Terrordyne - The Seventh Seal

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Terrordyne’s The Seventh Seal trembles with urgent agitation and carries listeners down dark corridors to places no living human should see. The music is thick with fright, conjuring images of beings from beyond any realm we recognize crawling through portals into our reality. The album is full of murky gloom and intense terror, in a way I find utterly enjoyable and extremely entertaining. This is dark synth music that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shoves your face into the void.

Atmosphere is a key part of The Seventh Seal. Every scintilla of sound is full of cosmic fear. Rising, deadly night pours from the music as it combines jagged synth sounds with colossal, ragged-edged bass and drums that hammer with tsunami force. Terrordyne produces soundscapes full of evil portent and spectral malice that seep through every moment. The way in which images of dilapidated buildings, lurking horrors, and a night blacker than black rise up through the music fills me with deliciously sinister sensations.

The melodies which fill The Seventh Seal are another strong part of its appeal. These melodies convey nervousness, approaching hazards, and the existential emptiness radiating from the evil that abounds. I enjoy the journey upon which these different melodic moments take me, filling me with the creeping impression of something truly sinister leaping from the dark to seize me. This is music for traveling through the shadowed depths of one’s imagination.

Another reason for my enjoyment of The Seventh Seal is the sheer weight and power of the drums and bass. The underlying percussion and the bass’s gargantuan strength bring a sense of growing threat and shadows that stretch ominously toward me. The low end deepens the imagery of hungry creatures waiting in hidden corners to seize their prey and vanish.

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

“Last Rites” commences as an unhallowed sound rises with dramatically resounding drums and a tautly wound synth that twists with trepidation. The bass is a cavernous force and the medium-high synth howls ominously. The rhythm detonates with ferocity as a minor-key melodic pattern oscillates and the tempo breaks to half-time.

The main melody carries a hellish umbra as lonely notes descend singularly before a nightmarish arpeggio moves in tortured lines. The bass towers before the rapid drums erupt again, filling me with a sense of impending danger. Once again, hypnotic arpeggios spin while an elevated synth carries the unholy melody above the roiling low end.

Delicate notes luminesce like spook lights as distant sounds keen and the undergirding pounds with demonic force. The rhythm slows again as the raised tones shiver and the track comes to an end.

As “Malice” begins, grating sounds snarl and a growling noise moves. The bass pulsates with an undulating umbra as a distant sound cries with an otherworldly sensation. The beat is unstoppable as high notes wriggle in an attempt to escape. The rhythm heaves with terrible force, radiating pure evil, as the high notes glitter with eldritch luminosity.

As raised sounds scream, a cold shiver crawls up my spine and the trembling, colossal foundation is joined by a shattering beat. Now a shimmering arpeggio shifts nervously while the voiceover reflects twisted dread. Hammering drums and tightly winding sounds that snap add to the forbidding force as the bass swirls.

The voiceover is joined by a melodic pattern that creates a sensation of horrible things lurking at the edge of awareness, waiting to destroy any human unfortunate enough to cross their path. The low end is resolute as it is joined by trembling arpeggios and the track ends.

“The Seventh Seal” comes into being with a monstrous sonic turmoil as a voiceover talks about something coming to get the children. Now the hard-hitting beat moves with an oscillating synth and notes that scream out in panicked sensation, shining with feverish light. The rhythm is crushing as quickly croaking sounds move above the dramatic strings, while the serpentine synth glows uncomfortably. Bells ring with spooky energy as the thundering underpinning rumbles.

As the bass drops away, tense sounds shiver with wicked brightness while the supporting foundation looms. Tendrils of sound reach for me and I recoil as explosive drums are joined by crunching notes. Raised tones create a hallucinatory effect as they churn and the lacerating low end slices. The drums drop into a slower pulse while the horror-struck sounds fade into quiet.

A low, hollow sound moves with slowly drifting piano to start “Daemonibus.” Rising notes add a sense of malevolence while the chimes glitter with the light of ancient ghosts. The low end is forceful, slamming in a tide of hammering percussion while the bells flicker with weird luminosity, filling me with unholy danger.

As the rhythm shatters against the heavy bass, the melody cries with terrible energy. High notes twinkle with sparkling, distant light before the ferocious foundation attacks. The drums break into a slower pulse before accelerating again while the slowly undulating synth exudes dark majesty. The song cries out with extreme evil while the drums rattle. The track comes to an end as elevated sounds contort before the music stops.

“To The Grave” opens as foreboding tones fall over a rising sound that reflects ultimate doom. The cavernous beat moves with churning notes that create a sense of sinister forces drawing closer as an unholy choir cries in the distance. Bone-rattling noises drift as spinning notes send a coil of unsettled emotion through me above the hammer blows below.

As the bass drops out, chains clank and horrified screams echo while a painfully unfurling synth twists. Diabolical sensations reach with dead hands as the string-like notes undulate with emotive power and the colliding low end fades along with the choir.

Orchestral sounds rise with fearful majesty as a rough-edged voice speaks indistinctly and radiant notes ring with nobility to kick off “Oracle.” A screaming sound echoes as classical arpeggios dance with shadow and the underlying pulse shoves the music forward. Strings rise in ghostly knots as the howling synth weaves a spine-tingling melodic pattern.

The low end drops away as chimes float with delicate melancholy, wandering into the misty night. The leaping bottom end pushes forward while twirling notes send dire motion through the music and the raised synth evokes reaching tentacles spilling out of the darkness to grasp me.

As the heavy percussive pulse moves, a hollow-voiced synth whirls in possessed lines and a melody full of threatening strength calls out above the low-end pulsation. The tempo subdivides and the nervous synth spins into silence.

“Apocalypsis” starts off as the tomb-like bass is joined by a whispering narrator. The bass rises with colossal darkness as the elevated notes tremble with unrestrained fear. The drums smash in a wave as the churning notes are joined by a guitar that exudes a minor key melody, full of intimidation.

String-like synth carries a quickly intermingling note pattern as the horror-filled voiceover whispers sibilantly. The huge beat surges again as the growling foundation moves with the cold of the grave. A sense of nearing awfulness fills me before the fragile piano carries an aching melody as the strings glitter, then silence falls.

A sense of doom fills the buzzing synth as it trembles to open “Pale Horse.” A dark voice rumbles before rapidly shifting clouds of looming synth move above the crushing underpinnings. A pipe-organ-like synth churns with worried sensations as elevated notes float like graveyard mist above the crumping drums.

As the pipe-organ synth twists, I am filled with the sense that time is limited and deadly peril nears. While the synth surges in broken pieces, a deep foreboding permeates the music. The tension winds higher as the synth shimmies with growing intensity.

The low sounds are full of slashing power as high notes leap in a melody of flickering spirit light. The bass becomes a living force as worry-filled tones tumble and twist above the urgently throbbing underlayer. Finally, the drum beat breaks into a slower tempo as the higher sounds fade away into uneasy silence.

Conclusion

The Seventh Seal is a slab of dark synth that rips its way into the soul and fills it with dire majesty, allowing the listener to bask in the horrors it evokes. I revel in the way it carries me into realms of maleficent creatures and endless opportunities for beautiful, terrible doom as it unfolds.