Brainwashed on Not Everybody Makes It

BRAINWASHED

Mark Solotroff, "Not Everybody Makes It"

July 25, 2021, by Creaig Dunton

Mark Solotroff could never be accused of taking it easy when it comes to music, both in terms of style and productivity.  Since the beginning of 2020 he has been responsible for three side project releases (Nightmares, The Fortieth Day, and Ensemble Sacrés Garçons), two archival releases from his early Intrinsic Action band, and just a matter of weeks ago a BLOODYMINDED live compilation.  Add that to three volumes of compiled solo material and an album last year, and there’s a massive stack of material that Not Everybody Makes It now sits atop.  Even with all of that material, this new album stands out as distinct, and somewhat of an unexpected turn for Solotroff's work, but is still clearly his.

What makes this disc stand out is the more significant restraint and lighter touch he employs on all six of these (exactly) ten minute pieces.  I would be significantly concerned if he released anything that is not constructed around lo-fi analog synth noises, and that is certainly the foundation of everything here, but the mixes are less dense and the volumes are lower, giving everything a bleaker, more isolated sensibility.

Themes of isolation have been prevalent in Solotroff's recent work, with a series of eight tapes in the past few years (compiled earlier this year onto three 2CD volumes as the Strategic Planning series), but while those captured a sense of urban loneliness and anomie, Not Everybody Makes It is more personal and introspective.  Besides the intentional imagery conveyed by the title, the hushed volumes and pseudo-melodies (not something often associated with his work) lock on to this sense of loneliness and despair.

Even with this more ambient (or isolationist, to borrow the fitting term for the 1990s ambient offshoot genre that never was) turn, certain staples from Solotroff's repertoire could never be abandoned:  his love of heavy sub bass  frequencies appears throughout, especially on "Charged Matter (The Problem from the Inside)" and "Suffering Sun (Barren Winter)."  For both of these that low end is still prominent, but on the former it is an undulating passage beneath lightly drifting electronics and synths like bowed strings mixing with amplified hums.  On the latter, it gives a slow, trudging propulsion beneath melodic sweeps and subtle white noise sheets.

The rumble also underscores most of "The Chaos of Objects (Tell Her to Follow Me)," paired with hissy metallic static.  Here, even though the instrumentation never really deviates from those basic elements, Solotroff still effortlessly blends the basic parts into a piece with distinct movement and flow.  This contrasts with the idling engine ambience of "Spatial Unrest (Irresistible Belief)," which is perfectly still and frozen.  He saves the most peaceful piece for the end:  "Return to Pleasure (Body Into Voice)" is a suite of droning tones that slowly drift away, making for the most peaceful work I have ever heard him have a hand in.

The shift of studying isolation from the spatial to the personal is pretty clear from this series of vignettes that complement Solotroff’s Strategic Planning works. Emphasizing the incidental melodies and sounds that are usually obscured by distortion and noise in his discography, there is thematic linkage, but the end products are distinct.  For that reason there is a sense of vulnerability to Not Everybody Makes It that is rarely so obvious in his many projects.  When placed alongside his other recent releases, it shows just how, in the hands of an expert, decades old electronic equipment can conjure such varying experiences and emotions.  It may be a slight deviation from his normal approach, but the results are just as captivating. 

http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12736:mark-solotroff-qnot-everybody-makes-itq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Brainwashed on BLOODYMINDED

Our thanks to Creaig Dunton at Brainwashed for the extremely positive review of our new album!

http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12011:bloodyminded&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

BLOODYMINDED

Sunday, 26 May 2019 10:11 Creaig Dunton Reviews - Albums and Singles

While a series of archival live releases have appeared recently, the self-titled BLOODYMINDED is the first new studio material from the legendary Chicago noise/power electronics project since 2013’s Within the Walls.  It also marks the first time that all six permanent members of the international band:  Xavier Laradji, Will Lindsay, James Moy, Isidro Reyes, Pieter Schoolwerth, and de facto band leader Mark Solotroff have recorded together at the same location.  This was heralded by a live performance just before the few crew entered the studio (released as The Struggle of Togetherness, but live BLOODYMINDED is a very different beast.   On stage they are a writhing mass of black leather, cheap plastic synths, and far more microphones than necessary.  The result is the deconstruction of rock show clichés complete with between song banter and dedications, some of which are longer in duration than the song itself, which may be just a five second blast of synth.  In the studio, however, the thematic depth and obsessive attention to sonic detail is much more obvious, resulting in the band's best work to date.

The themes of urban spaces, isolation, and alienation abetted by digital technology on BLOODYMINDED link directly with Solotroff’s solo synth excursions of late, with the addition of The Myth of Community to the series coming just before this album.  Listening together, those feel almost like the early fieldwork for this final project, with notable similarities and differences.  While those recordings are sparse approximations of the inhuman concrete, glass and steel elements of the city via analog synthesizers, here the sense of isolation brings in the dense populace of an urban area. The first song "Precise Surfaces" is the opposite extreme of the synth work:  multiple vocals all over the mix, yelling and screaming from left, right, and center above a traditional power electronics backing of extreme low and high frequencies makes for a very maximialist sound.  However, there is the sense the vocals are disconnected from each other and also not necessarily directed at anyone in particular, resulting in a sense that I am just hearing the raging snippets of conversation from passing strangers above a standard urban din.

This is a structural approach that features prominently on "Degrees of Order" as well, and while this vocal style is not necessarily new for the band, it is so conceptually fitting for this album that it functions at an entirely new level.  The same feeling is captured on "Rapid Breath," where the staccato synth undulations are blended with layered vocals and screams that make for a wonderfully chaotic pairing to the otherwise rhythmic feel.  "Flooded Interiors" is also constructed on a rhythmic pulsation of synth, which is also balanced by the harsher, distorted vocals.

As a band, BLOODYMINDED's work has always been anchored by Solotroff's vocals, and that is no different here.  However, one of the most unique facets of the band is the fact that the vocals are usually rather clear and up-front, rather than buried under layers of distortion and effects.  While often delivered at a manic pace and in multiple layers, they are largely understandable and when not, there is always a lyric sheet to clarify.  Most of the lyrics here are couplets or short statements, pairings of buzz words or technical terms that emulate the fragmented information overload of today's social media and click-bait headlines.  Shouted phrases like "dehumanizing undercurrents," "subsistence and surplus," "sowing division," and "the iconography of defiance" make the thematic elements of the record even clearer.

Vocals are prominent, but the same meticulous attention to detail goes into the synths as well.  "Tunneling" features heavy feedback that is nicely mixed with a widely varying sound to the electronics that stay consistent and structured, but clearly not just simplistic loops or noise that is allowed to run untouched.  "The Self and the Sublime" is slower and more textural, with the noise passages beautifully layered and evolving from beginning to end.  There is an almost song-like structure to "The Future State of the Body" within the wet synths, overdriven bass line, and what almost seems to be an actual melody buried deep on "The Pace of Our Development," complete with French vocals by Xavier Laradji.  The album closes on the title song which, besides putting the band in the elite club of artists that have both an album and song which are also the name of the band (i.e. Bad Company and Black Sabbath), ties everything together well, with its manic vocals within a hollow, empty mix that feels like rage that no one is around to hear.

Chicago is the perfect place for BLOODYMINDED to have been recorded.  As the home of the eponymous Chicago School, significant sociological research has developed from the area that has no doubt informed the underling concepts of this record.  Specifically, Robert Park and Ernest Burgess's 1925 theory of urban ecology, and its influence on Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay’s social disorganization theory (1942).  A cornerstone of modern criminology, this theory posits how densely populated urban cities lead to an even greater sense of isolation; a seemingly contradictory effect, which in turn leads to anomie, disenfranchisement, and crime, which makes for an interesting sense of circular unity given the band's early work focusing on the true crime genre.  A growing body of contemporary research has also demonstrated the magnifying impact digital and social media has had on this phenomena.  I can think of no better audio examples of social disorganization than BLOODYMINDED, which makes it a fascinating work that bridges the gap between sound art and sociological theory.   Easily a masterpiece of noise and experimental music that not only is the band's greatest work to date, but also among the most fully realized albums of the genre.

Brainwashed on Mark Solotroff

I'm grateful to Creaig Dunton of Brainwashed for the extremely thoughtful reviews of my last two solo recordings! I can't recall a review of my work that was so attuned to what I was trying to do.

http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11891:mark-solotroff-qsymmetrical-spaces-of-communicationq-qsocial-objectivesq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Mark Solotroff, "Symmetrical Spaces of Communication", "Social Objectives"

Monday, 11 February 2019 00:06 Creaig Dunton 

Mark Solotroff’s contributions to harsh electronic music cannot be overstated.  Beginning with the adult bookstore sleaze of the 1980s power electronics project Intrinsic Action into the present day psychologically disturbing noise of Bloodyminded (which, in a live context, becomes the perfect deconstruction of rock performance) and the doom metal tinged Anatomy of Habit, he has been an influential force for the past 35 years.  This does not even take into account his multitude of solo and side projects, such as these two recent cassettes.  All of his work is joined together by a single, distinct thread:  a love of analog synthesizers that borders on the obsessive.  Here those synths are used to create the perfect soundtrack to city isolation.

One of Solotroff’s most ambitious projects of the past was Super Eight Loop:  100 hours of just the rawest analog synth improvisations possible.  Completed over the span of 25 years, albeit with a ten year hiatus thrown in there, it is a perfect distillation of his obsessive love of the instrument. Super Eight Loop was intended to capture the New York City of old, the one full of seedy movie theaters and an omnipresent sense of danger.  His latest work follows this same line of abstract soundtracks for urban spaces, but reoriented to the contradictory sense of loneliness and isolation that arise from a large, heavily populated city, in this case his current home of Chicago.  Symmetrical Spaces of Communication and Social Objectives are the two most recent installments this series of recordings joined by themes of the intersection between sociological theory and distinct urban spaces.

Compared to the Super Eight Loop works, there is less aggression and filth to be had, but instead replaced with sounds of corrosion, decay, and isolation.  "Ego Machine", on Symmetrical Spaces opens with an industrial grind and acidic, rust laden electronics slicing through concrete decay.  Eventually Solotroff arranges the sounds into a sustained drone, not unlike a humming power generator or far off airplane passing through.  He does an exceptional job at capturing bleakness, casting out cold sheets of sound like frigid rain falling in a vast, deserted space.

On the other side of the tape, "Achievement Society" features Solotroff keeping the same isolated mood and cold concrete spaces, but here awash in echo and hollow drone.  Non-specific rumbles appear far away, just far enough out of focus to be forceful.  At times, he blends in what almost sounds like a bit of melody distant in the mix:  an appropriately desolate bit of delicate beauty in the otherwise cold and inhospitable mix.  Even amidst all of that bleakness the melody adds in that tiniest bit of hope, as remote as it may seem.

In comparison, Social Objectives exemplifies a bit more of Solotroff’s noisier tendencies.  For "Emotive Issues", he sets his synths up to just below the noise threshold, keeping things to a shimmering burst blended with a duller mechanical hum.  He again captures the sense of despair via distant echoes and lower register, haunting tones.  There may be a lingering sense of harshness, but he keeps the mood much more to depressive than anything on the violent end of the spectrum.  "Population Advisor" is less textural in comparison, but is instead an excellent approximation of the dull noise of the city.  The whole of the piece is a nicely dull machinery hum, with passages approximating the sounds of power lines, florescent lights, or other malfunctioning equipment.  There may be the occasional fragment tone that passes through, but as a whole the piece is the perfect audio accompaniment to being alone in a city late at night.

Solotroff has been extremely active as of late, digitizing and remastering older works (including the aforementioned Super Eight Loop project), releasing some archival performances as Bloodyminded all the while working on a new album, and keeping up with his other projects.  Even with all of this other activity he has still found time to indulge in his analog synthesizer fetishism.  The long form pieces on these tapes never meander or drag on, but instead make for the perfect imaginary soundtracks to the urban landscapes that inspired them.  Even spread that thinly across his multitude of projects, this work is obviously a labor of love.  The sound is grey, bleak, and isolating, but in the most fascinating and beautiful of ways.

Brainwashed on Envenomist "Bleeding Out"

Thanks to Creaig Dunton at Brainwashed for the great review!

Envenomist, "Bleeding Out"

Sunday, 19 February 2017

Creaig Dunton

David Reed's newest album as Envenomist may be a collection of six songs, but the presentation and consistency between them seems more akin to a long from composition broken into distinct pieces. His bleak analog synthesizer works have been notable as a recent member of Bloodyminded, and as part of the trio Nightmares with Mark Solotroff and Jonathan Canady, but here he is in sole control. Perhaps due to it being a fully solo excursion or his compositional intent, the arrangement is sparse but strong, and the final product is a bleak synthesizer creep that hints at film score but is an entity entirely unto itself.

Dystopian film score is almost too easy of a reference to use, but it does fit the sound of Bleeding Out exceptionally well. A distinctly vintage tinge given the synths he mans is present, but it never takes on that 1970s style cliché sound. Nor is it ever too bombastic or dramatic. Rather than being riddled with abrupt bursts or shocking moments, the sound seethes, always a bit below the surface but clearly conveying menace. In that way it is almost too subtle to be a soundtrack work, but ends up standing on its own.

The opening moments of "Mirrors" set the stage well: a tinny synth first appears from the darkness, slowly surging in volume and taking on more and more force. Reed adds additional layers of electronics to build tension, but drifts out of control in order for Reed to maintain the menacing edge. “Equinox” is similarly structured, building from a thin metallic synth noise and richer drone. It is comparably more impressive and has a clearly sinister quality to it, but one that is captivating rather than off-putting.

Reed may keep "Shockwave" an overall more skeletal structure, but he expands greatly from its grinding keyboard foundation. There is a sense of lurk throughout, as synth strings give a tension-building edge to the creepy space he creates. His small electronic accents and icy buzzing keep it from being dull dark ambient bleakness. A heavy sense of synthetic strings comes through on "Two Kings" as well, with the production giving an overall more organic sound to the electronics, which makes for an even darker proposition. Here Reed sticks to the middle and higher register sounds, and the complex layering generates tension perfectly.

Both of the side-ending pieces are more focused on low end sounds, however. A bassy lurch drives the overall hushed "Kraken Mare," staying just far enough in the distance to not overwhelm, but also to keep the tension there and not relenting. Shimmering passages and frigid moments pass through like hints of light in an otherwise overwhelming abyss. "The Thaw" is a fitting conclusion to the album both in sound and title. Again Reed keeps the low end throbbing, but the mix more open. The buzzing synth becomes the focus at times, but instead he closes the album on a surprisingly quiet note.

For most of Bleeding Out, David Reed keeps to the same primary synthesizers and largely similar patches on them, giving a clear consistency from one piece to the next. As a nod to his ability as a composer and performer, however, never do the songs too easily run together or sound too similar to one another. Instead the similarity mostly serves to unite the pieces, coming across more like a lengthy single work that captures a variety of sinister moods. That singular consistency serves to make Bleeding Out a continually fascinating album of building tension that never relents, and it is all the stronger for that fact.

Brainwashed on Iugula-Thor

Thanks to Creaig Dunton at Brainwashed!

http://bit.ly/2jyhPVm

After a lengthy dormancy, Andrea Chiaravalli reinstated his long standing harsh electronics project Iugula-Thor in 2012 and has been active ever since, releasing some of the strongest work of his career.  This is the first full fledged release since then, with the prior ones being largely splits and singles, and also features Chiaravalli partnering with Paolo Bandera (Sshe Retina Stimulants, Sigillum S) to create a bleak, but multifaceted record of diverse electronics.

Iugula-Thor never fit in quite as specifically as many other Italian artists associated with the power electronics scene.  Their work largely took on a grey aura simultaneously colored by Marizio Bianchi's depression and the violence of giallo films.  It is a distinct and great style, but it is always great to hear an artist breaking away from what is expected. Iugula-Thor’s influence has drawn more heavily from the thrash and speed metal scenes, and while that may not be immediately apparent these days, I think that influence adds a lot to the duo’s unique sound.

Rhythms play a notable role in the sound of Choosing Your Own Brand of Evil.  "Unknown Third Party" is driven by a crashing loop and an insistent, throbbing bit of bass, as the two work a multitude of weird synth sounds in, at times twinkling and almost light, and other times dark and sinister.  The overall effect is wonderfully schizophrenic.  The terse "One Mind No Views" is a bit less subtle in rhythm:  a big, rib cage pummeling kick drum that never subsides for the pieces' brief two minute duration, with other bits of trash percussion and simply oscillating noise synths stay prominent.

Even a more noise oriented composition, such as "n.a." has some semblance of rhythm with the crunchy static-laden loop that underscores it, but the tasteful applications of filtered noise and other bursts of static place it somewhere on the spectrum between avant garde experimentalism and outright noise brutality.  There is a similarly tenuous balance to be found on "First Time My Wrists Opened", though the grinding electronics and sinister slowed voice passages nudge it a bit more in the death industrial direction.

The moments where the duo take a "throw everything together and see what happens” are the ones that stand out the most for me, however.  For example:  "I'm Not" is at first all noise loops, but with an almost toy-like synthesizer line.  Voices appear here and there, and the whole song alternates from lighter bits of electronics into vaguely industrial stomping.  The voices and what almost could be horn samples make for a confusing, scatter-shot quality in instrumentation but it all manages to work together.  The album closer "Hammer" is also a bizarre mix of marching band like rhythms, largely clean synth sounds, and what could almost be a violin here and there.  Compared to what preceded it, it is lighter and less oppressive, but still just the right amount of abrasive and weird.

For their first full album release in nearly two decades, Chiaravalli and Bandera have put together an excellent, fully realized album with Choosing Your Own Brand of Evil.  The mood and style may not be a surprise, but the actual work from the two artists is a unique, idiosyncratic mass of collaged electronics and abrasive electronics that comes across as composed, rather than just improvised.  The music itself is where the unpredictability lies, and that sense of the unknown is where it excels the most.

Brainwashed on Anatomy of Habit

Thanks to Creaig Dunton for the great support!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anatomy of Habit, "Ciphers + Axioms"

Sunday, 09 November 2014 20:57 Creaig Dunton Reviews - Albums and Singles

Following up their debut LP and EP, Chicago’s post-everything supergroup Anatomy of Habit (featuring members of Bloodyminded, Tortoise, and Indian, amongst many other projects) continue their penchant for dramatic, expansive rock-tinged music.  For their Relapse debut, they provide two lengthy, side-long pieces that distill everything that was great about their early releases into a cohesive, rich album that stays faithful to their previous work, while adding an extra layer of polish.


Relapse


From the opening moments of "Radiate then Recede", AoH's influences are not hard to place.  The pounding drums, subterranean bass and caustic, drilling guitar bear a clear early Swans influence, but with a bit more restraint and less overt violence.  The production adds a lot to this differentiation, with the use of reverb and processing bringing a hint of The Cure and Joy Division to their sound.  Influences, yes, but they do so without directly aping any of those projects directly, retaining their own distinct style.
 
At over 20 minutes "Radiate And Recede" works more like a suite than a single song, with the band working through various configurations of the aforementioned sounds.  Sometimes sludgy and shambling, other times leaning into chugging metal riffs, it never stops moving nor becomes stagnant.  Vocalist Mark Solotroff, the de facto leader of this ensemble, delivers vocals that are the polar opposite of what he is known for from Intrinsic Action or Bloodyminded.  Rather than manic screams or shouts, he is detached, calm and clinical.  Amongst the dirge and darkness constructed from distorted bass and guitar melodies, he clearly reads off scientific terms with an uncomfortable detachment.
 
On the other half of the record, "Then Window," the group retains the mood but changes the template a bit.  Early on, guitar noise dissolves into militant drumming and wobbling bass rattles.  The piece transitions from a looser opening into a more tautly structured passage of almost 1970s classic heavy metal, juxtaposing the differing styles.  It is depressive and muddy, with an almost shuffling drum groove driving it.
 
By the middle it becomes a massive ambient expansive, with Solotroff hypnotically repeating the title of the album like some sinister documentary narrator, with the band throwing out expansive, fuzzy noise paired with the guitar melody present since the beginning of the piece.  Compared to “Radiate then Recede” it is clearly a more static, frozen piece, but one that captivates all the same.
 
There are not gigantic strides made stylistically between the first two AoH releases and Ciphers + Axioms, but instead there is a greater cementing of their identity, as well as a more fully realized sound.  Unlike most supergroups where each artist is pushing their "thing" harder than the rest, everyone here fits perfectly with one another.  They might sound nothing like each other, but parallels are there between AoH and Kevin Martin's God in that respect.  A gathering of musicians who mesh seamlessly together, each acting like a force multiplier to the other to result in a dense, heavy, yet thoroughly enthralling album.
samples:

• Radiate And Recede (Excerpt 1)
• Radiate And Recede (Excerpt 2)
• Then Window

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10256:anatomy-of-habit-qciphers-axiomsq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Brainwashed on BLOODYMINDED "Within The Walls"

A big thanks to Creaig Dunton at Brainwashed for the very favorable review of "Within The Walls":

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9861%3Abloodyminded-qwithin-the-wallsq&catid=13%3Aalbums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Brainwashed on Anatomy of Habit CD

Here's a nice review of our new CD from Brainwashed, with thanks to Creaig Dunton:

Compiling their vinyl debut and follow-up EP, this compilation captures the Chicago rock supergroup (made up of some of the city’s best known noise artists) honing and perfecting their surprisingly restrained and tuneful, but appropriately grandiose work.

Consisting of Mark Solotroff (Bloodyminded, Intrinsic Action) on vocals, Greg Ratajczak (Plague Bringer) on guitar, drummer Dylan Posa (Cheer-Accident, Flying Luttenbachers), bassist Kenny Rasmussen and percussionist Blake Edwards (Vertonen), there are a lot of recognizable people here to those versed in the harsh noise world, so my interest was piqued when I heard Anatomy of Habit was more of a post-punk death rock band.

Within the first few minutes of opener "After the Water" (the shortest track at about seven and a half minutes), I immediately felt some kinship with the short-lived Freek Records label, who also captured some more noise-oriented bands doing more guitar-based music, such as Bodychoke and Ramleh.  Maybe not in a direct manner, since those artists leaned more into a distorted, occasionally psychedelic squall while AoH has a much cleaner, almost ascetically sparse approach to their epic length compositions.
 
For example "Overcome" sticks to a sparse echoing bass and quiet feedbacking guitar structure rather rigidly, with Solotroff's vocals and slight variations to keep things moving.  Slowly but surely noisier guitar drifts in, building to an aggressive climax of slow, but monolithic guitar riffs, stabbing drums and raw, aggressive vocals.  It is not a song to just casually listen to; it demands full attention, which is rewarded at the end.

Repetition is a key piece of these songs, most of which clock in at around a full length side of vinyl in duration.  "Overcome" and "The Decade Plan" open with elongated passages displaying simple, but effective variations, with Solotroff's vocals occasionally drifting more into mantra like repetitions.  Never is it dull and tedious though, because the songs consistently build to dramatic crescendos that make them captivating.
 
While there is a variety of sounds and approaches, it is a dark record.  "The Decade Plan" opens as closed to upbeat as it gets, which is quickly contradicted by a dark, doom-laden closing.  Even the more Joy Division tinged "Torch", with its majestic rhythmic dissonance is reformed into an early '80s metal riff-fest later on, bearing a passing resemblance to Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” in the best possible way.
 
With the debut LP ("Overcome" and "Torch") coming out in 2011 and last year’s EP ("After the Water," "The Decade Plan") both being relatively recent, there is a noticeable difference that can be heard between the two, with the more recent work showing a bit more variation and nuance in comparison to the more bluntly aggressive earlier work.  The material works together as a consistent whole though, and feels more like a full debut album rather than a collection of previously released material, managing to be both powerful, but also memorable and catchy.

http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9579:anatomy-of-habit&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Brainwashed on Sun Splitter LP

A positive review of the Sun Splitter "III" LP, written by Creaig Dunton, was recently posted on the Brainwashed site:

Following up an already impressive album (the self-released CDR and cassette reissued II) is never an easy feat, but Chicago's Sun Splitter have done just that.  Continuing their doom metal/rock/industrial hybrid sound with an even greater level of polish, as well as going a bit more experimental at times, the sequel may even surpass the predecessor.

Bloodlust!

Sun Splitter's debut managed to encapsulate all of the things I enjoy about heavy metal music (sludgy, memorable riffs, an appropriately dark atmosphere), without much emphasis on the stuff I have never been fond of (overwrought cookie monster vocals, trite blasphemy, etc).  They continue that approach here, and continuing to use a stiff drum machine that hints at the brilliance of early Godflesh without sounding like an intentional copy.

"The Serpent’s Gold Death" exemplifies this, and does a wonderful job at encapsulating the album as a whole:  opening with weird, mangled sounds, it does not take long before a bass heavy low-end guitar riff kicks the door in, with a metronomic drum machine along for the ride.  While the vocals show up later on, they are both so heavily processed to be nearly unrecognizable, and low enough in the mix to compliment, rather than dominate the rest of the instrumentation.

"Eye of Jupiter" trades in similar wares, with its immediate feedback and stuttering kick drum, but with relatively clean guitar tone that hints at the best of '70s hard rock balancing out the harshness.  Between this, constantly evolving guitar sounds, and a bit of organ, the track shows more variety in six minutes than most bands do for an entire album, but each segment flows nicely into the next, not coming across like rough jump cuts or forced changes.

It is on the two longer pieces that the band goes for some more experimental sounds and changes.  "Parasitic Machine" starts out with a simple mechanical rhythm and diverse guitar lines, locking into a steadier groove than the preceding "Eye of Jupiter", but not in a dull fashion.  At about the halfway point, the heaviness falls away into cold, frigid lands of ambience.  The piece slowly builds back up, but never gets to the intensity that it began with.

"Two Cold Oceans" takes a more dramatic approach:  slowly building up from a calm, organ driven opening, it quickly locks into a doomy, but propulsive rhythm.  As it builds upon itself, it eventually launches into a full on cacophony with only the vestiges of guitar identifiable.  The piece then collapses, closing the album with echoed voices and mutilated loops.

III keeps Sun Splitter's unique take on metal to its next logical stage.  Sticking with the catchy riffs and machine beats that work so well, but adding in an even more prominent focus on abstract textures and dissonant distortion makes for an extremely powerful album, one that shows there is little chance of these guys succumbing to the stagnant repetition that so many lesser metal bands fall prey to.

http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9352:sun-splitter-qiiiq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133