Drift "The Beyond" 2xCD [CH-396]

Remastered reissue alongside the other Drift cassettes originally on Slaughter Productions. Mastered by Grant Richardson. A5 Digipak. Co-released with Total Black.

"Second in the trilogy of Drift albums released on Slaughter Productions, The Beyond takes on a minimal yet darker approach, shedding the dense, cavernous aspect of the preceding album Exile. Replaced, is a more introspective Autumnal Dark Ambient style, which will become Drift's trademark on following releases. However, Gabrielle Giuliani never abandons the isolationist atmosphere he previously established. The result is a masterwork in Ambient Industrial Noise.

Winds howl, rain soaked leaves are walked on, broken branches reverberate to the abyss, and voices of unknown origin lurk in the background. In a sense, much of the album's noisier moments play like an answer to the soundtrack to the Jean Rollin filmed dream sequences of Jess Franco's "A Virgin Among the Living Dead". Given the album's namesake, one can't help to think Giuliani had Euro-horror cinema on his mind while channeling these soundscapes.

Unlike the suffocating characteristics of the Exile album, Giuliani uses The Beyond to experiment with silence and space. Throughout "Before Silence" the listener is faced with seeming inactivity quietly under a thick layer of fog and tape hiss. While "Under" will undergo prolonged moments of near silence in its conclusion. It's only in the piercing horror feedback of the finale "My Eyes Still See" which brings the listener back from the lull in what is the most disconcerting of all Drift compositions. The torment the listener will endure on this track is truly in Atrax Morgue fashion up until its conclusion, making way for the next album Earthquake."

- Jim Mroz (Lussuria)