Phyllomedusa -- Desiccation In Progress (Version I) (review)

Band: Phyllomedusa
Album: Desiccation In Progress (Version I)
Genre: gorenoise
Year: 2011
Label: Hypyractyv Larynx Frogquencies

Big Frog is one of my all-time favorite 'musicians' (I personally think the man is extremely talented).  He has a ton of projects, and I mean a ton.  For the most part he dabbles in extreme forms of noise, but he occasionally embraces some form of 'normal' music only to twist it into something abrasive and perverse.  The man has a way with, essentially, destroying music(al convention).  Phyllomedusa happens to be the pinnacle of this mindset.
What we have here is an homage to the gods of gore: Last Days of Humanity (sorry, Carcass is great too, but LDoH took goregrind to the limits).  Desiccation In Progress is 100% Putrefaction In Progress-worship, yet Big Frog manages to create a beast (excuse me, frog) of his own.
Eighteen tracks of grimy, vulgar gorenoise crammed into a thirteen-minute run-time makes for one hell of an album.  The tracks are almost single-minded in nature.  Blast beats blaze past at insane tempos.  The guitars (and bass?) are distorted to the point that there are no distinguishable riffs; rather, they create an impermeable wall of harsh noise.  The vocals are a combination of processed gurgles and violent, strained roars.  Big Frog sounds legitimately enraged, like a bull(frog) ready to charge.
The tracks are actually varied to some degree.  Occasionally, the music will break into an intense groove, like on "The Lumberjack Killer" and "Preservation of Hemiphractus Carrion."  The start of "Some Edible Rodent Fragments to Digest" has a very strong industrial metal vibe, and "Persuaded In Leptophryne Cannibalism" features a very brief but devastating breakdown.  These breaks from the grinding speed-fest, although short-lived, help keep the listener tuned into the disgusting noise.
This album is easily one of the best in the realm of gorenoise, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to indulge themselves in 'anti-music' (which is, charmingly, just a category of music).  Download this thing from Phyllomedusa's bandcamp page here.


Rating: 5 / 5
Top Tracks:
Persuaded In Leptophryne Cannibalism
The Lumberjack Killer
Continual Spea Waste
Some Edible Rodent Fragments to Digest
Preservation of Hemiphractus Carrion
The Beauty of Putrefaction In Sensible Frogcare