Zyklon - World Ov Worms

World Ov Worms is a lesson in razor sharp, sadistic death metal, taught by purveyors of the "other side" of the school: that being some of black metal's most revered elite. Couple this with a dodgy name, very long trench coats and similar bizarre electronic passages to those on Mayhem's A Grand Declaration Of War, and you have the icing on the cake to what is Zyklon's Wormy World.

I remember World Ov Worms coming out when I was just a nipper getting into the world of alternative music. The track "Deduced to Overkill" appeared on a Kerrang! Compilation CD and I could not process nor understand what I was hearing - it was truly too extreme for me at the time, bless. The overall production here is astoundingly clear; there is crystal transparency, an equilibrium between the extremities of brutality and listenability that is rarely so well traveled and executed. Honestly, the electronic passages would probably put a few purists off but Zyklon is definitely under-rated in the death metal world. 

Some of the more chaotic riff patterns remind me heavily of 1349, and Trym's drumming is on point, as per usual. Great stuff.

Godflesh - Post Self

Wellity wellity wellity, this just fucking came out of nowhere didn't it? There is always room in the world for more Godflesh so thank the heavens that Justin & Mr. Green have decided to bleed more of that sweet, sweet crushing goodness out into the world. Post Self might be one of the best Godflesh records ever. That is a sweepingly bold statement I know, but the band have expanded on their previous release with all of the experimental freakery that made them so brilliant in the first place. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the brutal simplicity of A World Lit Only By Fire, but what Post Self lacks in hammering riffs it makes up for tenfold in crushing atmosphere. Plus, the fucking hip hop beats are back, fam - 10/10! This type of thing was hinted at with "Dogbite", but then scaled back for the previous album itself. 

"Post Self", "Parasite", and "Mortality Sorrow" are three examples of how fucking stunning hip hop and break-style beats can sound in Godflesh's music, whilst songs like "Be God" and even more so "Pre Self" are something altogether more 80s Swans than Godflesh has ever attained to, even in their primitive beginnings. 

All in all, Post Self sounds everything like Godflesh but also sounds nothing like anything Godflesh have done before. A phenomenal progression, and a glistening, holy yet unholy, head-noddingly good step in the right direction. Knocked it out of the fucking park! A contender for one of my favourite releases this year, without a doubt. 

Killing Joke - Pylon

Pylon is the latest (at time of writing) in a long line of consistently excellent contributions from the legendary Killing Joke. It would be rather cheap of me to say the ol' "if it ain't broke..." thing that I always say, but that is somewhat true here: Pylon offers nothing new to the Killing Joke palate of sounds, but that is absolutely not to say that it doesn't offer a whole new menu of phenomenal tracks, boasting a massive, impressive production thanks to Tom Dalgety (known for working with (uch) Ghost, and having been a producer at Wales' own Rockfield Studios). 

"Autonomous Zone" and "Dawn Of The Hive" kick things off in proper Killing Joke fashion; the former boasting a spine-tingling bass guitar performance. "New Jerusalem" brings more of that Hosannahs... grade brutality'n'chug to the table, whilst tracks like "Big Buzz" show that the band are still more than capable of unfurling massive euphoric choruses. If you are looking for beautifully crafted, slightly weird and paranoid industrial rock, then you really should look no further. 

JK Flesh - Nothing Is Free EP

Dense, thick, industrial beat loops is the order of the day, from the excellent JK Flesh project. Nothing Is Free seems to have dropped completely the guitar elements that so heavily caressed the beatwork on recordings such as Posthuman, in favour of bringing the beat entirely to the centre-stage. Nothing Is Free is not dissimilar to the work produced by Mick Harris in some of the more transitional and experimental eras of his excellent project Scorn.

This record is, ultimately, an experiment in distortion; which not only cloaks the proceedings in a sinister air of mystery, but allows the songs to breathe and expand; allowing much more interesting patterns to emerge from the aural fog. Expect throbbing, rhythmical progressions, sometimes accompanied by sparse synths, although most of the time the beats stand alone, demanding all of your attention. Brilliant stuff. 

Favourite track: "They Own You"

Necro Deathmort - Martian Cartography

Martian Cartography is an excellent album release by the criminally under-rated experimental duo Necro Deathmort. Mixing catastrophically heavy atmosphere with intelligent, progressive electronic work has always been ND's forte, but on Martian Cartography, I find that this approach to sound design has finally had chance to spread its wings and fly. In some respects that means that this record isn't as hard-hitting or droning as something off Music Of Bleak Origin or earlier, but the duo more than make up for it on the journey that they help take us on.

The opening track "Repeat-O" - and also, I'm sure not coincidentally, my favourite track, "The Ultimate Testament (Remix)" - both have pulsating beats carrying them; a clinical industrial backbone to a sparse electronic worldview. Other stand outs for me include "Cold Sleeps" and the muted closer, "Terra Cimmeria", which has a relaxed, almost deep house feel. 

Originally released as a download by the band themselves, this was eventually pressed onto CD by Extreme Ultimate.

Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events

I find that Nine Inch Nails' release history is constantly hit-and-miss. This latest EP is absolutely no exception to that rule. How can something that is only 5 tracks long be so "meh"? I mean, surely it is either going to be shit or it is going to be great? No. Not Nine Inch Nails. Not Not The Actual Events (see what I did there?).

Below is easily the best track on the whole release. When it's good, it's amazing, but for at least half of the time, this EP is neither of those things, so I'll just take my elitist ass back to listening to barely audible black metal cassette demos for now.

Godflesh - Hymns

Hymns was the final album by Godflesh before they originally broke up in 2002. It seems to apply the no-nonsense aesthetic from records such as Pure and Slavestate to the band's later, more "nu metal" kinda sound as found on Songs Of Love And Hate and even parts of Us & Them. What's also quite nice to note is that Ted Parsons, who drummed for Swans on a fair number of their seminal recordings, is the drummer here. This is also the second, and final, Godflesh studio album to feature a real live drummer, and their first after being released from Earache.

I find Hymns is often overlooked. There are many Godflesh gems here, such as the opening belter "Defeated", which slows to a groaning crawl that really drags out the agonizing pinched harmonics. "Voidhead" is a painful listen (in a good way), taking the repetition of industrial into the nu-metal world kicking and screaming. Then, towards the end you've got the hat-trick of the venomous "Vampires", the ridiculously heavy "Antihuman" and the soaring "Regal" soothing you just before the skull-bashing closer, "Jesu".

Being a Godflesh record, there was a 50/50 chance that the cover art was going to be fucking shite. It kinda looks like it was just pulled off a Google image search, and the booklet doesn't really elaborate much either. The End Records and Music On Vinyl also did everybody a solid and put this out on vinyl in 2013, leaving Us & Them as the only Godflesh album not available on wax. Surely drum and bass belongs on vinyl, right? If I ever win the lottery I'll finance the repress myself, if Digby lets me buy the rights. Anyway, I'm rambling. I'll fuck off now. Listen to this:

Pharmakon - Bestial Burden

I feel like I have an overwhelming urge to trepan my skull in order to fully envelope my conscious with the buzzing, numbing industrial stomp of Pharmakon's "music". I'm joking of course, but it kinda feels like the human brain alone isn't powerful enough to digest this disgustingly intense mix of industrial, power electronics and ambience. Pharmakon is not afraid to balance the serene and low-key alongside the bashing, crashing havoc of sheer noise, and that pays off in spades on Bestial Burden.

The artwork just plain creeps me out, too. Is it an autopsy? Is it a strange mediterranean salad? Is it both? Why am I hungry all of a sudden? Why are we even alive? ...Anyway, I digress. Harsh noise enthusiasts are no doubt already familiar with Pharmakon's offerings, however I would also recommend this to fans of horror movie scores, or ominous soundtracking in general. This shit is plain creepy, but it isn't afraid to get loud either.

Genitorturers - 120 Days Of Genitorture

I avoided Genitorturers for a very long time simply because I was aware of the fact that Vincent from Morbid Angel played in some sort of badly-named industrial side project. I was also acutely aware of his penchant for bad leather / pvc shit so on those reasons alone I gave this band a very wide berth. I know that this band doesn't begin and end with Ol' Vince, but when all those crapulent dance/gabba/industrial parts started leaking horrifically into Morbid Angel's music, some sort of morbid curiosity (see what I did there?) was awakened, and I came over for a listen. 

At first it sounds a bit like Prong meets L7, only not as sexy as one would imagine that mash up to be (ironic considering the immense overtones of this band's image). The music sounds to me like stale, 3rd-rate Marilyn Manson grade shite that goths like to dance to, only infuriatingly paraded under the industrial banner. Why does that happen? Industrial to me is Throbbing Gristle, Godflesh, early Einsturzende Neubauten etc. etc., not boring grungy metal with BDSM over-tones. 

I have nothing positive to really say here so I'm just gonna wind this up before I go off on a massive tangent about how frustratingly shit this is.

Black Sun - Twilight Of The Gods

Black Sun are (or possibly were) a three piece from Scotland. I think (from lending CDs off the Doomfinder General) that they pretty much started out as a one man industrial/noise project before evolving into a full band. They self-released a bunch of stuff before this final full length dropped on Future Noise and Head Of Crom. Twilight Of The Gods is a solid album through and through. The best way I can quickly describe it off the top of my head is to imagine Swans and Iron Monkey having a fight in a methadone clinic. Oh, and Oxbow is there as well, just because.

The record bursts into life with "Code Black", re-recorded from the 7" split with They Are Cowards, quickly followed by the excellent "Terminal Velocity". "Gethsemane" is a perfect example of one of the album's gut-wrenching crawlers. "Black Angel" (possibly a nod towards Death In June with that title?) and "Warhead" remain two of my favourite songs ever. 

I'm not entirely sure what became of Black Sun, but leaving us with this record seems like a pretty good way to go out. 

Flux Information Sciences - Private / Public

Flux Information Sciences are one of those bands that have got me wondering - "where the hell have you been all of my life!". It genuinely annoys me when such gems go undetected on my musical radar for so long, especially since they can attribute a sizable portion of their success to one Michael Gira (who? Never heard of him) after being signed to Young God in the early 2000s. Hell, even Chris Pravdica, the guy providing the gut-wrenching bass in the most recent incarnation of Swans, played with these guys.

So let me approach this retrospective review with language that isn't going to land me a writing slot with Vice anytime soon. I might not be an east-side art guru, so it is probably easiest for me to describe Flux Information Sciences as a noisy mixture of self-titled-era Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle and Boards Of Canada. Heavy industrial and no wave stylings dominate the majority of the record, and I guess parts of this resemble early Godflesh, or Swans themselves, especially tracks like "Liposuction".

All in all, a fantastic record with a lot of surprises up its sleeve. I simply love discovering stuff like this out of the blue, and I look forward to listening to the rest of their discography soon.

Gore Beyond Necropsy - I Recommend You... Amputation!

Gore Beyond Necropsy are nothing short of legendary on the noise/grind underground for a multitude of reasons (the hilariously titled split/collab with Merzbow springs to mind). They have long since changed their name and disappeared into total obscurity, but for a short while they kinda flew the flag for this kinda noisy shit, and this 12 minute EP showcases a slightly different side to the band's infamous noisy grindcore.

It all starts off with horror samples and down-tuned, dirty guitar playing, but then the drums kick in after the slow intro with this over-arching industrial feel, it's like the drums are purposefully programmed in a machine-like way - as they blast away there's a ticking mechanical heart to the proceedings; a clanking abdominal creation keeping the beating heart of this shit alive inside it's exposed chest and eviscerated gore. Imagine Godflesh and Carcass melding as one in the mid/late 80s, for a ridiculous ballpark idea! 

American Head Charge - Tango Umbrella

American Head Charge are one of my favourite surviving memories from the early 2000s nu-metal explosion. Their sound owed more towards industrial than straight up nu-metal and therefore they seemed to survive the nu-metal cull that crept in overnight sometime in 2003. They continue to be a big draw live, mainly as a nostalgia trip for most, but they haven't dropped a record since 2005's The Feeding, 11 years ago. There was an EP in 2013, but it was fairly forgettable.

Unfortunately, in a few months time, I believe the same will be said of Tango Umbrella, which is a sadly boring romp through the sounds of old. It sounds like The Feeding crossed with a bad Marilyn Manson album (and there's a lot of those floating about now) played at half speed with half effort. I guess that is a bit harsh, but the fact that I listened to this thing all the way through and not one single track managed to ignite even the tiniest spark of passion simply cannot be a good thing at all.

I've seen these guys live countless times and they absolutely killed it every time, but this.....this is shit. 

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Godflesh's return was one of the most exciting things ever. I traveled to France in 2010 to catch their first ever live appearance since splitting up years before, and then I fanged it over to Roadburn the following year in order to catch them slamming out Streetcleaner in it's entirety. I unfortunately missed the performance of Pure live at Roadburn two years later but after catching a few more live appearances around the UK I was like a baying hound for new Godflesh material.

The Decline & Fall EP appeared; a bizarre mix harking back to not only the glory days, but the Us and Them era, but this was only 4 tracks. So when A World Lit Only By Fire dropped, I wrapped my head around it the day it was released and listened to about nothing else for about a week straight. Unsurprisingly, I was quite burned out on Godflesh at this point so I shagged off writing a post about it for a while. That "while" became well over a year, so it's about time I finally face up to this.

What came with A World... was more of the dirgy 8-string compositions from Decline & Fall, but with less hip hop beat and more industrial devastation. It is a modern day, fine-tuned crushing machine in the form of industrialized drum machine metal. "New Dark Ages" features a riff that would cause the downfall of many a boring nu-metal act; chugga-chugga-chugga it goes, over and over and over, with an almost unhealthy disdain for every other string and note available from the guitar. But here, under the guidance of Godflesh's punishing simplicity, it works like a sledgehammer to the face.

"Shut Me Down" and the excellent "Life Giver, Life Taker" stand out to me from the digitized bog, as well as the sinister "Carrion", which boasts the rarely-used but pant-shittingly heavy pitchshifted vocal style that popped up now and then in the early days. Don't get me wrong, this ain't no Streetcleaner, no Pure or Slavestate - but it's pretty fucking heavy. It's a sad reality that when bands have such a titanic back-catalogue (I'm talking life-changing, genre-defining records), the "new shit" is always going to pale in comparison, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that this shits on most of the stuff that came out in 2014.

MZ. 412 – In Nomine Dei Nosti Satanas Luciferi Excelsi

I came across MZ. 412 on my quest for bands that mix black metal with power electronics. Although to me MZ. 412 takes elements from both genres of music (with both being quite introspectively similar in some respects and also a million miles apart in others), yet it seems to stand alone from both in a sound more rooted in industrial, or experimental ambience.

This is something morosely militant about In Nomine... which lends heavily from the martial side of power electronics, and yes, the repetitive beats are distorted and overpowering, but that’s where the similarities end, for me at least. This creepy, isolated record is more akin to the soundtrack for some independent horror movie rather than anything along the lines of A Blaze In The Northern Sky.

I write lots of words and post the pretty pictures but realistically the music itself needs to do the talking. Mad props to Dave Wilson for introducing me to the world of MZ. 412.

Swans - Filth

LINES IN WAX 500th POST EXTRAVAGANZA!

Who in their right mind would have thought I could write 500 album reviews? Actually who in their right mind would write 500 album reviews? Well the answer is little old me. As Lines In Wax passes it's 4th birthday, we also reach this milestone in posting. As with the 100th and 250th post, I would like to quickly thank everyone for their continued support and readership. Without your disapproving eyes, I'd be writing for myself and a few Google bots, which is an even sadder existence than the one I'm leading now. In celebration of the 500 milestone, I have decided to "review" one of my absolute all time favourite records. Here's to another 500 posts!

Swans are my favourite band in the entire universe (outside of grindcore). They have a long and meandering career spanning 4 decades, numerous genres, 13 studio albums and an obscene amount of other releases. The most savage of the bunch has to be Filth, the band's debut album from 1983; a clanking, grinding beast dominated by the unusual presence of not only two bassists but two drummers. The guitar is an afterthought. Some people argue that the Cop album is heavier, and whilst that is true in the fact that Cop is more akin to 'metal' than anything that appears on Filth, I firmly believe that the scraping, mechanical abortion of Filth far surpasses any form of heaviness that any metal music could possibly hope to convey. Being 32 years old this year, Filth was incredibly ahead of its time, and far more influential than we could possibly ever hope to measure.

Opening with the lurching "Stay Here", what Filth is all about becomes apparent very quickly. It is like some horrible machine has come to life. "Power For Power" is one of my favourite songs in the entire universe; the drums are absolutely devastating. This song says a lot to me, not only on an inter-personal level with the games people play with each other, but about Western culture and capitalist/consumerist culture in general. "Thank You" is almost danceable, before "Weakling" laid the template for every Godflesh song recorded before 1990. It sounds like the world slowly dying....

I own an original pressing of this record, although it has just been lovingly remastered (I'd love to hear the mule kick on that fucker). I could fanboy about this shit for hours so don't take my word for it, just listen. If you've heard it before there's no reason not to do it again. Crank it ALL the way up for this one. 

Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent

Killing Joke have a long and varied discography but Absolute Dissent is the album I end up coming back to again and again. Everything since the 2003 self titled record has been brilliant (even the dub remix album) but Absolute Dissent takes the crown for me, every time. It possesses a clarity and melody that is equally matched with heaviness and bite. All the songs here seem to follow a certain method or blueprint, but still remain interesting, fresh and manage to stand apart.

The record opens with the title track, and you can just envisage this (and the following track "The Great Cull") being sang by thousands of adoring fans at a live concert - the choruses are huge and ballsy, which is quite funny considering the subject matter of the latter track. "Fresh Fever From The Skies" continues in a similar grim vibe but with a massive chorus.

Other stand out tracks include "European Super State", "This World Hell", "The Raven King" (dedicated to the sadly deceased Paul Raven) and the closing "Ghosts Of Ladbroke Grove". I have speculated with myself what this final track could be about, but I failed to reach a conclusion (for now).

Go!

Lifelover - Pulver

I’ve always been a bit hit and miss when it comes to black metal. I think it’s because black metal is easily one of the most over-saturated genres of music out there. There seems to be an endless stream of black metal projects the world over, constantly vying for grimness and struggling to flog their shitty limited run cassette-release demos. In all honesty, I only ended up checking out Lifelover because of the extremely interesting (and quite ironic) band name. If they were called Sataniiik Invokkkor Ov Frostbitten Warbeasts or something equally as hammy I would have been much less inclined to bother listening to them. I’m just not kvlt enough.

Lifelover however, are (or were) grim as fuck. They are (or were) lumped in by pedantic metalheads into the ridiculous sub-genre called Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, or DSBM for short. Now, whiney self-loathing bullshit cried out by well-off Europeans living in countries with phenomenally high quality of life (90s Norway scene, I’m looking at you!) usually drives me up the wall, but there’s something really creepy about Lifelover’s folky, morose approach to black metal that feels so genuine. At first, compared to powerhouse black metallers like Marduk or 1349, Lifelover’s music can seem a little lazy, but as it unfolds and you adjust to the guitar playing style you come to realise that whoever is strumming that thing is in fact very, very tired with life.

Lifelover glorify death, self-harm, suicide, murder and all sorts of other horribly depressing shit. But, it’s delivered with such authenticity and worrying sombreness that it really gets to me. It does not surprise me at all in the slightest, that four albums later, Lifelover’s main songwriter (known only as B) winds up offing himself, effectively ending the band. This was a very, very serious reminder that Lifelover were not joking or simply looking to shock with their music.

None of the other Lifelover albums hold the same haunting, nihilistic self-loathing that Pulver does. It’s a difficult listen, but well worth it if you’ve got the stones for it.

Theologian - The Chasms Of My Heart

It's nice to see something that bridges the gap between industrial, power electronics and harsh noise so perfectly. Often these terms are bandied about wantonly, with several terms being used to describe the same thing in a pedantic circle jerk of an already restrictive genre. Whilst I still don't quite know what the fuck Witch House is supposed to be, I can literally feel the industrial vibe pouring out of this record, like steel girders shooting out of my computer screen and impaling my face, but in a good way.

Yes, this is a noise record, but it earns the industrial or power electronics tags due to the sheer palpable feel of the tracks, like genuine mechanical beasts have come alive to create these horrendous cacophonies. Some of these "songs" even seem to hold their own sense of beauty, despite being mind-numbingly repetitive and gargantuan in scope. "My Body Is Made Of Ash...I Live As Ash" for example, is so anxious that it's almost relaxing.

There's guitar in there somewhere I'm sure, as well as a clusterfuck of distorted voices. Some moments are repetitive to the point of an almost tribalistic percussion, which when made out of mashed up sound, is actually extremely impressive.

Because The Chasms Of My Heart manages to be a enthralling noise masterpiece without having to resort to continuous maxed-out harshness, I'd wager this is a good a place as any to start with the noise genre, if you fancy giving it a go. To summarise: a very impressive and hypnotising record in a seriously over-saturated and often lazy genre of music.

AUN - Multigone

AUN are another band that I picked up on thanks to Roadburn Festival. I missed them on the day (2012 edition I believe) but in a ritual that my friends call Pre-Roadburn Listening I got listening to their Black Pyramid record. Multigone is an earlier recording of theirs, and is a bit harshier than the meandering ambience present on Black Pyramid. AUN's approach to noise is droning, unfolding soundscapes that almost have some tangible tune to them, but the edges are blurred with harsh electronics and soaring, cutting synth works. 

Multigone is a 7-tracked affair, with track lengths spanning from the usual 4/5 minute length up to 10/15 minutes a piece. The longest track, "Steel Skull Plain", suprisingly doesn't seem too long, which is a problem I find with a lot of experimental and noise tracks. My favourite tracks are the opener title track, with it's droning splashes of noise and atmosphere, and "Palejoy", with it's heavy guitar drone overlaid with dark and throbbing beats. Yummy.

Available in a really fancy CDr package from Crucial Blast, and limited to 300 pieces.