Hell – III LP
Been kicking this, the 3rd full-length descent into the sludge side of doom from Oregon’s one man vision of “Hell” around for a good month now and I’m still not sure how to approach it. Total submersion I suppose is the preferred method, but I’ve found over the years I lack the patience to sit with such crawling doom as this, unless I’m in the mood for it. To achieve this mood, I need time… something that evades me these days, yet I keep coming back to sample snippets of III and can appreciate the dedication and vision that has gone into both the nearly 20 minute tracks that comprise this album. So off we go…. going to finally digest the entire album…
“Decedere” begins our journey with a bleak sounding and a solitary clean guitar line sluggishly pulling the veil of dread over our eyes as we drift down below the Earth’s crust to embrace our eternal fate. When the distortion aids in our descent, the tone it provides contorts with billowing smoke and a filthy grit on the power chords, while the notes pierce with a reckless rattle, soaked in feedback. The balance between mournful serenity and unspeakable hopelessness for me is the real uniqueness and achievement of III. Even though there is a lo-fi swirl to this production, I’m really drawn to the “live” spirit of this release and material. If you are looking for riffs or hooks to save you from the audial pollution, this isn’t that kind of album. Decedere gradually builds to a ruptured climax before fading back again into the dismal emotion found in that singular guitar line.
“Mourn” begins in a very similar manner, hopeless and fragile, cloaked in an awkward beauty, but this track builds slightly quicker. The guitar melody is introduced to interact with the lurching foundation and the 2 uniting sounds resonate slightly out of tune, which somehow adds to the unsettling nature of Hell. This project is the work of sole musician M.S.W., who has arrived at a powerful and demented sound. I don’t know how he pulls off the recordings for such long and largely barren songs, but the formula is working. The sparse use of caustic screams injects a potent black energy, but are secondary to the nightmare portrayed in the music itself.
“Hell” is the perfect moniker for music such as this, for you can feel the regret and misery burning within every note and anguished feedback that soars above the landscape as if on tattered demon wings. III certainly isn’t something I’m going to listen to often, but when the lights are low and my spirit broken, this album is the soundtrack to all my failures. -Marty
Pesanta Urfolk
Worm Gear 