REDROT Psycho Bondage LP (Bloodlust!)
Try keeping up with Ryan Oppermann's output. It's not easy, let me tell you. The guy has so many different (and distinct) projects that he's involved with, many of which are quite active and releasing new material, that I'm always finding something new from him I haven't heard before. Klinikal Skum, Xombie, Post-Mortem Junkie, and of course the mighty black industrial project Neuntöter Der Plage are all faves, but then I find out about this new Lp from Redrot, another project that I had never even heard of, but which seems to have been releasing stuff since 2002. Based on the heaving machine evil of Psycho Bondage, this is probably the heaviest shit that Oppermann has done. I'm talking about machine-press, pneumatic hissing, and extreme bondage-heavy, the four tracks constructed out of assorted layers of pounding, whirring, thundering machine rhythms and nauseous synthesizer noises, and Oppermann's moaning repetitive mantras. The four long tracks all have this monotonous, diseased feel, the weirdly groovy undercurrent of crushing mechanical rhythms giving this the feel of a seriously warped and demonic brand of Wax Trax industrial, but fused to the oozing, autopsy-table horror of the best death industrial (with echoes of everything from early SPK to Brighter Death Now to Atrax Morgue). The relentless crush and rumble of the rhythms also bring a Swans-like heaviness to the proceedings, so when I say this is heavy, I'm talking heavy, the metallic grind and syrupy distorted beats sometimes slowing down to a slow-motion detonation that feels like mortars going off. The more I listen to Psycho Bondage (and the louder I play it), the more this seems like a death industrial/power electronics record infused with the inexorable grind of the heaviest industrial doom; except where glacial riffs would be, there's the wheezing and buzzing of rotten synths and sputtering effects pedals, the howling hellish growls and screams and sado-mantras stretching and diffusing, turning into flutters of vocal vomit slung against the necrotic industrial backdrop. Really, the last track "Crawling Dead Sex" sums it all up.
Limited to 525 copies on black vinyl.
ANGEL OF DECAY Bleeding On The Flowers CD (Bloodlust!)
The Bloodlust! label is another one that I've been slowly making my way through, having missed out on most of the label's offerings of grimy, grim industrial noise when they first came out in the latter half of the last decade. One of these is this disc from Angel Of Decay, which has become one of my new faves since getting it in stock. It's a collection of two half-hour long tracks of crumbling black factory ambience from this short lived project from Jonathan Canady. You've no doubt come across Canady's work in one form or another over the years, as this guy has been involved with the vicious power electronic and death industrial groups Deathpile and Blunt Force Trauma, industrial metallers Dead World, the newer noise group Nightmares alongside David Reed (Luasa Raelon/Envenomist) and Mark Solotroff (Bloodyminded), and was the in-house art guy for Relapse Records for several years. Originally released on cassette back in 2007, AOD's Bleeding On The Flowers explores new stygian depths and nightmare terrain from Canady through the use of various vintage analog synthesizers.
The title track is a churning mass of machine noise and the monotonous chug of massive engines, rumbling rotors and other mechanical drones all bathed in delay and reverb. Grinding black synths crawl across this blasted industrial backdrop as howling distorted vokills descend upon it, resembling the fury of demons raging over a symphony of steel presses and buzzsaws. This fusion of industrial dronescape terror and oppressive, stentorian power electronics is covered in sonic filth, but it's also juiced up with a seriously heavy recording that combine together for a powerful, hellish listening experience.
The second track "Sick, Insane And Half Dead" is more minimal, smoldering distant distortion and peals of high end feedback swelling up alongside blackened gasping vokills and murkier washes of machine noise. From there, this travels through various stretches of grinding synth damage, harrowing passages of screeching drone, waves of crackling machine noise and the earth-shaking rumble of gargantuan turbines, all of these evoking further visions of demonically possessed ironworks that are filled with howling ghostly vocalizations, relentless pounding rhythms and swooping shrieking entities. Man, this is terrifying stuff all the way to the end; fans of the harshest Cold Meat Industries output will want to hear this for sure.
