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One hell of an album indeed.

I would like to continue this thread, as I’ve been trying to find artists new and old from Israel. I’m specifically interested in the more melodic, Goa trance side of things. Artist albums + compilations are both on my list. I’ll get the thread moving with my favorites: Astral Projection Afgin Sykespico MFG Who knows of other artists from Israel? Trying to make an Apple Music playlist mostly of albums, although good individual songs are appreciated as well.

Xenomorph - Netherverse (2024) Suntrip Records 1. Sinister Contours 2. Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix) 3. War In Heaven 4. Negative Time (-L Di/-Dt Mix) 5. No Beginning No End 6. Nebula Of Souls 7. Subdimensional Anomaly 8. Abode Of The Damned 9. Netherverse It's so interesting to read the comments here. I found the the Negative Time EP (2023) fairly monotonous, lacking the visceral, dynamic energy of Mark Petrick's previous albums. A brief recap, Cassandra's Nightmare (1998) was like Goa chapters in a horror film. It took risks and showcased a new approach to Goa. Qlippoth (2003) was more mature, provocative, and dark/evil. Demagoguery of the Obscurants (2007) was a concept album reflecting the old vision of the elites (dark ones) via numerous phases, ending with Nuclear Winter. Years later, Xenomorph singles began appearing on Suntrip compilations. Petrick's style was more refined and contemporary, less hard edged, more melodic and smooth. As much as I like Suntrip, I felt something powerful did not translate over that made Xenomorph so unfiltered, brazen, and unrestrained. Fast forward to Netherworld (2024), the first main album by Xenomorph in 17 years. Shit has it really been that long? 1. Sinister Contours starts with a strong kick drum, dark atmosphere, sound bits and synths that remind me of Demagoguery of the Obscurants (2007) to some degree. I like the dark Goa (sound/melody) work, though structurally the beat and bass line feel a bit repetitive. The synth via transition in the third minute open the door for more creativity, grit, and development, the latter fairly simple programming-wise. The tone is good, and I like the contemporary, modern approach to dark Goa here. I like how the middle act breathes before introducing oriental sounds and samples, adding intrigue. This segments felt a bit repetitive to me when crossing the seventh minute, and could have benefitted from more complexity via mixing and variety in arrangement. The last act gets more interesting via end of the seventh minute, but I felt the repetition in ideas before and after. Even the last minute is less than stellar. I feel like the artist could have incorporated more, surprised us, and evolved the second into third act, as well as the second half of Act 3 more tightly. This is a solid song that lacks the power of the opening track, Prognosis on Demagoguery of the Obscurants (2007), but I like it and am a bit undecided on the score. B 2. Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix) is MUCH BETTER than Sinister Contours IMO, and my top, if not one of my top favourites here. I LOVE the ominous opening, the raspy samples (that somehow work with the), atmosphere and synths. I LOVE the space astronaut sound accent effects (end of first minute), and the sound/melody work is excellent. The song gets richer, more tasty and delectable as it progresses. This is a great example of duality, rather than pure dark-evil-- combining darkness with light. Then a key change at 3:30, and the song does possibly the most beautiful, transformational thing I've ever heard from this artist to date, completely elevating the journey into cosmic, transcendental realms of growth and development before sliding back into the dangerous void. Sure the beat and baseline are pretty standard, and I'm okay with that. It's everything on top of it that's riveting and so unexpectedly strong, evocative, and enjoyable! This (more balanced in duality) song is so innovative, catchy, and welcome from what I'm used to hearing from this artist. It's less hard hitting (beat-wise, synths, grit) than his other songs, and I'm okay with that. Even a transition in the fifth minute gifts us more jewels via sound/melody work. Maybe the second half of the last act could have emphasized more edgier synths, but I'm nitpicking. This is such a well done song. It's imaginative and beautifully helmed and thought out from start to finish. A- / A 3. War In Heaven is a return to harder hitting, darker content a la Sinister Contours. I notice some cross-over sounding synths early on that remind me of Demagoguery Of the Obscurants (2007). The sound/melody work is crisp and energetic, complimented by a voice sample, though somewhat simple in arrangement. The music improves. I love the blinking little synth effect at 4:03 (wish that reprised later) and how a voice sample transitions us to catchier elements. This has a jumpy (danceable) synths, and I love little dynamic progressions via 5:12. I'm a sucker for catchy transitions to new surprises, sound/melody work, good mixing, and like the nostalgic albeit contemporary synths approach. The last act brings everything together, like a dark albeit less dark (than previous albums) nod to his third album coupled with melodies had A Nightmare on Elm Street had a Goa song. That said, I feel as if the music is just a bit restrained in power, rawness, and delivery-- as if the artist is fairly reserved from unleashing more fiery power. I thought this delivered stronger than the opening, and I enjoyed the smooth, fluid production and delivery. B+ 4. Negative Time (-L Di/-Dt Mix) starts strong. We get a great tidal wave synth at 0:57, followed by more complexity. The first act is catchy, though repetition starts to sink in just before things shift at 2:40. We reach an interlude at 3:30 via voice sample that sounds like Lance Henriksen in one of his many intriguing character roles. I like how the tone grow darker in the fifth minute. The song's synths remind me of the third album to some degree. The third act merges fresh ideas and some really good melodies. The end of the sixth into seventh minute feature nice key changes, though the music here grew conventional. Nonetheless, I admire the dualistic rather than being dark-evil approach. I think there could have been more of a finale (climax) towards the end, as the final moments aren't as memorable. I like this song and found it better than Negative Time on the EP. B+ 5. No Beginning No End starts promising, though grows monotonous. I like the sound at 1:07., the dark undertone, the synth at 1:30 and the grittier sound at 2:35. This segment soon grows repetitive though until 3:18 where we transition to 3:30 (my favourite part) before more layers pile on. The forth and fifth minute's pile on arrangement/direction is where I lose interest. Structurally it feels so conventional, repetitive, and uneventful to me (more mindless than mindful), and I feel this relates to complaints. A voice sample transitions the third act. Here the energy picks up via climax, but the arrangement and delivery of the climax feels similar, redundant, and lackluster. I would have loved more variety, edgier synth work, mixing, provocative ideas, evocative feels. The song feels like it could have spend more time in production, or being replaced by something stronger. And is it me, or does this song feel rushed? I'm not saying it's bad, but decent to FAIRLY good is the best thing I can say about it. B- 6. Nebula Of Souls starts great like a dark fantasy. I like the atmosphere, enchanting sounds and synths. The first act builds nicely. Little squiggly sounds mingle with soundscapes in ice-cold moving atmosphere. There's a recurrent synth that works. It grows delectably grittier, rougher, more aggressive, and less restrained as the song progresses. That said, the song follows one set path, direction, and conceptually, is pretty one-dimensional. But it packs some of that rough edged rawness I miss. Again though, the structure and sound design grows repetitive, albeit more powerful and emphasized, and I feel like we needed this... something with more visceral and aggressive. Why not add this intensity to a more dynamic, varied, and elaborate storytelling chapter? Doing so could have produced an album selling super song. In Act 3 the synths fall to the back as slow ambient notes carry this across the finish line, and while I appreciate the change, I feel like this was an opportunity to incorporate something more exciting and revelatory to spruce up the finale which otherwise feels somewhat melancholy and anti-climactic, especially after the welcome, harder edged albeit predictable structure/drection. B 7. Subdimensional Anomaly opens with soft ambient, inviting us into the ominous fold. The bass line here actually stands out for once. I like the evocative feel, synths, key changes, especially the synth lead in the second minute. It's excellent and accentuated by soundscapes following a voice sample that initiates stronger energy. Now we're gliding across the dark terrain. The music is good, though a little more involvement via arrangement would have spiced up the forth minute. The second half maintains the catchy synths, coupled with another voice sample. This opens the door to those punchy synths that remind of of Mark's third album (works well here). The song's less intense approach is well placed. Another complimentary synth joins ambient notes in the last act, reflecting sadness and contemplation. I think the second half of Act 3 could have developed a little more, creating more intrigue like the song's first two acts, and I admire the artist's more pensive, thoughtful direction. B 8. Abode Of The Damned as with Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix) showcases stronger storytelling throughout. The first act builds intrigue, acknowledging the underworld (the Great Below) conveniently excluded from modern academia, as it does not fit in with established associations, hence fiction-fantasy / folklore / conspiracy / advanced ancient civilizations, technology, Shiva, Krishna, etc. The first act is dynamic, offering a variety of tighter sound engineering. The second act has more grit and energy, a thumping beat. I love like the evocative feels, gritty synths, and overall structure. The second half of Act 3 could have stood out more, but offers some refined synths that compliment. While nothing groundbreaking, this is easily one of the best songs on the album, and my favorite after Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix). B+ / A- 9. Netherverse is an ambient-influenced downtempo number. The first half... we're floating in space, atmosphere. No beat. Not much happens. A synth arrives in the second minute as I start to grow impatient, hoping things are going to get going. A slow kick drum enters the third minute. It's okay albeit plodding. Again, I wait for this to turn into a powerful, downtempo gem, but the interlude in the forth minute leads to more of the same. There is a nice key change to the tune in the fifth and sixth minute (IMO the best part of the song), but other than that, not much happens. The song ends just as it begins to show potential in what could have been Act 2, but is rather the second half. I wish the artist developed this into a more powerful, memorable downtempo/Goa gem. In the end, it feels underwritten and underdeveloped. I was left wanting more. C+ CONCLUSION So few solid dark Goa albums seem to release now days that I want to savor what I like about this forth album until something better comes along. Its been 17 years since Mark released an album, but not singles on compilations by Suntrip where I've noticed his style has grown to be more contemporary over the last decade. If you like that direction coupled with cross-over elements from his third album, and some new ideas to boot, give this a listen. You might like it. I find numerous songs (Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8) fun to listen to, while others (Tracks 5, 9) feel like write offs, fairly underwhelming. The result is an album that is at times LESS ambitious, dark, dynamic, detailed, provocative, unpredictable, powerful, gritty, aggressive, daring (risk-taking), while being lighter on development, evolution, holy shit (wow) moments, etc. And yet the album has all of those elements, more or less. It's smooth, fluid, danceable, and easy to digest. Simply put, the album did not exceed my expectations. I like that Mark Petrick incorporated more duality in his songs rather than each track being saturated in DARK/EVIL to the degree of his first three albums. To me that's a plus. I just wish that areas that felt repetitive were improved with healthier development. Some songs feel more inspired, passionate, and satisfying, while a few sound fairly conventional. Many are solid (good or great), just nothing spectacular, and maybe I'm being too critical but I have high expectations when it comes to this wildly talented artist. If I could play devil's advocate, I would have attempted to influence stronger songs or segments regarding feedback mentioned above. His other albums felt more organic, determined, intense, chaotic, rough, and wild-- with greater moments of awe and innovation, yet the smooth, contemporary approach here showcases moments of beauty, intelligence, heart, fire, and spirit. I simply wish the dragon was more stunning, powerful, detailed, and memorable as a whole if that makes sense considering how WOW'D I've been in the past. The album showcases many of Xenomorph's signature elements It's just not groundbreaking like his first three albums IMO. You can argue it's more refined. The programming is more simple. I wouldn't disagree. IMO Netherworld (2024) is too risk-free and at times lite, as if the artist compromised with the label's suggestions or requests. Don't get me wrong. The world needs less darkness. I love the idea of showcasing duality over being pure evil-dark as stated above. I am simply encouraging stronger character and/or plot storytelling consistency if that makes sense, more awe, developmental arrangements, variety in baselines, beats, fun unpredictable/kickass moments and songs. Did the artist get inspired, then lose interest, then get inspired again? Maybe the idea was to make a more mainstream-friendly album. If so, I'd say he succeeded while not selling out. The result is entertaining, but less brazen, and he could have done both, but why force something that doesn't feel inspired? It's wrong for me to say for certain as I don't know. Maybe 17 years later, Mark has less interest investing as many hundreds of hours into production, and if so, who could blame him? Work smarter, not harder. I'm totally speculating and have no idea! For a new album 17 years later, there has to be a reason why he didn't release one all this time (money maybe), and considering the fact, this is pretty darn solid. The sound engineering approach here is just simpler-- less dark, less wild, less fiery, less dynamic, less textured, and less groundbreaking than we're used to. I love many of these synths and sounds nonetheless despite some shortcomings. It's Goa. It's dark. It's Xenomorph. It's simply not his most AWESTRUCK main album and that's not a flaw. If this was another artist, maybe some of us would be easier in our analysis. Netherworld (2024) sounds ALMOST a bit too refined and clean (opposite of raw) for its own good, but that's what also makes it so fluid, smooth, and digestible. I enjoy what works-- the dark and danceable sound/melody Goa (I find irresistible at times), atmosphere, and the songs that I enjoy. Could a few songs have benefited more time in development? Maybe. I don't know the backstory. I just know what I think sounds good/great and what I think could have been better. All in all, I see why some of you like/love this release, and why some of you do not. My suggestion is listening to it a couple times and deciding for yourself. I like to listen to an album enough times to be able to identify the songs by name, but that's me. One way of seeing it-- we could have NOT gotten a forth album at all, and now we have something to talk about, which at least brings more curiosity and liveliness to the forums Favorite tracks - 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 B Stream the full album playlist on Suntrip's YouTube page attached

I can kind of see where you're coming from a bit more now. Some tracks do have pretty generic kicks and basslines. Doesn't bother me though since there's still so much personality everywhere else, and I like the modern production. Abode of the Damned is fantastic. Negative Time gives me MFG vibes with the relentless energy, big spacey sounds and euphoric climax.

Central Rishon Kaledioscope Retox just the best trance there is. sadly alot has disappeared from youtube over the years.

i can kinda see where you get MFG from here i guess? But unfortunately the kick+bass ruins it for me after a few more listens now, i think its not my cup of tea at least. the sounds are way too simple (the music is decent, but sounds not so much). and i absolutely hate the kickdrum and especially the bassline. damn near sounds like 'init patch' of any virtual analog VST, with unison and lots of stereo imaging whats the 2nd best track from the album in your opinion?

i think it sounds very good, probably the best so far tbh! the key changes around 5:50 mark and onwards are very nice, again reminds me of something that i cant put my finger on right now.. oh yes now i remember. similar key and key changes are in this track aswell, by solarforce. ( -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jXxZhzxfA- ) can you give a bit more information about the samples you used? and from what synths they were sourced? for such things as kick, bassline, hihats, leads etc. would be interesting to learn where you found all the samples at that time (98).

87bpm Recorded this one on 4/20. Took a while to put this one together, a few months tweaking sounds and effects, it's a live hardware jam recorded straight from the mixer, I didn't even do any post processing on this one even though I guess it could use a little boost but anyways I liked it enough as is, might master it later. It's pretty long again meant to be more of a journey, if you don't like long intros skip to about 4 mins in I guess. Hope you enjoy ☮️🕉️

Indeed. A solid release 9/10

Well that was fun Check out A1ON's DJ-set here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2125187677

Well that was fun Check out A1ON's DJ-set here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2125187677

Vinyl is SOLD. CD is still available.

Yes, I tried this many years ago, I searched from 2000 to 2003 for all the songs with this name, Serenity, but I couldn't find this id! There are two options, either it has not yet been uploaded to the discogs database by a contributor, or it exists, but under a different name than Serenity! We'll see, there are songs that I found after 15 years, and that makes me feel like it's something obscure, I hope it's not an unreleased song.

A10N is Live in 2h. https://www.twitch.tv/space_toilet_radio Party on ❤️

It's on live now https://www.twitch.tv/space_toilet_radio/

https://facebook.com/events/s/rise-and-thrive/449128434443589/

https://facebook.com/events/s/rise-and-thrive/449128434443589/

Interesting to see how tastes can differ, I listened to all the tracks and like this one better than most posted before, though it does sound a bit empty, but the sounds and melodies sound more mature than most tracks before in my opinion. The melody at 3:30 sounds simple but very good, and I like the last part of the track.

Okay, I'll be honest here. This next track is quite terrible. Finished in mid-January 1999 after I took about a month off making music, this one tries a bit too hard to sound like the classic Hallucinogen track LSD (and fails at it quite spectacularly). In any case, the remaining 3 tracks are much better than this, and maybe you can find something positive about this track because I sure can't 😅 P.S. that track title is quite facepalm-worthy too.

Yeah, listening the the album now, track 2 is impressive. Track 6 however, getting praise in the reviews but I found that melody in the second half a bit out of tune, sounds like it doesn't fit right, too bad because the track itself sounds very interesting. Track 8 is one of the best. It's a very good album, though I agree that in some tracks, sequences are too repetitive. I agree with a comment above regarding samples, Xenomorph has always been a master at this, the samples are always well chosen and positioned a the right moments. Regarding the mention of Filteria, I am glad Xenomorph is just a better artist in my opinion, he makes tracks that sound more coherent and harmonic, with vision.

Sounds very nice hope we find out. Sound feels familiar

It was just my first impression. I haven't even listened to the full album yet but the sound of it threw me off. I'll give it a few more listens 🙂

vinyl experts, anyone know it? ->

OUT NOW! Available in both physical and digital formats on our Bandcamp page 😊

Looks epic!