godheadSilo -- The Scientific Supercake (guest review)

Band: godheadSilo
Album: The Scientific Supercake
Genre: sludge/experimental
Year: 1994
Label: Kill Rock Stars

While he can err on the side of excessive “hipsterism” and I don’t always agree with all of his opinions and analysis, I still find Chuck Klosterman one of my favorite journalists because of our common interests. Klosterman’s famous “VORM” article I read in his compilation X strived to find the value of each individual musician in a band- first by calculating a musician’s worth relative to their other band members, then calculating that band’s relative worth to other bands. Ambitious? Yes. Controversial? Certainly. I had listened to most of the bands at the top of the weighted spectrum (Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Radiohead) but one name that caught my eye was godheadSilo, intriguingly weighted the same as R.E.M. Curiosity = piqued.
Watching some of the band’s mid-nineties YouTube performances, I got a sense that you had to be there. I just knew a video recording couldn’t do these guys justice- it was just a bassist (Mike Kunka) and drummer (Dan Haugh) slamming away on their instruments with relentless fury. Both the band members have experienced hearing loss and discomfort from their brutal shows, and I knew I had to pick up The Scientific Supercake right away to further my artistic experience.
After a few listens, I concur that godheadSilo were certainly less songwriters than soundcrafters. There’s almost no way to describe the SOUND of this thing- if I had to compare it to any other record I’d probably pick Godflesh’s Streetcleaner, but listening to this album at any decent volume with good speakers will make your skin crawl. I’ve always been a sucker for more sonically than technically ambitious albums, so I found this right in my wheelhouse. Fun fact- if you turn the bass all the way up on your speakers and play this, it’ll blow them out. Not that I’m willing to try.
Opener “Nuts To You” has Kunka’s strangled vocals higher in the mix than any of the other songs, with Haugh’s mutated rhythms taking center stage. They settle into a more comfortable crushing tempo on “Birthday Sandwich”, but it isn’t until the freaky white-noise blasts on “Another Schizoid Ambelism” that the record truly reaches its hair-raising peak. The heart of the record is “Mr. Push Up”, which serves as the quintessential godheadSilo song; extended, creepy intro, percolating tempos, and harsh treble spurts. “I Luv U….Nicorns” has almost a pop sensibility to it, with catchy, ripping riffs, and “Hopefully They Will Learn” serves as a bleak, disturbing intro to the final two songs, which wind down all the thrashing somewhat. Short interludes are sprinkled throughout the record, ranging from melodic (“Two Peanuts Are Walking Down The Street”) to esoteric (“Ventriloqueef”).
Kunka and Haugh haven’t explicitly expressed the desire to record again since 1998’s Share the Fantasy, so we may have seen the last of this incarnation of heavy noise rock. While the riffs can get repetitive and janky at times, and Kunka doesn’t have much to offer as a vocalist, I haven’t even heard of anything close to the general sound and diverse range of influences this album draws from, and it hasn’t been commodified and diluted by legions of poor imitators. The sound of this album draws you in initially, but the strong songwriting and attention to detail gives it multitudes of replay value. Definitely recommended.


Rating: 7.2 / 10
Top Tracks:
Another Schizoid Ambelism
Mr. Push Up

Guest review by Adam Nohl

Project Nefast -- SEX MONEY POWER (review)

Band: Project Nefast
Album: SEX MONEY POWER
Genre: drone metal
Year: 2017
Label: Tartarus Records

Sex.  Money.  Power.
Project Nefast blow me away yet again.  Their previous effort, Dogma, was a monstrous exposé of psychedelic bliss, and here we see the band taking their sound in a new direction: drone metal.  Consisting of four hypnotic tracks, SEX MONEY POWER is a half-hour journey into a world of wailing feedback and distortion.  I'll break it down track-by-track and also delve into the accompanying music videos...
The album opens with the absolutely crushing "Mislukkeling."  This is pure, unadulterated drone metal.  Wave after wave of harsh guitar noise crashes upon the listener in an unrelenting bath of chaos.  The drummer gets a few shots in as well, but rather than providing structure, he only adds to the disarray.  And who would have thought that there would be a music video for this?  I don't think I've ever seen a music video for an instrumental, but Project Nefast pull it off.  The video trudges along slowly, keeping pace with the music.  The plot is simple: three masked men (Nefast in the flesh) sit around a table playing monopoly.  Two of the album's central themes are represented in the scene: MONEY (monopoly cash raining down on the men) and POWER (the array of weapons on the table, including a pair of... well, scissors).  Overall, I would say it matches the track perfectly and gives us a little glimpse into the minds of this Dutch trio.
Check the video here.
Next up is "Pastorale."  On this track, Nefast lead us into a nice little psychedelic jam.  Somewhat reminiscent of their 2016 album, "Pastorale" builds intensity over its nearly 10-minute running time before slowing down and running out of steam.
A jolt of noise announces the third track, the titular "SEX MONEY POWER."  Yet another shift in musical direction, "SEX MONEY POWER" builds a wall of psychedelic noise which all but drowns out the vocalist.  The drummer provides structure to this droning wall of sound by blasting away at a steady pace.  Once again, I am reminded of Dogma, but it still seems fresh.  The music video displays a darker side of the band.  Shaky, black-and-white footage follows a pair of women as they engage in the nightlife of the urban sprawl.  Everything seems pretty lighthearted as the duo walk the city streets, clearly high as fuck.  The footage is intercut with shots of a playground, particularly focusing on a slide.  As the tension in the song finally explodes, the women break into an argument which ultimately escalates into a fight at the playground.  The whole thing is filmed in such a way that it feels unnerving, and the action follows the swell of the music perfectly.
View the video here.
Finally, we have "Ziektebeeld."  A steady drum-and-bass beat provides the stage for a rant ( I presume in Dutch) by a seemingly crazed vocalist.  It almost feels like a one-sided argument, as if he is trying to reason with himself.  The guitars chime in, providing a layer of psyched-out droning.  Some electronic elements are also utilized towards the end of the track.  The album ends very abruptly.  The shift from droning repetitiveness to absolute nothingness is quite a shock, yet in my opinion is not out of place.
Project Nefast end the album on an odd note, but that seems to be the point.  Society craves sex, money, and power, but these things cannot fill the void within us all.  They leave much to be desired (or maybe I'm just full of shit on this one).  I highly recommend you listen to this trio's discography.  You can stream SEX MONEY POWER from their bandcamp here and purchase a cassette copy from Tartarus Records here.  Full support for these Dutch metallers!


Rating: 4 / 5
Top Tracks:
SEX MONEY POWER
Ziektebeeld

Seagulls Insane and Swans Deceased Mining Out the Void -- Seagulls Insane and Swans Deceased Mining Out the Void (review)

Band: Seagulls Insane and Swans Deceased Mining Out the Void
Album: Seagulls Insane and Swans Deceased Mining Out the Void
Genre: post-black metal | drone
Year: 2011
Label: Witching Hour Productions

Seagulls Insane and Swans Deceased Mining Out the Void is a black metal band from the Silesian region of Poland.  The masterminds of this beast are the established Polish metal purveyors Havoc (ex-Behemoth) and Nihil (Furia, Cssaba).  With this particular project, they play black metal wrought with industrial and drone influences, blanketed in an atmosphere of anguish and mystery.
The album is not composed of songs so much as it is split into five distinct parts that flow together, labeled I-V (how convenient).  The compositions are littered with droning feedback and haunting melodies.  Keyboards and electronic effects expand on the textures created by the guitars and grinding bass.  The drums have a stark, mechanical feel to them, which I feel melds well with the overall sound.  For the most part, the band trudges along at a slow pace, but the tempo occasionally picks up, like on the midsection of the first track.
The vocals are performed by Nihil and take the form of a gruff snarl.  Unlike some of his other projects, the lyrics are entirely in English (he often writes in his mother-tongue).  The vocals stand out the most on "II" when the line "Only to animate the dead world again / With a maniac ritual of inspiration" is chanted over and over in rhythm with the steady drum beat.
Other stand-out moments include the swirling, eerie melody that pops up on "III" and the plodding drone of the album closer.  The Polish duo successfully, as they put it, "voyage into limitless abyss and emptiness."  I really hope these guys put out a followup to this release, but it seems they prefer to keep their activities under wraps (at least on this project).  Give this album a listen and experience the crushing gloom for yourself here.


Rating: 3.5 / 5
Top Tracks:
III
II