Beyond Sensory Experience
Pursuit of Pleasure
7.7
The Cold Meat Industry mission statement seems to still hold up as once again they have done a fine job of helping to bring their listeners the incarnation of an artist’s nightmare. It has been awhile since my Ildfrost albums came off the shelf but listening to Beyond Sensory Experience for what seems like a very short week has certainly encouraged the urge to pull their work out and perhaps revisit my copy of the Robert Rich & Lustmord Stalker collaboration. There is no direct comparison between the aforementioned artists and the topic of this review, save ambience, but they do both share stylistic elements with the work of this Swedish partnership. Veterans of Nordvargr and Drakh respectively, these gentlemen are no strangers to producing the quality of dark ambient and neo folk which fills the catalogs of Cold Meat’s mailorder.
Modular synthesizers, lethargic piano, and an unhealthy dose of curious sounds, noises and industrial samples are woven together with masterful hands and result in a soundscape which is held together by the lone thread of deviance. Our one link to the creators is the album’s recurring dealings with human sexuality and the palpable sense that the artist’s vision of the topic is both open-ended and twisted. If not for this lifeline, all sense of intent would be lost but as such the true beauty of noise and ambience are allowed to emerge as the composers are lost within their own landscape. If I look for anything in this sort of work, it is the possibility of a project to trigger my ability to not listen. The ideal mental state is not total shutdown and zone-out but rather an opportunity to cut the mind’s tethers and allow someone else to lead the thought process.
Within the context of MetalReview and its rating system, Pursuit of Pleasure is a bit out of place and difficult to quantify. The very nature of this genre is the breakdown of expectations, so I will attempt to score this album in an appropriate fashion. Working backwards from a perfect score, subtract one point from musicianship for a use of vocal samples which I feel are a bit abundant on some tracks, and thus distracting. Songwriting presented here as the lack thereof can still be rated as a level of enjoyment; does my mind wander and do I feel changed by the experience? The answer is a resounding yes but by comparison to other works I prefer over this one I feel the need to then remove points. Where the Black Stars Hang this is not. Production within an ambient work as I see it is directly related to my level of immersion. The artists are not accountable for outside factors which remove me from their dark aether but I do find fault when I snap back from a dull-eyed expression to furrow my brow at the placement of an element within the mix that interrupts my trip. It really need not be said at this point that this sort of thing is not for everyone but if you identify with any of what you have read or listen to similar artists, then Beyond Sensory Experience are certainly worth checking out; a dark ambient delight.
