. But an eerie, uneasy atmosphere is achieved here. At this point Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance is a couple of years into the solo act behind Beherit. It's clear that he was leaning towards different tastes and it really showed here. This time he truly dedicates himself to this style of music and it pays dividends.

So how does the music stand up 11 years later? Really well considering that electronic based music gets old quick due to rapid changes in technology. Just listen to any electronic music from the late 80's to early 90's. The lone track that has guitar in it is 'Drawing Down The Moon' and its a real catchy one at that too, it also has a drumbeat to guide it along wonderfully. The seventh track 'Sense' is perhaps the most interesting track and the closest to sounding like something from his latter project 'Suuri Shamaani'. When you look at the timeline of this legendary band you see so many different styles and tastes that you can't help but praise them for having the balls to make such drastic changes to their sound and ideas.

I can't help but think to myself that the current highly praised Swiss black metal band 'Darkspace' would not be around today if it weren't for this band. Especially when you hear the obvious influences, their sound derives mainly from this album and Drawing Down The Moon. Beherit leaves us this last piece of work and an excellent piece it is. They begun their careers ripping off Blasphemy with 'The Oath Of Black Blood' that it would've fit nicely between 'Fallen Angel Of Doom' and 'Gods Of War'. Then they made giant and original strides with their rest of their releases. The band has been no more for 10 years and Finland still hasn't seen anything as good as Beherit, probably never will. Lastly, Electric Doom Synthesis deserves a reissue.

Beherit, Finlands gift to the blackmetal world. Or atleast it was. After doing blackmetal for some time Beherit decided to chance style and started playing ambient music. "Electric Doom Synthesis" is their second ambient album.

In the beginning of "Ambush" there's a low demonic voice saying "Say you love him! Say you love Satan!" behind an electronic soundscape. The feel of this song is very dark and it made me very anxious. This song pretty much takes away all hope of this album being blackmetal, but still it makes sure that the atmosphere is very black.

Most of this album is based on electronics and different kinds of weird noises. There's also a lot of distorted guitars in most of the songs, which of course makes is easier for a metal fan to get into this album. The percussion is also in a very central part in the music. At times we also get to hear some vocals which are usually distorted or put through some other kind of effect.

The highlights for me on this album were the songs "Ambush" and "Drawing Down the Moon". The latter has without a doubt the best guitar riff (If not the only real riff) on the album and it is repeated for almost the whole song.

On the negative side there's the song "Sense" which get's rather boring after the first three minutes and as the song is over ten minutes long it really has a major effect on the whole album. But fortunately the closer "Temple" makes things a little more interesting again, but only a little.

Even though I could pick up some tracks as better than other, this album is one of those records you have to take as a whole and not as a collection of good songs. And as a whole this is a great release. But if you feel like you can't listen to anything else than metal, stay back. This is only for the open-minded metalheads and to everybody else who can appreciate good ambient, with a very dark atmosphere.