Ewigkeit - Conspiritus   

Melting pot of electro-ambient-rock

Over the years, Earache Records has definitely had a wide variety of artists on their roster from the brutal beginnings of Napalm Death and Terrorizer through to more avant-garde acts such as Naked City, Spazztic Blurr and Godflesh amongst others. In recent times, Earache's imprint labels Elitist and Wicked World have been the ones forging ahead with left of centre talent such as Ephel Duath and Carnival In Coal. The tide began to shift back towards the parent label with the release of Ewigkeit's Radio Ixtlan - a Pink Floyd meets Killing Joke with a dash of Ministry like affair that took many by surprise. Ewigkeit is only one man - the multi-talented James Fogarty - but that one man has a lot to say on his latest album Conspiritus.

Smooth Pink Floyd like guitars provide the ambient background to Intro - The Hypothesis which divulges via a phone conversation the conspiracy theory of multinational corporations owning the entire planet and doing as they please. The first full on track is the joint keyboard and guitar driven rock number It's Not Reality which sees a solid delivery of melodic vocals and a complete departure from the more extreme vocals of its predecessor. The Pink Floyd like dynamics and the brief harmonica leads in Square Sunrise continue the more focused and refined approach of Conspiritus as it picks up the pace with a change of feel midway through. The Nightmare Institution mixes some effective synth work with some haunting and effect laden guitar leads to make for one of the strongest tracks on here before the almost Jeff Wayne War Of The Worlds like Far Away From Heaven also shows the evolution of Ewigkeit since their previous effort.

The choir like strains of Transcend The Senses drive through the plodding track which cleverly utilises a sample of one of Mahatma Gandhi's speeches throughout which contains the line that is the song's title. It's effective and definitely beats writing lyrics. Taking on a strong techno industrial sound is The Thought Police which is considerably heavier and faster paced than the rest of the album but has the potential to be a hit with Night Clubers around the world. If I had to give someone an example of a heavy metal version of Pink Floyd, then How To Conquer The World (Live At The Bohemian Grove) is what I'd suggest as the best example of such a bastard child which leads me to the heavy metal meets industrial meets Riverdance like Theoreality which is given a distinct Irish flavour thanks to the harmonica leads. Rounding out this diverse and challenging album is the moody and haunting title track which features a sample of Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address as the 32nd President of the United States.

There's no doubt this album isn't a metal album. You should have figured that out fairly early on and I'd be surprised if you were still reading this expecting it to be otherwise. There are elements of metal in some form or another here but they are mixed in amongst complex layers of keyboards, samples and vocal arrangements that make Conspiritus a challenging yet rewarding listen of Pink Floyd like ambience and passages through to KLF and Prodigy like synths and beats. It won't be for everyone and in fact most metal fans won't like this one bit. But for those out there with an open ear to something different in today's trend driven world, you'd be mad to not given Ewigkeit some of your time.

(Earache Records/Shock Distribution)

Added: August 26th 2005
Reviewer: Simon Milburn
Score:
Related Link: Official Website
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