[reviews] afe048lcd
bestia centauri: the antediluvian earth

Bestia Centauri was the force behind one of the better efforts of 2002, Somnambulant Corpse's release of "Ubbo Sathla" so I was quite pleased to see this latest disc peering out from my post office box.

"The Antidiluvian earth" is sourced from similar rare elements, electro-acoustic spectra refracting through a densely dark yet translucent glass atmosphere of agoraphobic unease. Despite the claims of the promo literature, I do think that this time out the focus has shifted itself a bit closer to all that black and robed as the digital elements have been smoothed out somewhat and the slight academic tint has been exchanged for a thoroughly oily creepiness that is impossible to wash off.

The recording itself clocks in around 48 minutes with the proceedings unevenly shared between 4 long tracks. The key I think to understanding this recording is realizing the complete and utter lack of visible end points. This recording is constantly shifting, acrid smoke slowly rising from the countless dark tunnels leading off to some barren infinity.

The music is extremely dense with all light that reaches the listener bent into a circular reflection which creates a strange contradiction: never ending vastness melting into sightless claustrophobia. This is what is rather strange about this effort - if the listener steps back and allows this most textural music to be delegated to short bursts of background, it may seem like a monolithic wash of crystalline yet fluid miasma but if any serious attention is paid to it, complex structural depth becomes the immediate prognosis.

Instrumentation on this release is consistent in tone but radically varied in volume and acidity. Reverb makes up a large portion of the affair but with a porousness that allows the protuberances of the many organic scrapes and rattles to grab a last breath before being pulled back under the rolling waves. It's very metallic too with the walls slowly bending inwards and outwards in metallurgic agony as the feedback, wall vary and density parameters are gently manipulated.

There isn't a single moment on the release where the meters are out of control, it all seems terribly pre-ordained and almost brutal in its deliberate aural provocation of one's flight instinct. Reversal is used quite liberally too but with none of the feel of clumsy cliche or tired gimmick. Every barren wail and grey tine is laid with impenetrable but deliberate purpose.

I think that the core of its "is / is not" feel emanates from Bestia Centauri's consistent use of slow LFO driven swells to raise and lower the profile of the plethora of aural components, a sickenly rolling ocean of perpetual doom and loathing for those foolish enough not to respect it.

The more effort put into truly hearing recording, the harder it is to resist which leads to an almost vicious cycle of increased awareness and will drain through lowered dopamine levels. I find that it induces in me the bright eyed electricity of a dangerous endeavour but combined with a strange fatalism like a suicidal jumper screaming "Geronimo!" as they take the final leap.

This is an excellent and most disarming bit of textural ambient and together with their previous effort "Ubbo Sathla", definitely lights the flares around Bestia Centauri as an entity to be very conscious of lest you become permanently lost out in their most bleak mental environ. Recommended.

[Moron]