"We find our songs in fashion magazines,
We read the story in the morning paper,
I touch their hearts, and they touch my skin,
I'm on your screen and you are just so wide."
We read the story in the morning paper,
I touch their hearts, and they touch my skin,
I'm on your screen and you are just so wide."
— Covenant, "Dead Stars"
Covenant is a Swedish Futurepop / EBM group with three members, albeit not always the same ones. The original line-up consisted of Eskil Simonsson, Joakim Montelius, and Clas Nachmanson. Nachmanson has since left the band, and has been replaced by Daniel Myer, of Haujobb / Destroid / Architect Reknown, among many others.
Not related to Norwegian metal band The Kovenant.
Discography:
- Dreams of a Cryotank (1994)
- Sequencer (1996)
- Europa (1998)
- United States of Mind (2000)
- Northern Light (2002)
- Skyshaper (2006)
- Modern Ruin (2011)
- Leaving Babylon (2013)
- The Blinding Dark (2016)
- Psychonaut EP (2016)
This band provides examples of:
- Drone of Dread:
- "Cryotank Expansion," from Dreams of a Cryotank, a rather Silent Hill-esque song.
- "I Walk Slow" has a noise drone section, reminiscent of Sunn O))).
- "Modern Ruin Part II," a Hidden Track on Modern Ruin. They repeated the trick with "Leaving Babylon II" off of Leaving Babylon.
- The majority of the Psychonaut EP.
- Epic Rocking: "Subterfugue for 3 Absynths" is a 42 minute song, consisting of polyrhythmic noise loops. The aforementioned "Cryotank Expansion" is 26 minutes. "Flux" from Sequencer, in addition to being a total of nearly 12 minutes long, ends with three minutes of the atonal background sounds, heard throughout the song proper. Taken up to eleven with the 75 minute "Jag är Fullstandigt Tung," from the Limited Edition of Leaving Babylon, and their Psychonaut EP which featured the 49-minute "Death of Identity".
- Loudness War: Northern Light and Modern Ruin are their worst offenders. Skyshaper is somewhat less loud than those two, and Leaving Babylon averts it further.
- New Sound Album:
- Their first venture into genuine Futurepop was 1998's Europa. Consequently, the previous two albums now suffer from Early-Installment Weirdness.
- The Blinding Dark incorporates a lot of field recordings and live percussion, and is generally subdued and darker than anything they have put out. The accompanying Psychonaut EP is a series of compositions and jams made entirely direct-to-tape without a computer, and encompasses 70s and 80s ideas about electronic music alongside dark ambient music.
- Rearrange the Song: "Summon Your Spirit" consists of only the drum track of "A Rider on a White Horse".
- Updated Re-release:
- Dreams of a Cryotank had "Void" replaced with "Painkiller" for its US release.
- Sequencer was released as Sequencer:Beta with the addition of a bonus track. A second re-issue added the full "Stalker" single as bonus tracks.
- Vocal Dissonance: it's strange to realize that lead vocalist Eskil Simonsson has such a deep voice.
"Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow, we'll be gone"
And tomorrow, we'll be gone"
— Covenant, Call the Ships to Port
