Pagoda Mast -- Musashi (review)

Band: Pagoda Mast
Album: Musashi
Genre: blackened harsh noise wall
Year: 2016
Label: independent

If you are looking for bleak, soulless 'music', look no further than Pagoda Mast.  This Imperial Japanese Navy-inspired noise project is the epitome of audio depravity.  The one-man project's fourth demo, Musashi, is named after the IJN battleship which sank in 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.  The two-hour tribute to said vessel is nothing short of haunting.
The album begins with the track "Yamato."  The opening seems to be the sounds of the wind blowing over the deck of a ship.  This quickly gives way to an abrasive wall of noise.  The sound is thick and sharp.  No fragment of happiness or beauty can penetrate it.  The pattern shifts as the track progresses, but the aforementioned characteristics remain.  After a half-hour of wreaking audio havoc, the first track concludes only to be succeeded by "Untitled I."
The noise seems to come from a variety of sources aside from the usual noise 'instruments'.  Samples from documentaries about the Imperial Japanese Navy are amplified to ear-splitting volumes, and vocals seem to be employed at various points.  The vocals (if that's what it is, maybe I'm just hearing things) are piercing black metal shrieks.  In fact, this album has black metal written all over it.
The thirty-minute title track sounds like a black metal song drenched in noise to the point of being unrecognizable.  One can almost pick out a faint melody beneath the relentless chaos.  "Shinano" also feels like a gritty black metal tune, and "111" has a distinct, sorrowful melody and faint blast beats throughout.  The closing "A-150" features a heavy, mechanical beat reminiscent of industrial music.  Once the track clocks out, the listener is left with a sharp ringing in their ears.  That, my friend, is the sign of some grade-A harsh noise.
Pagoda Mast's Musashi is an unrelenting beast of an album.  From start to finish, there is no room to breathe and no way to cry for help.  Immerse yourself in this sickening noise wall, which can be found on Pagoda Mast's bandcamp here.


Rating: 4.5 / 5
Top Tracks:
Yamato
Musashi
111