Covenant – In Times Before the Light - Day 3 of 10 Albums that Changed My Life

Covenant – In Times Before the Light

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Year: 1995 (released in 1997)

Year I discovered it: 2003/2004

            “Forever winter, forever night.”

To begin, I’d like to post an excerpt from the Ukhtagirk; a recreation of Armenia’s ancient legends passed down by bards of Goghtn, which were obscured when Christianity took hold in the country, compiled by Slak Kakosyan, translated to English by Nvard Sureni, and edited by me for this blog. This legend, about the primordial dragon (called Vishap) that rules the night, taps into the same ancient dark energy that this album taps into.

THE HOLY LEGENDS OF ARARAT
Part III The Birth of Charyi

Vishap was alone in the Heavens and on the Earth. There was only darkness around and he was the only lord of this darkness. At first, he was pleased, because he was the absolute ruler of this kingdom of darkness. But over time, he became upset. Yes, he was the absolute ruler, but who did he rule? Who worshiped him? Who made sacrifices to him? Vishap often came down to the Earth and watched the land of Ararat closely from a distance, where birds flew, animals ran, and trees and flowers bloomed. He envied other Deities who enjoyed nature and played with Aryi (the first man), while Vishap was alone. There was no one with whom he could play with, talk or patronize. That made Vishap angry with Aryi even more, because by his own existence Aryi made Deities happy, and this emphasized Vishap’s misfortune. If only Aryi did not exist. If only Vishap also had someone like him.
             And so, Vishap addressed Ar the Creator, “Oh, my Father, I am alone, and my life is sadly flowing. There is life in Ararat, and there is Aryi who pleases the Gods. Give me someone similar to Aryi so I can patronize him as well. After all, even the lord of darkness has the need of joy.”

And Ar replied, “I will make your wish come true: spread your fetid breath around, and the desert will come to life. Then temper the steppe clay the with water from the river Iordokh and shape it into an Aryi-like form and breathe upon it, and it will come to life. But you must know that this creation, created from the dirt, will only look like Aryi. It will not be a deity, because it was not created by the Creator. It will be a Titan. And his name will be Charyi.”

Vishap came back to the Earth pleased. He spread his fetid breath around, and thorny bushes and grasses grew on the steppe sands, and many scorpions, snakes and lizards came to life and vivified the desert steppe. Then Vishap tempered the steppe clay with water from the Iordokh River and shaped the form of the Titan Charyi, breathed upon it, and it came to life.
            Vishap was satisfied because his kingdom of darkness had sprung with life and had its own man. Vishap loved the Titan, cared for him and tirelessly instructed him, “You will grow up, mature, you will have offspring and you will extend my dominion over the whole world, and relying on my mighty power, you will destroy the Kin of Aryi in Ararat, and you will cover Ararat with darkness, and make me a master of Ararat too.”

And Charyi cherished ill-will and hatred for Aryi from Ararat. He always dreamed of conquering Ararat and making it dependent on Vishap.

            In Times Before the Light hearkens back to a time when the world was ruled by darkness, before all of the sunlight, rainbows and fluffy bunnies ruined everything. Listening to the opening track, “Towards the Crown of Nights” you get the sense that this is the soundtrack to a dark uprising. A conquest. With lines like “Feeble humans, behold me in my victory!” I mean just read the lyrics to some of these songs. The lyrics themselves say more than I ever could about this album. Each song is full of dark poetry. I don’t know how the band, who were only 17 years old when they wrote this album, managed to produce something so perfect. How did they manage to tap into something so ancient, dark and primordial? Here, read the lyrics for yourself:

http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/covenant/intimesbeforethelight.html

            The first two songs will make you feel like you’re riding on the back of a dragon through a torrential thunderstorm, swooping down and attacking armies of rebelling humans, conquering the land. The third song, “The Dark Conquest”, is where we land, sit back and relish at the destruction we have wrought and the lands we have conquered, basking in the darkness (“Worlds have I destroyed, stars have I born. Dark my kingdom is, desolate.”). Just like Vishap conquering the lands of Ararat. The energy picks up again with “From the Storm of Shadows” carrying into the next track. Another thing that could be said for this album is that the tracks are arranged perfectly. Each song flows into the next. You get high energy tracks, and then you get a breather with some slower tracks.

            With all this said, I’m not sure why the band, after being forced to change their name to The Kovenant due to a lawsuit from a band that was called Covenant first, remade the album in 2002. The remake does have its merits (I like the whole creepy circus vibe that version of “From the Storm of Shadows” has), and it’s actually the version I heard first. I had to work to find the original version back in 2004, which at the time was pretty rare, through a couple fierce eBay bidding wars. But it truly is The Kovenant covering Covenant. They took it from being symphonic black metal to industrial metal, added synths to the songs, and something was lost in the transition. Something happened when the band changed their name. Instead of channeling their music from some dark ancient cosmic entity, it seemed like they were finally making music that came from themselves. I still like all their albums, but their last two studio albums are like an entirely different band made them. One unforgivable change in the remake album is the removal of those epic trumpets from the title track “In Times Before the Light” that kick in at the climax. The song seems toothless without them.

As far as “life changing” albums go, I could just as easily nominate their third album Animatronic, the album that introduced me to European metal when I was 16, without which I wouldn't have eventually heard this album. I could also nominate their second album Nexus Polaris, which is arguably an improvement on this album in some ways. But it was the lyrical content, filled with images of dragons and conquerors and eternal night, and just the raw dark energy of their debut album In Times Before the Light that encapsulated my adolescent rage and delusions of grandeur, and eventually ended up providing major inspiration for the fantasy novel I'm about to finish up writing. Let's call it a tie I suppose between those three albums. This one is just my overall favorite in the long run. It's unfortunate that The Kovenant seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth since 2003, although with the weird electronic spacey direction they took their final album SETI in, maybe it was for the best, sadly. Regardless, I’m still waiting for their next album Aria Galactica. I’ve been waiting close to 17 years for it now. So, more than half my life.  I wonder if it will be worth the wait, if it ever does get released.