I can appreciate the talent and open minded creativity of bands such as the widely revered Mr. Bungle and I have experienced several of their releases enough to respect what’s going on and even shed the occasional chuckle, but in all honesty, lighthearted, quirky, even comical music doesn’t sit well with me. In fact, I find it quite annoying. Montreal, Canada’s mathematical lullaby visionaries, Unexpect, have been doing their homework and living vicariously through their Bungle CDs. If you could combine the perplexing action in the structures and mind blowing instrumentation of Mr. Bungle, the dreamy theatrics of popular Euro goth metal and to a certain extent, “Prometheus” era of Emperor, you would have the hack-up and disjointed conglomeration that is Unexpect’s debut full-length, “In A Flesh Aquarium”. I am awestruck at the talent on display here and the open-minded diversity. 5 different vocal styles creep out of the woodwork and attack the listener in nightmare like layers, from gibberish, female pitch singing, black influenced screams, choral layering and just plain random recitals of poetry… the mound of vocal layers helps to keep the listener distracted and off center so the equally perplexing sonics can pick away at what remains of your sanity. Yeah… very much creative, other than suckling at the teets of Patton and company, but “In A Flesh Aquarium” is structured to come off more as a colorful, abstract art piece, rather than something a person would really like to sit back and kill some time being absorbed by something musically memorable. The bass, guitar and drum work is all wound together in a seamless tightness, allowing piano interludes and other such classical instruments to make a brief appearance and continue to stir this heaving pot of acidic sonic stew. I’ll admit that Unexpect is far too “highbrow” and pretentious for me, but I have spun this album enough to get the full experience and realize that all the talent in the world really doesn’t compel me to willingly sit through amusing, lullaby reminiscent math metal. There is definitely a fan base for this kind of thing, but really…. Count me out. – Marty
THE END RECORDS
Unexpect – In A Flesh Aquarium
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentThyrfing – Farsotstider
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
I think the last time I heard this band was with the “Urkraft” album. To be completely honest, I really never cared for Thyrfing and this album, as much as I’ve listened to it, is no different. All these “viking metal” bands never did anything for me outside of Hades (Nor), Enslaved’s “Vikingligr Veldi” and, of course, anything Quorthon touched. I respect the sentiment and purpose behind paying tribute to a greater past or history, but it never makes music better. “Farsotstider” really strikes me as an album I would have liked had it been one of the first metal albums I bought. It has the characteristics of an epic, bombastic record. A clean production, heavy groove-orientated riffs, keyboards that roll out of the speakers as though you were listening to the soundtrack to a famous battle scene, bombastic drums, convincing vocals, etc, etc… This just seems too played out for my tastes today. One way I could redeem this album would be that a kid picks this up, loves it, and discovers “Hammerheart” a year later. Thyrfing really striving for originality? Are they paying tribute to the bands they grew up with and just giving it a modern …edge’? Eleven years is a long history for a band. The intention is more than likely sincere. The material isn’t poorly written and they aren’t bad musicians. I’m at a loss for words. Perhaps this is just beyond my tastes. – TRA
CANDLELIGHT
Terror Throne – Death is the Cleanser
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This was a high honor to receive in the mail as I was an enormous fan of Terror Throne’s “Sick Obsession to Pain”. Robert Campos is someone I see as a true visionary as well as someone any real underground artist can empathize with. While everyone by now is probably unimpressed by the one-man-band idea, be completely assured that this isn’t a lo-fi, one-dimensional, poorly played album. “Death is the Cleanser” is complex, refined and rehearsed. The dual-guitar licks are ever-present and always changing in an indefinably controlled chaos. Carefully harmonized to evoke an array of pain, desolation, fury, and beauty wherever needed in these versatile hymns. Take Miscreant’s “Dreaming Ice”, Dawn’s (Swe) first offering, or Dark Tranquillity’s second EP and imagine those melodies much more abrasive and death metal orientated. The result is a work that is both varied and precise, intriguing and mystifying. The drums follow in the mix very low but this seems much more of a conscious and artistic decision given the obvious emphasis on guitar interplay. One thing I notice about this album is that it lacks some of the moments found on “Sick…” where slower almost Ophthalamianesque simplicity dominated in smaller sections. However, I see little need to repeat any charm from previous efforts if they were initially executed perfectly. Another notable mention is how attacking the vocals are this time around. With a stellar piece of music laid out we hear Campos venomously dictating his world upon us. Rising beneath this tasteful sickness encompasses the rasping breath of putrescence. Albums like this aren’t released nearly enough. I believe that anyone who heard “Sick Obsession to Pain” and took it in as the high art it is will find “Death is the Cleanser” a most mandatory purchase. Completely fucking essential in my books. – TRA
SEMPITERNAL PRODUCTIONS
Sunn O)) – Black One
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
The album cover to this record says everything: colorless. The tones that made “Flight of the Behemoth” and “White One” unique are completely buried in a flat, sterile, and uninventive marriage of fabricated nihilism and tired invention of sound. “Black One” could be seen in light as an imaginative experiment to combine drone and black metal but it smells entirely of gimmick boasting the credits of Wrest and Malefic to its roster. Their vocals seem as out of place on “Black One” as Rob Darken in a synagogue. Outside of the context, the vocals come across as insincere, poorly executed, and worst of all: ordinary (no matter how many cadillac hearses you use (give me a fucking break…)). Actual song structures or convincing material takes a backseat to fraudulent macabre themes which give the focused and attentive ear nothing to grasp besides a headache. Continuing to dissect this effort is about as interesting as digging in owl shit to see how many mice it ate. I would recommend true torture to your senses by other means. Perhaps Abruptum, Solicide, Ashdautas, salt in an open wound, or anything you might deem authentic. – TRA
SOUTHERN LORD
Semargl – Satanogenesis
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
“Misanthropic black metal from Ukraine that transgresses morality and aims to destroy this rotten christian world! – (exclamation point mine). I love promo sheets. They’re so quotably hilarious. Or maybe I’m just jealous because they get paid to write that garbage and I don’t. I’m not familiar with Semargl’s previous material, but “Satanogenesis” smacks of more mainstream black metal i.e Dimmu Borgir. The production is crystal clear, there are keyboard breaks and melodic guitar work, and there are attempts at atmospheric industrial sounds (hear “Protonic Zone of Hell”). Speaking of industrial elements, why is it so en vogue to incorporate random electro interludes and breaks all of a sudden? It’s pretentious, annoying, and badly done. Being a metal musician does not mean you know anything about industrial. So stop it. It’s occasionally effective, but usually it’s just contrived and irritating. Moving on, “Satanogenesis” is so accessible that it’s hard to say anything particularly bad about it. If you’re looking for something innovative and fresh, skip Semargl. If you like sitting around drinking beer and headbanging with friends, you may want to give this a try. – Christine Lett
DEATHGASM RECORDS
Scid – Fucked Beyond Recognition
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
The first thing that I noticed about the album was the playful song titles. While most were fairly straight forward, my personal favorite was “Staring Inside the Womb”. That title was my favorite because it reminded me of “Tearing Inside the Womb” by Dying Fetus, which I think is a great song. I appreciate Scid’s little twist on the title much in the same way as I appreciated Dying Fetus little twist on Napalm Death’s “Scum”. Getting on with the review, this young German band features members of the established German death metal band Embedded. However, Scid prefer to play grinding death as opposed to the more Swedish based death preferred by Embedded. There is a lot more melody found on “Fucked Beyond Recognition” than you’ll find on most death grind albums though. This is a definite plus in my opinion as it makes the songs more discernable from one another as well as making them more memorable. This disc compiles two of the bands ep’s, but I believe one of them is new and makes its debut on this release. I did not shit my pants over “Fucked Beyond Recognition”, but it was a pretty solid offering of heavy death grind that I can see myself spinning again from time to time when I have already had my fill of the classics for a while. – Lance Rogers
UNMATCHED BRUTALITY
Ruhr Hunter – Moss and Memory
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
“Moss and Memory” requires an attentive ear that can also fall back on the imagination to put fragmented pieces of images, emotions, and sound together into a cohesive and personal journey. A song like “Moss and Memory” is effective in that it creates such rich strokes with a simple brush. The track opens with sounds like the tips of fingers manipulating wine glasses just as much as cymbal scraping – both crystalline and metallic. This alone showcases the artist’s ability to manipulate sound with an idea striking us as otherworldly. Emerging from these sounds comes a hypnotic and trance-inducing hammered dulcimer melody. The strings of the hammered dulcimer seem to carry a great weight as though moss itself graced them or some sylvan burden preventing them from carrying on as they should. A delay, an echo, an extremely natural reverb? Who can say but the creator? These sounds hit our ears with qualities so familiar to us that we have little desire to be skeptical of their own nature. Instead we become immersed in the world laid out before us as these sounds rise and fall in our subconscious and eventually create a home for themselves in the chakras of the Earth. An underlying theme of the natural world shrouds this release. To my mind, it is specifically the power behind natural forces. “Denned Earth/Decay & Rebirth” displays this energy with horn and chant amidst a damp, moss-covered soil. This energy seems to be harnessed in cyclic themes (both in music and imagery) as something that is continual in nature and in spirit. Because of this, the power behind these sounds as they come and go throughout the album strike the listener with an immediate association to memory or what we have attributed to the soundscape as a whole. Not since an album like “The River of Appearance” by Vidna Obmana have I encountered such an effective journey to the furthest reaches of another’s spiritual landscape. This is a rewarding album to take in for all that it is. – TRA
GLASS THROAT RECORDINGS
RU-486 – Pretty In Piss
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Have I mentioned how much I love 3″ cds? Because I do. I’m also a sucker for packaging and the fact that this came wrapped in knee-high stockings was admittedly memorable. And hey, there were even two so maybe I can actually use them someday. But I kind of doubt that was the intention. Moving along, RU-486 is an atypical release for Autopsy Kitchen records, who usually specialize in black metal releases, most notably the stateside release of Silencer’s Death Pierce Me album. I appreciate labels branching out, and I certainly support the proliferation of new, interesting noise, but I’m not sure RU-486 is the best example. According to the AKR website, “RU-486 is a noise/ambient project in the strictest sense following the downward spiral of past projects such as Raison D’Etre, Smell & Quim, Taint and Grunt.” Aside from Smell & Quim with whom I’m unfamiliar, none of those comparisons ring true. The potent atmosphere present in Raison D’Etre’s work is absent. The wall of convulsive noise that’s a trademark of both Taint and Grunt appears nowhere on this release. I also wouldn’t say that this is a ‘noise/ambient project in the strictest sense’ – it certainly is not. I’ve listened to this release four times now and I still can’t figure out exactly what Professor M. (the ‘noize’ maker) is trying to accomplish. Going by track titles like ‘Teen Freak’, ‘Playground Full of Bones’, and ‘Tiny Blue Dress’, I was expecting something along the lines of Nicole 12’s Lolita Love or Playground, but that idea was way off. I was also expecting the album to be pieces of a cohesive whole, but it wasn’t that either. The tracks are mostly rhythmic, but not in a powernoise way (thankfully). Rather, it reminds me of Nurse With Wound’s Thunder Perfect Mind, but only in structure. The tracks don’t seem to be connected and they don’t go anywhere. So now that I’ve established what this release isn’t, it’s about time to talk about what it is. Herein lies my problem. There isn’t a whole lot to this release; it’s both short on time (which isn’t at all a bad thing) and concept. Or perhaps there is a concept behind it that isn’t being effectively conveyed. As it is, Pretty in Piss comes off as a random compilation of short, similar, mostly forgettable tracks. Parts of it are great – for example, ‘Music Box Stained with Blood’ plays effectively with time signatures and rhythms. Also, the album photo makes me uncomfortable which is always a plus. However, you know it’s a bad sign when you’re more interested in the packaging than the product. As a whole, I can’t endorse this release. However, I’d be interested to see what this ‘Professor M’ does with RU-486 in the future. – Christine Lett
AUTOPSY KITCHEN RECORDS
Release Helen Rytha – Immigrant
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentHere is another amazing Richard Ramirez side project off of Pain Compliance. This beautiful lucid, sunken, and very gentle composition of ominous and stark drift layered with a sense of lost hope and tragedy charms on the first listen. “Immigrant’s” first of two tracks is “The Down Of Your Choices”. Its less is more approach prowls through a bass synthesizer drone that leaves a dreadful loneliness as the track slowly fades in and out only to end in a haunting silence. There’s not much to the said track, but a wonderful impulsion to relax to. The second track is “The Last Time I saw Her…” Here you’ll find what oddly enough sounds like running water. Along with metallic echoing and bass driven feedback The “Last Time I Saw Her…” has a calmness that over whelms and indulges in its noise inclinations with an appeasing style. Very hollow and distantly different from “The Down Of Your Choices”, there is one similarity and that is the sense of despair. Immigrant is the second tape format release that Pain Compliance has unleashed on to this perverse world we live in. Release Helen Rytha defines the standards and quality that Pain Compliance is known for just like Priest In Shit, Deathpile, and Steel Hook Prostheses. Highly recommended, and being that this is a limited edition of 50, it makes this release very hard to come by. But if found will be enjoyed wholly. – K
PAIN COMPLIANCE
Prostitute Disfigurement – Embalmed Madness
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This is a re-release of an album that originally came out in 2001 on Dismemberment records. This new version features five-demo tracks also recorded in 2001 as a bonus. Prostitute Disfigurement are a Dutch band that play death-grind in the vein of US acts such as Cannibal Corpse, Deeds Of Flesh or Mortician. The guitars are played well and there are some good riffs present here and I even picked out a nice little solo toward the end the track “Disemboweled”. The drums are all programmed, so I don’t have much to say about them apart from the fact that they are programmed. There are three different vocal styles used though the toilet bowl vocals are the overwhelmingly predominant style. The next most utilized style are the higher pitched rasps, but the best style would have to be the underused mid-ranged growls featured at the start of the song “On Her Guts I Cum”. Their sound would be more interesting with a better, more balanced mix of the vocal styles. To state the obvious, most of the lyrics deal with violence, especially toward women and the sound samples chosen for the album and demo tracks serve to further drive that theme home. I enjoyed the material found on “Embalmed Madness” more than the more recent material that I have heard from Prostitute Disfigurement, but it is still something that I don’t ever care to hear again now that this review is complete. – Lance Rogers
UNMATCHED BRUTALITY
Priest in Shit – Touched By Decay
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentTouched By Decay is a beckon of true power and insight that opens boundless soundscapes of vitriolic feedback and impenetrable textures that could only be imagine if looking down into the monolithic black pits of damnation. Priest In Shit has all the brooding relentlessness that swiftly takes life and travels down a vehement enlace of metallic ululations and echoing despair. Drifting throughout the process of Touched By Decay, there are points of puncturing noise and scathing metal scraping. Deafening static induced power electronics and then without any notice shifting into a wind tunnel of drone, that ghoulishly waltzes from speaker to speaker and then delicately fades into silence. Underlining the dirty soundscapes is a beautifully placed space like drift. Richard Ramirez and company compile sharp jolts of noise in accompaniment with ambience that makes Touched By Decay severely dark. This marks the first release in tape format for Pain Compliance. And even though it’s only a two track album, from the infancy of Touched By Decay to the final breath it’s very much a priceless release. I for one have been one of the lucky individuals who acquired one of the 50 that where made. So if there’s any possible way of finding Priest In Shit – Touched By Decay waste no time in picking it up. It’s completely worth it.
– K
PAIN COMPLIANCE
Origami Replika – Kommerz: Merzbow in the Hands of Origami Replika
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
One-word review – unnecessary. I mean, it’s sweet that artists want to show their respect for their idols – it really is – I just don’t think it necessitates an official release. This is the kind of thing that new noiseheads do in their basement for a while before being struck by creativity. And for some, that creativity burst never happens and they release albums anyway, but that’s another rant. An album in which an artist (or, as the case is here, ‘artist collective’) takes bits and pieces of another artist’s material and combines them in new ways has a specific name – remix album. But don’t tell Origami Replika that, because apparently it’s ‘a solid chunk of the classic, living breathing Noise Object that some call religion’ (caps and punctuation are theirs). That’s not to say this release is bad – it’s not. But the world didn’t need it and it just makes me sad to think somebody spent a lot of time remastering this, then printing, promoting, and distributing it. If you want to listen to Merzbow, then buy some Merzbow. The guy’s released more than enough at this point. Taking apart and then reconstructing Merzbow just seems so redundant. – Christine Lett
SEGERHUVA
Ordo Tyrannis – Vasa Iniquitatis
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
I have wasted 52 minutes and 37 seconds! FAIL FAIL FAIL! No redeeming factors!’ These are some of the notes I took while listening to “Vasa Iniquitatis”. Suffice it to say that I hate this album. More than I’ve hated an album in a long time. However, because a review merely stating an opinion without describing anything about the project doesn’t benefit anybody, I’ll attempt to state why I think that nobody should ever assault their ears with this sorry release. Involved in this project are Baron Drakkonian Abaddon (Michael Ford) of Black Funeral and someone known as ‘Saint ov Gravediggers’. Ford handles the instrumentation (and ‘mutations’, according to the liner notes) while ‘Saint’ is responsible for vocals, lyrics and ‘incantations’. The sound is an inadequate version of stripped-down atmospheric black industrial. Done well, black industrial exudes a perpetual sense of foreboding. Ordo Tyrannis just sounds overwrought. Samples such as ‘I was born to murder the world!’ only add to the sense that these guys are trying too hard. To make things worse, the cd sounds as if it’s mastered wrong – the bass is nearly non-existent and the drums sound miles away. The vocals, which sound alternately like an uninspired version of Mr. Doctor of Devil Doll and Ogre of Skinny Puppy, are in the forefront of the mix. With lyrics like ‘What wound festers more than your mock’d existence?’, I’d urge them to rethink that decision. But then, I’d also urge them to rethink their decision to record at all. Because if this is an indication of future releases, I plead with them to take pity on reviewers like me who actually have to sit and listen to this tripe in its entirety. – Christine Lett
FLOOD THE EARTH
Opera IX – Anphisbena
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
I thought the departure of longtime front-woman Cadaveria would have doomed this band, but it looks like I was wrong. She had a very dark and powerful voice. The kind of voice that is not easily replaceable. New vocalist “M the Bard” has a more traditional black metal delivery than his predecessor, but still manages to do an adequate job when harsh vocals are called for. Where the newer material struggles vocally at times is when they attempt clean folkish singing. Neither M the Bard nor the female keyboardist Lunaris seem all that adept at delivering this style of vocals. If they plan to retain this element in their music in the future they might consider hiring some professionals to come into the studio to assist them. Actually, according to the booklet it seems that they have brought some people in to aide them, which would explain why not all of these elements sound amateurish. Another thing that kind of bothers me is that Opera IX are from Italy, yet the folkish moments found on “Anphisbena” sound very Celtic or English in origin, at least to these untrained metal ears. I guess what I am trying to say is that they seem haphazardly placed in the mix just for the sake of adding another dimension to their overall sound, and that really turns me off. Especially when there are bands out there like Skyforger who are so very genuine about it. Anyway, if you take the light airy guitar tone of Emperor or any other early nineties black metal band add the symphonic elements prevalent in mid-nineties black metal and then top it off with the triggered drum sound of many of today’s black metal bands, you will have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the new Opera IX. That is of course after you add in the Folkish elements mentioned earlier. One final note; “Anphisbena” closes with a nicely done cover of Bathory’s “One Rode to Asa Bay” that should please many of Quorthon’s Viking era fans as well as his old school black metal fans since Opera IX chose to sing this song in the style that Quorthon himself pioneered. – Lance Rogers
MAGICK
Of – Becoming Wave, Leaving Particle
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Cordell Klier is undoubtedly one of the most prolific musicians that I know of in the experimental scene, not quite reaching the magnitude of Muslimgauze, Merzbow, or Aube, but quite substantial by anyone’s definition. OF is one of Cordell Klier’s myriad projects from his DOCTSECT label; the “typical” sound of OF being audio weirdness in a minimalistic state. That description is fairly cryptic, but it suits the kind of cryptic music being presented here. The voice sources, unlike the “Why Am I Here?” album, are not really EVP as far as I can tell, more like field recording snippets of automated messages, and perhaps, transmissions through fiber optics (as the title of the album seem to have a concept of the essence of light, for all you science nerds out there). Only a couple of tracks here are really long; the rest of the 22 tracks fall on average around three minutes, some being only a minute long. I would have to say this is an earlier phase of Cordell experimenting with glitches and microsound wrapped up in noisy ambience backgrounds, a precursor to the “apparitions” disc on Ad Noiseam and the cdrs on Snip-Snip Records. A lot of these tracks have glitched rhythmical undercurrents and strange, warbling sounds punctuated by washes of light static. The voices are rarely intelligible to my ears; they have a strange, disembodied, mechanical aspect to it that complements the soundscapes really well. It’s an uneasy listen, as it doesn’t lull you into sleep like background music, yet it rarely grabs your attention forcefully in the foreground. It operates in-between in disjointed segments, fractures and fragments of reality and fantasy. An excellent disc. – Stephen Klusza
DOCTSECT RECORDS
Oceans of Sadness – Laughing Tears * Crying Smile
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Damn, why the hell doesn’t this band throw away the keyboards and get a real vocalist? Musically this Belgian act churn out some pretty solid death/thrash with a great sense of dynamics. There’s a lot of melody, good shifts in tempo, excellent acoustic passages, etc. They’re drawing on a very wide range of influences and instrumentally they’re making it work at the core. However, the entire mix is drowning in (what should be backing) keyboard textures that do absolutely nothing for the songs, and the vocals are completely atrocious. They range from high screams to the usual delivery of midrange singing/growling in a “death rock” sort of sense, but they just sound awful and don’t do the compositions justice. My only problem with the actual writing is that a lot of the songs drag on for far too long. Most every track is more than five minutes, with several leaning towards 10 minutes, and they’re just not keeping things interesting long enough for that to work. The recording is also pretty fucked up, and that hurts them too. The mix is really messy so it’s hard to identify what the real problems are, but I know the keyboards and vocals are far too loud. The bass is slightly audible, and the guitars are there, but the drums lose a lot of definition and everything sounds sort of fluttery and distant. I just think everything was probably recorded improperly somehow. The guitar tones change a lot, and they always lack crunch and clarity, the mix isn’t as muffled during the calmer clean passages, the more layering they get involved with the weirder things get, etc. The cover art isn’t that bad, and I like the background textures used behind the lyrics, but the typefaces are too plain and the band photos are all completely cheesy and stick out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately the lyrics are completely retarded as well “We’ll make love as much as you want to, We’ll reach every sky, oh so high, I’ll bare, I’ll share all that you want, I’ll heal and dry all of your tears…” No thanks. They also ruin any credibility they might have had by farting into the microphone about five minutes or so after the last song ends. No, I’m not kidding. Fucking morons. The guitarists, bassist, and drummer ought to start a new band. Unless one of them was the farter. Whoever did that should be ousted immediately. – Andrew Westerhouse
LSP COMPANY
Occult – Elegy for the Week
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
There have been two main countries that have carried on the tradition of death-thrash since the late eighties/early nineties; those countries are Holland and Sweden. Sweden with such acts as the mighty Merciless as well as others like Maze Of Torment and Hypnosia. Holland has had the likes of (early) Thanatos, Dead Head and Occult. Of these three only Occult remains active and true to their roots. Their latest effort “Elegy For The Weak” continues on this tradition in fine form. Here they serve up nine new tracks of relentless, fist banging death-thrash along with a re-recorded version of the track “Until The Battle” from 1996’s “The Enemy Within” on Foundation 2000. This song rages even harder with the modern production newly bestowed upon it. The only weak point here is track five, titled “Expire” which interrupts the flow of the album with 2:21 of non-musical noise/sounds. Otherwise, “Elegy For The Weak” should sate your hunger for the old school sound long abandoned or ineptly attempted by many. – Lance Rogers
CANDLELIGHT USA
Obliterate – The Feelings
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentI swear I’ve heard this CD before… of course I have–it was originally released in 1994 by Napalm Death and was titled “Fear, Emptiness, Despair.” Unfortunately, this new version is altogether inferior to the original, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worthy of a re-release. As far as (presumably) unabashed tributes to Napalm Death go, this must be one of the best I’ve heard. – Brian Woodworth
EREBOS PRODUCTIONS
Nadja – Bodycage
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Nadja is a project of Aidan Baker, prolific solo artist and member of the revolving-door project ARC. While his solo material ranges from experimental ambient to post-rock, Nadja tends to stay firmly rooted in metallic drone/doom soundscapes. With Bodycage, the listener is taken on an especially disconcerting journey into the mind of someone afflicted with a rare disorder in which connective tissue inexplicably turns to bone. This extremely rare congenital disease is called Fibrodyplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) and there is no known cure or effective treatments. Eventually, the bone growths fuse joints, causing total immobility. The feeling of being unable to move is conveyed through the music so effectively that the listener is rendered immobile as well. The droning soundscapes produce an indescribable sense of foreboding, then fear, then panic. Describing the actual sounds on the album is beside the point – it can’t be dissected into instruments, influences, or intentions. It’s a series of basic human fears disguised as sounds. The only possible complaint I have about this album is that it overstays its welcome. It could easily be condensed into a mini-album, retaining its qualities and keeping its momentum. Instead, the effectiveness of the album wears off as it drones on. Also, the album is composed of three tracks with two bonus (unrelated) recordings. These two tracks are out of place, which is especially jarring on a concept album. Length aside, this album is a testament to the affect of music on the body and mind. Those interested in haunting sound structures and the interplay of senses should seek out this release. – Christine Lett
PROFOUND LORE
Luasa Raelon – The Poison City
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
From the very beginning of “The Poison City” I smiled a devil-ish grin. The floaty swaying of the synthesizers, to the controlled direction of the guitar feedback and much more drew me in and sent me roaming through the damnable streets of decay, disease, and salvation. Corrosive metal scrapings, phantasmal echoing, steel banging and atmospheric textures haunt “The Poison City”. Heavy bass compulsions rumble over the desolate massive soundscape, while fleeting spirits of guitar howls, spectral cries from layers of keyboard and direful thick drift collapse down into a vortex of sound and texture. Explosions reverberating in the underscore as erratic pulsations of static missfire in and out over low end noise. Celestial guitar fade in and out as flesh scathing scrapings of metal, deep machinery like hissing, waverings of malignant sirens going off in the distance. This album has just a settle gentle sweep to it, but has this imperiling spirit to it as well. Clocking in at over forty seven minutes and only being five tracks, the sound structure is of the essence. “The Poison City” is thought through patiently, constructed intelligently and holds nothing back. David Reed has unagitated his methods when it comes to creating amazing Dark Ambient/Death Industrial soundscapes and I for one am very pleased to know that there are individuals out there taking their time and creating by artistic means. – K
EIBON RECORDS
Worm Gear 