UMUR
"Bardo Exist" is the sixth full-length studio album by Finnish black/dark ambient music act Beherit. The album was released through Kvlt in November 2020. It´s the successor to "At the Devil's Studio 1990" from 2011, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the May 2012 "Celebrate the Dead" EP. As "At the Devil's Studio 1990" is infact a re-release of Beherit´s until then unreleased debut album from 1990, the last preceding album release featuring original material was actually "Engram" from April 2009. Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance (here working under the NHV Beherit pseudonym) is now alone again and therefore Beherit is a one-man project on "Bardo Exist". The full band constellation didn´t last long.
Stylistically "Bardo Exist" is also quite different from the black metal Beherit played on "Engram" and instead NHV Beherit have returned to the dark ambient music style they played from 1994-1996 on the "H418ov21.C" (1994) and the "Electric Doom Synthesis" (1996) albums. It´s especially the darkness and eerie nature of the latter which come to mind here, but "Bardo Exist" is if possible an even darker, more ambient/droning, and inaccessible release than "Electric Doom Synthesis" is (no distorted guitars or accessible rhythms on this one). It´s like listening to a soundtrack to a grim and cold sci-fi movie. No light or hope in sight. just the vast darkness and coldness of space passing by. Very little happens during the tracks which are slow, atmospheric, and keyboard heavy, although a few tracks introduce a little more drama like the explosions and pulsating rhythm on "Acid Death Vision".
The first edition of the album features the 22:58 minutes long title track, while the regular versions of the album features eleven tracks and a total playing time of 37:00 minutes.
"Bardo Exist" features a detailed and well sounding production, which provides the material with the perfect platform to shine. While I often find the material uneventful, slow, and dragging out too long, I still think "Bardo Exist" was the most succeesful dark ambient music release by Beherit up until then. It´s obvious NHV Beherit had time to consider what a new release in this style should sound like, and it´s a pretty strong release in the genre. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.