Noise Not Music #3: The Body, Morbus Chron, Thou And More
Monday, 31 March 2014
Written by Ben Bland
Welcome to the latest edition of Noise Not Music on Stereoboard, the only repository for all your extreme musical needs. From black metal, to drone, to grindcore, to power electronics, this column focuses on music that exists far out into the musical wilderness. Listeners of a more circumspect nature are advised read on with caution…
New Releases
The Body - ‘I Shall Die Here’ (RVNG)
If you thought last year’s ‘Christs, Redeemers’ (the metal equivalent of an exorcism being performed on your partner while they are next to you in bed) was demented sludge of the most depraved kind, then you are going to foul your undergarments multiple times when you hear ‘I Shall Die Here’, which finds Rhode Island duo the Body team up with the Haxan Cloak (London resident Bobby Krlic) to produce something even more inhuman.
Predictably, and pleasingly, there are fingerprints from Krlic’s two superb albums all over the place here. Piercing synth lines and a wide variety of unidentifiable, but also appropriately unpalatable, sounds crop up in a manner that recalls his self-titled debut and last year’s punishing ‘Excavation’. Melded with the Body, who churn up concrete sludge riffs with ease, the effect is as disorientating as one would expect. With Chip King’s unique vocal screeches on top it’s hard to think of any contemporary metal band sounding more punishing than this.
Profound Lore release so many good albums that it’s hard to keep up. ‘IV.I.VIII’ is the latest brilliant effort the label has put out, following records from Avichi and Artificial Brain that have been featured in the previous editions of this column. Coffinworm are a classic sludge band in lots of ways, with the influence of Neurosis looming large.
Things get quite groovy at times, especially on Black Tears, which is excellent. So too is Lust vs. Vengeance, where the riffs are more reminiscent of classic UK doom acts like Cathedral and Electric Wizard. Of Eating Disorders & Restraining Orders is probably the best cut here. The opening riff is a faster version of Amenra’s monolithic De Dodenakker and the distorted spoken word section later on the track is most effective. There are even subtle noise elements woven into the mix, much like the Body’s latest.
Conan are heavy. That’s kind of what defines them as a band. I don’t mean heavy in the face-ripping style of Napalm Death, the eviler-than-thou style of Mayhem or the deliberately devious style of Isis. No, I mean the “real” heavy: the heavy that you can trace all the way to Black Sabbath through Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard and Sleep until you arrive at the present day.
Conan may not be as good as any of those bands (sorry, I’m not in the mood for subtlety) and they aren’t anywhere near the next evolutionary step for heaviness from Sleep either. They do sound utterly massive on ‘Blood Eagle’ though. In fact, they sound a little bit like a light sleeping bodybuilding neighbour who gets wound up when he hears you blasting ‘Dopesmoker’ at 4am and punches a hole through the dividing wall in retribution.
There are moments when Conan’s colossal sound lets up a bit - ‘Gravity Chasm’ trundles rather than powers along, for example - but most of ‘Blood Eagle’ is a big step up from their previous output. Simply put there is no reason for any self-respecting fan of doom/stoner metal not to pick this up… so don’t try and worm your way out of doing so. The bodybuilder next door will come and pummel you in your sleep if you do.
This is quite the all-star cast, assuming that the underground noise scenes of Japan and Norway are your area of expertise. Hijokaidan legend Jojo Hiroshige is probably the best known participant in this four-way exercise in sonic destruction and I assume he is playing guitar, it being his primary instrument. But, to be honest if he is then he’s managed to make it sound so like a disintegrating pneumatic drill that I can’t quite pick it out from the rest of the exceptionally deranged sounds on offer.
It’s difficult to describe ‘Osaka Fortune’ in a way that is likely to make anyone who isn’t a noise fan buy it, so I won’t bother and instead I’ll merely say that this is the sort of record for people who think Skullflower’s post-industrial brutality would make a suitable soundtrack for a CBBC reboot of the Magic Roundabout. It is the mechanised world slowly grinding to a very loud halt, all sheer white noise, manic drumming and bits that sound like some kind of steam pump having sex with a baker’s oven. I don’t know though… maybe I’ve made it sound too mainstream.
Find Jojo Hiroshige / Lasse Marhaug / Pika / Paal Nilssen-Love on Bandcamp here.
Morbus Chron - ‘Sweven’ (Century Media)
The best way to describe Stockholm’s Morbus Chron would probably be to say that they sound like the result of throwing At the Gates and King Crimson in a blender together. The vocals are gravelly in hue, while the guitars flit between occasional hints of the death metal old school and frequent diversions into Fripp-esque picking and subtly complex melodic formations.
This isn’t the heaviest record out there by any stretch of the imagination. Even when the band are steaming ahead with the spirit of ‘Left Hand Path’-era Entombed in their bellies they are still pretty polite by death metal standards, but the marriage of prog rock elements with the band’s metal origins produces something that makes for a listen as uneasy and full of surprises as it is full of quality songwriting, so it’s rather hard to care that they’re not rivalling Thou for heaviness. There have been plenty of “progressive” death metal bands before, but few as convincing as ‘Sweven’ makes Morbus Chron.
Thou - ‘Heathen’ (Gilead Media)
Thou? Who are Thou? Oh, well Thou are Louisiana’s foremost drone doom band at the moment actually. Didn’t you know? The thing you need to know first about ‘Heathen’ is that you can get it for free on Thou’s bandcamp, which is daylight robbery if ever there was such a thing. If you take my advice you will save up for a couple of months and send Thou lots of your money for being so nice and so incredible even if you download it for free (like me).
Thou really are incredible, you see. It’s rare for any band to come anywhere near to out Khanate-ingKhanate but, while that’s an unfairly predictable comparison to throw at Thou, ‘Heathen’ comes pretty damn close. Thou don’t approach their task in quite the same way as Khanate did, but they are equally as crushing… and yeah there are moments when you wonder if fourteen Stephen O’Malleys turned up in the studio with a Sunn O))) backline each to provide some extra guitar tracks. Turn it up loud.
Look, Thurston Moore is pretty bloody cool alright? If members of Sonic Youth aren’t allowed to do pretty much anything they want (musically I mean, I’ll never forgive him for leaving Kim - how could he?) then who the hell is? The fact that Moore has joined US black metal supergroup Twilight for what is to be their final album is a cause for celebration, not an opportunity to play kvlter-than-thou.
If you weren’t impressed by 2010’s ‘Monument To Time End’ then chances are this isn’t going to float your satanic boat. It’s broadly more of the same thing: black metal that is progressive without being gratuitous about it. The subtle industrial elements courtesy of Stanford Parker make Swarming Funeral Mass the most intense track, although Wrest’s insane drumming on Oh Wretched Son means that track also comes pretty close. There’s even some trademark Thurston guitar noise on opener Lungs to make the no waver in you praise the day that Leo Fender invented the Jazzmaster. Quite the way for Twilight to bow out.
Reissues
Prurient - ‘Cocaine Death’ (Hospital Productions)
It would be remiss of me to ignore the fact that Hospital Productions are unleashing ‘Cocaine Death’ on vinyl, given that it’s one of Dominick Fernow’s more essential full-lengths under the Prurient name. It’s nowhere near as extreme as some of the earlier Prurient records, but it’s a hugely significant step in his discography, signalling the point at which his shift towards less noisy dark ambient became firmly apparent.
Re-listening now, the first thing that comes to mind is how ‘Cocaine Death’ showcases Fernow’s talent for harrowing atmosphere more than it does his no holds barred 21st century American Whitehouse approach. The guy’s good at shouting and screaming his head off of course - you can’t be a power electronics artist if you’re not - but he’s also pretty good at creepy spoken word, as apparent on Dog of Addiction, which is probably the most sinister cut on the album. The highlight may be Lay-By Son, which sees sonic ropes whip around your neck with enough force to slowly but surely cut through your protruding veins.
If it’s genuine harsh noise you are after then there are better Prurient records to try than this one (may I recommend ‘Pleasure Ground’ and ‘Black Vase’?) but if it’s an introduction to Fernow’s prolific body of work under the Prurient name that you need then ‘Cocaine Death’ is the record to pick up.
Phew, if that’s not enough to keep you going for the next few weeks then your extreme musical greed knows no bounds. Until next time, adjø!
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