Alpha-Omega. The beginning and the end. It’s difficult to make out whether the album, a brainchild of Polish musician Pawel Kosmala released under the moniker Agyzerax, follows a narrative. It does have a structure, though, uninviting as it may seem.

The music is ambient as it gets, specifically the more chilling kind that brings you in the mood for dim lights and horror movies. Thankfully, A-O is more than a concoction of synth throbs and echoes. There’s no shortage of creative energy as evident in the use of clever layering, expert sample manipulation, and experimentation with ordinary musical instruments like the guitar.

All of this is turned servant to the album’s unsettling, isolated mood. Not that A-O is misanthropic enough to scare your pants off at every moment of its runtime, but it is not easy listening at all. And at 13 tracks long, there’s plenty of material to dig your nails into if you are into that sort of ear-scorching musical expression.

For a dark ambient album, it’s hard to find fault with Alpha-Omega. May Agyzerax’s wicked use of noise as a sonic weapon continue unbridled…