Review: T.O.M.B. - Third Wave Holocaust

This is long overdue. I've had this album, thanks to Malignant Records, for some time now and have listened to it pretty regularly but haven't had the time to sit down and write in quite awhile. I had heard a lot of good things in regards to T.O.M.B. but never got around to checking out their material. Then a copy of this, Third Wave Holocaust, showed up. The artwork really drew me into this album. Out of everything I had lying around to listen to, the artwork kept pulling me closer and closer to this release. So, I gave in to T.O.M.B. and I've not regretted a single second of that decision. Third Wave Holocaust rotated day in and day out in my car, accompanying my dread on my way to work and relieving the day's tensions after work.

From the first provocative sample draped across a humming low end, to the chime that continually pulls in your attention. The ghastly voices resonating from the background and the deep, choppy chain of bass that all came in within a few minutes of the first track, Antagonizing the Unknown, let me know this was going to be right up my alley. Electric Exorcism comes in as a cathartic whirlwind that is thickly layered in noise, yet still ambient in a way. Although mostly having a wall quality, there is enough coming and going to not let your mind wander too far off its intended path. Offerings of high squeals and guttural rumbles keep the track alive and not the sometimes-stagnant wall.

The Great Venerat Insult introduces itself with dark ambiance, the now-familiar low rumble, a light static and some minimal drum work and relieves itself in a similar fashion. The following track, NA LA GORE NA, begins a chant immediately proceeding The Great Venerat Insult. This chant becomes more and more distorted and elongated as it continues forth. Layers of static and noise start to mask the chant, getting more and more harsh until peaking and slowly working itself back down to its origin.

Appropriately titled, Vulgarity, comes in on the chant's heels again bludgeoning us with a quasi-wall. Menacing sounds emerge from the bowels of this wall adding a chilling effect. Just when it begins to lull you off, a piece of aural shrapnel finds its way into your head. Disrupting Admin brings some deep bass, heavily distorted and droning. The tension this track builds is unsettling. It's invasive and overwhelming and then it's gone, abruptly ending and opening the door for the next track, VOM VOODOO, a tribal beat covered in a swarm of locusts. Title Track, Third Wave Holocaust, comes in more demanding. Its echoing, metallic hit soaks among rumbling noise and static. The track tinkers with a lot of variations of sound from the whole spectrum piling on top of the looped, metallic hit.

Clairvoyant Frequencies, the second to last track, continues in the vein of the album's overall feel. Darkly swooping and swaying through our ears while distorting the already disturbed range. It's haunting yet pacifying for nearly the entire track until it screeches out of existence. Closing track, Tribute to HANHUA, is by far the most disturbing track of the album. There is a lot to soak in with this track. The ethereal voices, the constant ringing, the dense atmosphere, the subtle changes in texture. It's a bit of an amalgamation of the rest of the tracks all joined into one epic. I would say it's likely my favorite track, and a monumental close to a great album.

You can pick this up from Malignant Records, and I highly recommend that you do so.

Review: Steel Hook Prostheses - The Empirics Guild

 

The prolific Steel Hook Prostheses (J. Stillings, L. Kerr) have released another ominous album, "The Empirics Guild." Out now on the infamous Malignant Records.

Crawling and claustrophobic. Spacious and demented. Pained, tormented voices amongst electric tools and static rumbles. Ambient, in the darkest of ways. Fields of electricity and caustic percussion evoke the unsettled. The voices become garbled. Reverberating and liquifying. Dripping into cataclysmic synthetics. Scathing as a whole.

Elaborate layers of mechanical, haunting, landscapes. Foreboding whispers and trails of saturation. Spectral, disembodied. Crashing echoes, swarming broods. All driven with intent of capturing and regurgitating fears. Memorable discomfort is apt. Cavernous depths allow rumination of the sonic layers and interchanging textures. Entangling torrents of man-made nightmares. All-absorbing and endlessly captivating shadows of auditory madness. Nearing hallucinogenic and ethereal. Undeniable and utterly dismal. A perfect amalgamation of forlorn distress and impassioned catharsis.

Available at: http://www.malignantrecords.com/

Review: The Vomit Arsonist - An Occasion for Death

 

Another Malignant Records release they were kind enough to send my direction. We have, The Vomit Arsonist's "An Occasion for Death." Join me in what will assuredly leave you questioning reality.
A slow churning in the bowels of the machine quietly hide behind a powerful sample starting off "An Occasion for Death," on the first track, "Think God Out of Existence."  The churning becomes more alive, gradually increasing in volume and depth. The voice gives way to the atmosphere. Slow, meandering, oppressive, moving with a distinct goal.

"At the Edge of Life, Everything is an Occasion for Death" flows from the aftermath of "Think God Out of Existence." Darkly ambient, haunting. A slow, tortured, drum beat begins to take form; plodding and enhancing the ominous field of sound. A shrill voice takes hold. Distorted and eerie, seemingly wrapping around the ears. Droning, but intriguing. Never allowing one to drift off, or forget where they are.

"Invita Minerva" boils through. Haunting, delayed vocals, echo throughout sending chills down the spine and embedding deeply. Rolling, static noise lie just behind, rumbling and swarming. Slow, but effective in its crawl. "Black Bile" comes in on the hindquarters of "Invita Minerva" with another slowly plodding, highly mesmerizing drum pattern. Tribal-like in their demeanor.  The distorted vocals reappear, menacingly, agonizingly. The voice becomes more strained, giving way to unnerving effects, ending the track on an unpleasant note.

"Torn Between Will and Desire" sways into the ears. Swooping back and forth, hanging among a cloud of despair. Noise infiltrates harshly but not unbearably. Penetrating high ends mingle amongst a low creeping torture that sluggishly brings brute drumming into play. Whispers of insects play to and fro with harsh vocal disturbances that crumble and decay leading to "The Absurd." A clutter of natural sounds mix with high-end murmurs as the ghastly voice once again makes its appearance, unintelligibly, drenched in affliction. The sounds of metal scrape along once again, chilling the spine. Aptly titled, "A Means to an End," comes in as the last track of the album. Setting foot into a natural setting, clanging, chopping, surgical, like the ambiance of a morgue. Disturbing, fleshly sounds introduce another sample spoken in foreign tongue. The machine continues its churning, contorting the background clatter. Returning is the distorted, anguished voice. Making its final, unsettled, appearance. The horrifying atmosphere sets on edge, the fears unknown. The subtleties and combinations of sounds allow for the mind to enhance as it pleases. Before long, the aura fades away. The sounds have dissipated but the feeling is residual in bone. Walking away, no longer feeling secure. A magnificent feat to achieve.