CONTINUUM 2

For every good horror film experience there is a much less enjoyable sequel. This apparently holds true with music as well.

Steven Wilson and Vidna Obmana did such a wonderful job on their previous collaborative release that they decided to release a second part, Continuum 2. Any music fan can tell you that news of a "part 2" to a highly enjoyable album often creates both excitement and worry, and for good reason. The previous installment of this series is a terrific, terrifying ambient industrial soundscape exploration that is sure to incite at least a small instance of panic for the listener, especially when paired with an appropriate physical setting such as a dark room or, ideally, a cave or abandoned factory. This continuation of the series is a bit overdone and comes off of a kind of ridiculous at times.

In the same way as the previous album, the tracks here are simply labelled as numbered constructs starting with IV, and the music begins in the familiar uneasy ambient drone - so far so good. But suddenly a heavily distorted doom metal guitar chord and steady hi-hat tapping breaks the ambience with severe gusto, entirely ruining the atmosphere. On the first track, the doom guitar is ever present, completely dissipating the effect of the shifting industrial dronescape that faintly looms in the background, which is upsetting considering that the track is almost 23 minutes long. Subsequent tracks follow suit, using varying degrees of emotionless doom metal and drowned industrial audio scenery, creating an hour of disappointment.

Continuum 2 is essentially a copy of Lustmord's work on Juggernaut, being primarily dark ambient with disruptive and distracting doom/sludge metal guitar. While I do find doom metal in general to be enjoyable, it does not work well with what would otherwise be a beautifully disconcerting dark ambient soundscape. I'm sure this album provides a good crossover opportunity for fans of doom metal into ambient electronic territory, but as someone who already enjoys both genres individually, I'd say this execution is unfortunately mediocre.

This is volume 2 in the collaboration between Steven Wilson's experimental minimalistic project Bass Communion and Vidna Obmana. The tracks are titled "Construct" like the previous volume and numbered IV, V and VI this time. This starts out just like the previous volume with electronic ambience and starts right away painting the picture of isolation that was obvious all the way through the first volume. Once again, the music melds to your mind, even if you are playing as background and it seems you are once again travelling nowhere. But just as the numbness starts to settle in for another long hour, a guitar comes along and smashes the ambience after the first few minutes. After the mind numbing tracks that have gone before in the last volume, this is totally unexpected and if you aren't aware of this, it can scare the heebie jeebies right out of you.

The guitar remains through the track after this and plays a repeating slow hook with very little variation while underneath, the electronics continue to swirl, cascade and grow. On the 5th construct, the electronic ambience seems to have grown some and is a little more bold. Nothing much happens throughout this track, returning a little to the previous album, but towards the last 1/2 of the track, a droning guitar creeps up from under the sound and crescendos until it has almost completely taken over the track. The last Construct is similar, but the guitar gets louder quicker as the electronics play more sustained sounds and tones that are maybe a little brighter. The guitar plays a slowly descending pattern as it gets louder for the duration of the track.

So, where the 1st volume was an album with electronic ambience that for the most part did not go anywhere, the 2nd volume has a little more character and movement where the loud guitar churns and plods around the synthesized sounds. A little more interesting this time, but still not the best available Bass Communion album out there. It's still all about atmosphere, but the loneliness that was the feeling for the 1st volume is gone because of the guitar becoming a constant companion. But, is having this companion turning out to be better or worse than the loneliness? It sounds like the story here wants to suggest no, but as for the music, it does help make the slow, long tracks a little easier to digest. I would consider this a little better than the 1st, but it is a weak 3 stars.