Sewer Goddess – Painlust
If you were one of the five people who was paying attention on our Facebook page today, apparently saying the word ‘girl’ anywhere near the word ‘noise’ incites a mental riot inside those who think you’re making some trite comment about ‘girl noise’. First off, we weren’t. Second off, we know exactly what said user was talking about. The answer is no, ‘girl noise’ is not a genre. Why is it even a discussion? There is no girl noise, there is only noise. As for girls who play noise, that’s completely outside of the scope of this review, and something best saved for a special feature we’ll save for a later date. What matters at the moment is Sewer Goddess. Is she a girl? Yes, but that shouldn’t matter, unless you’re an idiot manboy who let’s his daydream fantasies get in the way of objectivity. Now, we’re actually familiar with the goddess, in fact the last time we encountered her was a collab track on Theologian’s Some Things Have to be Endured (track two, “The Conjoined Deviant Procession”, easily one of the best on the LP). This will be the first official review we’ve done of her work qua Sewer Goddess, though you can easily find her sick tunnel-dweller filth practically anywhere.
Black Plagve Productions we’ve encountered a number of times. Just type in that name in the search box over there, or Malignant Records (of which it is a sub-label), and have some fun. Any time he’s sent us a package, we always stared at it longingly, running our fingers over its wondrous angles, its curves, its perfect imperfections. We give it all of me, because it gives us all of you. Figure that reference out and then wonder why we did it. So anyway, this one, totally psyched, because we owe Sewer Goddess a full review, and since this one’s been on repeat for a few days already, now is the time. Her screams have called us, her anguish has commanded us, it is more than a muse, it is all three, and the fates, combined with the furies. Painlust comes totally prepared to reveal what it’s about with some rather engaging artwork consisting primarily of a series of collage consisting of various images of faces in the midst of suffering, blades, and various splattering effects to suggest torture for pain or torture for pleasure. The title of the album essentially leaves that open to interpretation, but the music drives the listener specifically towards pleasure to the level of personal decline and decadence at the expense of others’ happiness. That’s the best way.
As a now full-band, Sewer Goddess is something else entirely, but the development has been clearly linear, in an upwards direction, this being the current apex of your suffering. Painlust presents six different tracks minus an overreaching theme in sound; it’s more of a connection through concept. Think of it almost as separate days of thrilling misery through one week. On the first you feel the slice of cold metal along your flesh, the next day your wrists are chained with rusted shackles inside of the catacombs of a derelict cloister, then, the following day, your clotted body covered in blackened, dried blood is beaten, lashed, and punctured. Thus it goes. But wait, you say, there are only six tracks here but seven days in a week, so your analogy is conceptually lacking. Not in the slightest, because there can be no seventh day of Painlust. On the sixth your upper bowels are bleeding, and you have maybe a few hours to go. The beauty of Sewer Goddess’ work here is the variety and diversity yet linked, by heavy chains coated in old flesh and blood. Each track could almost stand alone as a singular representation of the band’s work, but this album absolutely requires a complete listen. The raw power, the pounding metal horrors laced with feedback and injected through a permanent port in your vein, that’s what this is about. Some tracks are diffuse, beautifully dismal, while others drive forwards with a monstrous, hulking gait, bizarre machines and bass dragging your mind through sludge, filth, rotting wires, and rusted pieces of broken machines. Completely captivating.
Sewer Goddess Official Facebook
Written by Stanley Stepanic
Sewer Goddess: Painlust
Black Plagve Productions
5 / 5
