Ewigkeit
Land of Fog 20/20 ReVision

Mr Fogarty seems to be busy redoing his old Ewigkeit release nowadays, in 2017 the debut was rerecorded and in 2019 it was the second album Starscape which we reviewed here at Hallowed. Now it is Land of Fog that was released in 2003, this is not rerecorded but remade from the original recordings and unlike the others it is not released 20 years after the original release – I don’t like that. It would be more logical and relevant to release the reissue in commemoration of 20 years since the original release than just a release 17 years later. Things like this always bothers me, I don’t understand why it wasn’t possible to wait to 2023 but I also have to ask if all albums really need to be reissued, why not just the really important ones?

This is a rather wide step away from the predecessor, this is more psychedelic, melodic, with some clean vocals and more like an inner journey than a travel in space. The sound is more accessible as well, and better. There is a decent variation, some excellent keys that flows through and create some exciting atmosphere. There is a timeless quality to the songs and structures, but the sound isn’t timeless, it sounds a little bit dated. The cover is pretty cool though and marks this musical sidestep really well, it is also more varied than the predecessor and creatively more interesting in the vein of stuff like Hawkwind, Opeth or Anathema if you want a few to compare with.

Land of Fog is good, it is quite creative and has some very good atmospheres. It could certainly be worth looking at with fresh ideas and a timeless quality to the songs. Unfortunately, the production isn’t up to the same quality as the songs and ideas, the album feels a little bit dated. Perhaps they should have taken a few more years to make the sound as timeless as the songs. Still, it is an album worth listening to, a fresh step away from the predecessor and you have to applaud both the creativity and daring to make whatever music he feels like.

A foggy and pretty exciting release, you cannot really go wrong with a nice album like this one. It is a solid release that may not set the world alight and I am not quite sure it really needed to be reissued, but it is still a good one and there you can certainly make choices that are far worse than this one and it is great to hear that Ewigkeit avoid most of the traps one-man bands tend to fall into, especially those that come from a black metal background. The conclusion is that it is a solid effort with good songs.

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