Album: Grown Below - The Long Now

Band: Grown Below
Album: The Long Now
Label: Slow Burn Records
Year: 2011

Tracklist
01. Trojan Horses
02. Devoid Of Age
03. The Abyss
04. Minaco II – Nebula
05. End Of All Time
06. The Long Now
07. Malklara
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Grown Below arose from the ashes of Timer in early 2011, continuing the path to the full album The Long Now with the same sound, but more evolved. With the rising of this fresh band the decision fell that from then on Matthijs (who previously was the singer of Timer) also took on the guitar and helped the band sound more like it should.

Grown Below may be influenced by the usual suspects (Cult of Luna, Isis, Tool etc.) but they certainly go beyond being mere epigones. Mixing ambient and atmospheric pieces with beastly heavy monolithic blows to the head, their music results in a promising and unique sound that can only be grasped as dark and utterly bleak.

The band signed with Slow Burn Records in June 2011, after finishing their debut album, that was due to be released in September that year.

At the same time the band had already begun creating new songs and ideas for the quick follow-up of their full-album 'The Long Now'.

Grown Below's The Long Now is an alternate version of the end of the world sagas. For centuries people believed the world would come to an end someday. One of the most recurring dates is the 21st of December two thousand and twelve. Grown Below interpreted this idea as the end of time, not the end of the world. They reconstructed a fictional journey into the last days on earth. In an early state, the album describes the awakening of menacing creatures (who are 'devoid of age') who had roamed on earth many centuries before mankind and are now stuck at the other side of time. At some point on the album, time stands still, resulting in the ability for these creatures to cross over the boundaries of time and crawl into our world. They feed on every living soul and while they bring chaos and panic, the absence of time creates an enormous rip in the middle of the earth, called 'The Abyss'. The protagonist decides to jump into this abyss, rather than being torn apart by these entities. He keeps falling downwards in dark matter called 'Nebula'. By jumping in this void, he locks himself up in his own non-temporal environment and brings all time to an end, including past and future. What remains is nothing, no time, no life, no creatures. He is in an eternal state of nothingness, called 'The Long Now'.