 Originial & Alternative Cover [1994] Dreams Of A Cryotank✹Edge Of Dawn ✹Voices ✹ShipwreckA cool debut album for sure. The first 3 tracks are good. The weak ones are "Hardware Requiem", "Shelter" (this one's the worst), "Wasteland" and "Cryotank Expansion". That last one is just a 25 ambient piece. Maybe not too bad if you like that kind of atmospheric stuff, but I've never been in the mood for this track. "Void" and "Speed" are alright but are beaten by the first 3 and strongest tracks on here: "Voices" and the undisputed classic "Edge Of Dawn" - this one in particular is one of their all-time best. Various versions of the album exist, the differences are that "Void" is replaced with "Painamplifier" (which is a mediocre demo, "Void" is better) and a club mix of "Theremin" (it's alright, makes most of the song better but significantly weakens the chorus for some reason) is put at the end. |
[1996] Sequencer
Normal & "Beta" Editions. Basic version also exists with a slightly altered coloration. A boring version of Cryotank Expansion.. To me atleast. I don't like the production on here. Eskil's vocals here are drawn out by the music and are also slightly distorted, which sucks because the later albums will prove him being a great vocalist. As for the songs: not fun. They sound weak and all the synths and instruments seems to get mixed together into one noise. "Slowmotion" is the best song on here. Definitely check it out. As for everything else: "Stalker", "Figurehead" and "Phoenix" are alright. Everything else is quite dull. "Tabula Rasa" for example sucks from the weird pacing of the vocals. "The Storm" is the worst and cannot be salvaged. The track "Luminal" only appears on the "Beta" edition of the album. It's dull though so don't worry. Also, The US version of the album included the entirety of the Stalker Single with it. |
[1996][SINGLE] Stalker
So as I said, this was incorporated into the US release of Sequencer. There's 2 new versions of "Stalker" - a Club Version and an "All Shapes RMX". The club one is really good, better than the original and that other remix. The other 2 tracks are "Liquid (Sky)" and "Babel". The former is quite decent actually, reminds me of some of Aphex Twin's tracks, I prefer it to many of Sequencer's weaker tracks. The latter I don't care much for. |
[1997][EP] Theremin
Features 4 tracks (Optocoded "Voices" and Optodecoded "Speed", plus a club version of the latter and a plain version of "Figurehead") that were earlier released as the 1995 Figurehead Single, therefore it will not appear separately on this page. I will argue that 3 of the 4 tracks it features are the only interesting ones here. "Figurehead (Plain)" is quite nice, I like it much more than the original. It's half the length and slightly different in sound. "Voices (Optocoded)" is the best track on here, it's a cool, lighter electronic version of the song and I will definitely listen to it alot. "Speed (Club Mix)" is interesting and more powerful than the original. The other, so called optodecoded version does the opposite and slows the song down, plus weakens it. Another new track is "Theremin (US Remix)". Nothing to write home about with this one. Apart from that, it has "Void" and The Club mix of "Theremin, both from the first album. |
[1998] Europa ★ 90s era Covenant reach their peak here. This is the point at which they begin to depart from EBM into Futurepop. After 2 albums, one strong and one not so much, the guys perfect their sound. There are fast, slow and midpaced songs here, and they're all good (except, "Wall Of Sound" - it's rather weak). When that is the case, I link 3 of my favorites and recommmend to listen to the rest if you enjoy them. About the weakest track: "Wall Of Sound" lacks the energy and power of all other tracks, and is also the longest for some reason. But it's the last track, so it doesn't matter much. |
[2000] United States Of Mind ★
 USOM + Travelogue 2000s Era Covenant could also be referred as Futurepop era Covenant. The roughness and distortion you'd hear on the previous albums is gone, and their music becomes very soft and sentimental, which for some reason happens to be more to my liking. This and next albums are top tier and deserve your time, both feature some of their all-time best tracks. But before we get to that one: "Dead Stars". This song is their absolute best, I promise you will love it even if you hated their other songs. This song alone beats Sequencer into submission. Also I'll note the interesting samples: "Dead Stars" samples the spoken intro of Kraftwerk's "Showroom Dummies" and "Afterhours" is based on Primal Scream's "Come Together". Oh yeah, I forgot, the last track, which is called "You Can Make Your Own Music" is just 4 and a half minutes of nothing, so you can get rid of it. Oh yeah, it also comes with the Single called Travelogue. It features a forgettable trancey track called "Fuzzy Logic", a slightly different version of "Humility" and 5 and a half minutes of earrape. |
[2002] Northern Light ★ Top Tier, as stated earlier! The third in a row excellent release. In fact, the songs on it are so excellent that I'm not sure which to link as the best. I'll describe my favorites: I love the pacing and lyrics of "Monochrome", it's great to hum along to. "Call The Ships To Port" and "Rising Sun" create a cold atmosphere, just like on the cover. "Bullet" is Covenant's most popular song, it even had a video made for it, with Eskil as a cyborg and Joakim as a scientist. "Silent & Invisible", "Prometheus" and "Atlas" are led by Eskil's vocals primarily, with music not interfering with his great singing. And at last, "Scared", not the strongest on the album and without any cool lyrics for Eskil to show off his voice, but still good. There's 3 more tracks on the album, but I consider them to be weaker. To put it in perspective though, they are still far more interesting than anything on Sequencer. |
Basic & Limited Editions [2006] Skyshaper✹Pulse ✹Brave New WorldRather disappointing.. Looks like they begun to lose their steam. The songs here are quite repetitive, which doesn't do well when combined with the lengths of 5 to 7 minutes. I wouldn't call it "non-essential", but well, don't expect much, because here Covenant is testing how well they can do with an album full of simpler, repetitive songs, akin to "We Stand Alone" from the last album. The strong? "Pulse" is a good mix of fun and sentimental, "Brave New World" and "The Men" are just sentimental. The mediocre? "Ritual Noise" doesn't inspire any feeling, "20hz" is just OK (I do listen to this one once in a while) and "The World Is Growing Loud" is a decent closing track but nothing to write home about. And worst: "Happy Man" Eskil is lazily chatting along to a lazy beat for 3 minutes, the short length makes it more listenable than the other bad songs on here; "Sweet & Salty" Eskil talks nonsense instead of singing, to a repetitive beat, for 6 minutes; "Greater Than the Sun" same as the other one, but with more effort from Eskil; "Spindrift" is just long and boring. Limited Edition comes with 3 bonus tracks. A remix of "Ritual Noise", a 42 minute long track that's got nothing but the same repeating loop with nearly zero change, and finally, a more or less decent "Relief", that is definitely the only redeemable track here. Still though, it's rather weak. To Be Continued... |
 [2011] Modern Ruin |
 [2013] Leaving Babylon |
 [2016] The Blinding Dark |