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The
sickos from Heart & Crossbone Records are at it again.
Their latest compilation What Pleasing the Lord Looks
Like Marriage includes four bands from Japan and four
bands from Israel. Do I need to say that they are
extreme and experimental? I think not. If you are
familiar with past output from this Israeli label
you’d know better than to expect conforming sounds.
Quite the opposite, you should just prepare to get
slaughtered.
First up is
Osaka’s Ryokuchi, who make Moss sound like Weezer. No kidding! Ten minutes of vibrating strings and oriental winds, percussion
that like wind chimes seems moved only by nature. It’s like the
soundtrack to a documentary about the Japanese landscape. Ryokuchi
go doom heavy in the fourth minute with a bass sound that’s
fuzzy and fat enough to make you dizzy. It literally drowns you.
The vocals are an acquired taste; gurgly enough to provide a few
chuckles.
Next up is
Israel’s Cadaver Eyes, whose split with Burmese
I reviewed here
and who make some of the most impenetrable noise
ever. Exorcising vocals, and a mountain of static accompanied by
drums total their “BaHoref Karrr”. This is not for the faint of
heart. Khanate could take a lesson. The label calls it sloth
doom, I concur.
Japan’s
Zenocide just put out a self-titled album. Based on the track
included here I recommend it to everyone, including my mother.
This exclusive track “Room” is more organic than what’s come
before in this comp, in that it sounds like a band that has
actually rehearsed. Though judging by how loose this is I wonder
how much. The vocals are more than cookie monster, it’s just
like blocks of low screams, leftovers from someone screaming
from a buried casket. The music is a dead note repeated to
death. Wonderful. Zenocide only has 123 friends in their
MySpace page so I suggest you jump and befriend them right about
now.
LietterSchpichDiet is chaotic noise. Pure chaos. Orgiastic and
excruciating demon screams batter our ears, frequent cymbals
splash randomly, disorienting and claustrophobic nuances become
evident as each layer gains volume. It doesn’t get any more
extreme than this. There is also validity to anyone who would
question whether there is talent or repeatable structures to
this type of material. This one is on the ear of the beholder.
Moneyi$god's
“Cancer” has a beat. Basically, there is nothing to the beat
except the exact repetition of the same beat. Which gives the
track a cold industrialized feel. There is of course the noise
and halfway through the song the volume overwhelms and some
crazed and deranged vocals take the song into an even more
extreme direction. Difficult stuff, but compared to the previous
song, this is easy to swallow.
I know Israel’s
Poochlatz because I owe them a review. (It’s coming!!!) Their
bizarre creations are more electronic and keep no beats nor bare
resemblance of music at fucking all. In the case of “A Stairway
to the Scars”, the noise resembles mechanical insects buzzing,
shit seems to have gone awry, computers may have taken over and
total obliteration, which is all this is, will take exactly six
minutes and twelve seconds.
Remesh are next
and they prove to be too much. Their noise is overwhelming even
for deaf people. Unfathomable. The vocals are beyond bearable,
but that’s the point. Noise. Noise. Noise. No one doubts their
extremity. But like with LietterSchpichDiet, someone questioning its quality could have a
valid point.
Closing the
proceedings are Osaka’s Nerveless who by no means offer soothing
sounds, but at least their track “Hopeless” moves places and
seems to have a backbone. These are thick sounds, fast drones if
there were ever any. Sub bass sounds moving in decrepit ways.
Nerveless are more like it. Intensity with sense and
sensibility.
Man, what a
challenging compilation. Heart & Crossbone once again challenges
its audience. More than that, they are kicking its audience in
the balls and then they are embracing them from behind. This stuff is so wild
I don’t even know what’s good anymore. |
