Syndrome – Forever And A Day (CD Album – Consouling Sounds)

Genre/Influences: Apocalyptic-rock, ambient, drones.

Background/Info: Set up and driven by Mathieu Vandekerckhove, Syndrome is a familiar name from the Consouling Sounds roster. This Belgian musician has already been active in numerous bands and especially into metal-driven projects like Amenra. “Forever And A Day” is a new opus featuring one single piece.

Content: The composition of Syndrome is pretty soundtrack-like inspired, but meant to please dark music lovers. You’ll immediately get the impression of being imprisoned in a dark-ambient cut carried by tormenting, buzzing tones till the guitar becomes more explicit. We this way reaches a transcendental universe of reverie and psychedelic passages.

The guitar playing is an essential element of this composition, but I also have to mention Vandekerckhove’s deep timbre of voice, which sounds cavernous and anguished.

+ + + : Syndrome reminds me a bit of Barst (another formation signed to Consouling Sounds). There’s a similar taste for dark-ambient & psychedelic sound creation with an explicit cinematographic appeal. The apotheosis of these single tracks is absolutely phenomenal and reminds me a bit of the tormented atmosphere of “The Virgin Suicides”-movie. This composition has been meticulously composed finally creating a disturbing feeling and that feels just great!

– – – : It’s a pity this work only features one single cut. I got an unsaturated feeling at the end, which also means it’s a quite efficient opus.

Conclusion: “Forever And A Day” could have been the perfect soundtrack for a ‘film-noir’ theme. Despair seems to be a great muse for tormented musicians so I don’t know if Mathieu Vandekerckhove will recognize himself by this association, but let’s elevate him to this status!

Best songs: “Forever And A Day”.

Rate: (7).

Band: www .facebook .com /syndromechurch

Label: http ://consouling .be / www .facebook .com /ConsoulingSounds

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

The donations are safely powered by Paypal.