EXISTENCE ESTABLISHMENT REVIEW:
This is easily one of my favorite releases of 2012 and it’s great to know that before the halfway point. Two underrated acts team up for this obsessive industrial slab of vinyl to form a formidable sonic force. Their respective styles differing so much yet at the same time complimenting each other gracefully. Right off the bat I noticed the absolutely gorgeous artwork with sparse yet well placed text which helps make this release an instant classic.
Corephallism is up first with two tracks of beautiful drone combined with noise and industrial influences. It’s too ambient to be power electronics and much to somber to be straight up industrial. Both Abandonment and Rapes of Convenience are heightened with emotion and sharpened with a dark edge to create a truly menacing spectre. The tracks are short and to the point which easily encourages multiple playbacks. It’s going to be no time before this record is already worn out.
Gnaw Their Tongues does away with their latest bombastic neo-classical flirtations to present A Moral Guide to Self-castration and Necrophilia which is a booming and sickened barrage of industrial clangs, screeches, and groans. Drum machines mangled enough to sound like they are the manifestation of a long dead factory worker haunting his former place of employment. Not to mention the sickened black metal-influenced vocals that appear. Cat like growling, insane whispering floating among the hollowed sounds.
This is truly a release of mammoth proportions, so honed to a point with aesthetic direction and cohesiveness that it’s bleak artwork seems to seep through into its surroundings. The sounds presented are so intensely composed and atmospheric that it seems over in a flash, but you are left with some kind of disembodied evil resting heavily on your conscience. This record actually makes me feel guilty, regretful. Especially when I’ve found the needle has worn through it after so many repeated listens. 4.5 / 5
THE NOISE BOSTON:
Never have I felt utterly unqualified to review a record… until now. Shane Michael Broderick’s drone/noise project, Corephallism may just be beyond my comprehension. “Abandonment” builds from a minor-key synthesizer drone into a cacophony of noise—something reminiscent of a ride-on lawnmower. “Rapes of Convenience” opens with what sounds like guitar feedback before introducing buzz-saw synthesized noise and a throbbing, moaning drone. It feels like a scene from Star Wars in which the Death Star pans into the frame out of the vastness of space. This is certainly unsettling stuff—the perfect soundtrack to an art-house horror flick.
PLAGUE HAUS REVIEW:
If there ever was a match made in the Ninth Circle, this is probably it. Paired for this 10″ are Corephallism, the solo project of Shame Michael Broderick who some of you might recognize as a member of Boston Noise maniacs Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck and the seemingly everywhere at once project of Dutchman Maurice De Jong, Gnaw There Tongues.
Corephallism leads of the split. Now call it old age or laziness or a combination of the two, but I rarely indulge in the commitment it takes to listen to Harsh Noise let alone review it anymore. So lets just say for the record that I like this side of Broderick about a thousand times better than anything TDSOGF were doing. Not that it’s bad, this is just more to my taste. “Abandonment” begins with almost religious reverence, long slow notes of analogue synth rising like the tide with low moaning undercurrents. The beauty of the moment is soon cut by utterances of locust-rasped vocals, not overwhelming, but bitter enough to put the listener on edge. “Rapes Of Convenience” uses the same vocal stylings, but musically is a bit heavier, more offensive as the title suggests, heavily metallic discomfort.
I’d heard a lot about Gnaw Their Tongues buzzing about, but honestly before this split I’d never actually heard him. De Jong does offer up a pretty unique blend of Dark Ambient, Noise and Black Metal aesthetics. Eleven minutes of black mechanical thud and hiss, tortured vocals and layers upon layers of manipulated noise. Beneath it all is a ghost of a rhythmic pattern, a tempo only it’s creator knows. It’s pretty much pure chaos. “Industrial” doesn’t quite describe it, but it’s definitely the din of some dark and hellish industry.
The cover art fits perfectly, a nude female bound by cord or wire, distorting the contours of her flesh into some bizarre road map. If I’m not mistaken, the Lascivious Aesthetics label is ran by Mr. Broderick. Check with him regarding availability.
DEAD FORMATS REVIEW
I have mentioned this before but this record really falls under the sub category of records I feel horrible about listening to around my two year old daughter. I know if one day, when she is grown up, she becomes some sort of psycho killer or black widow I will probably tell an aging Anderson Cooper that I have no idea why my daughter is on a kill crazy rampage but in the back of my mind I will probably think it's all because of Gnaw Their Tongues, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer and Actuary. The Gnaw Their Tongues side of this record is probably what you are expecting but that is only if you are expecting scary, dark and twisted industrial sounding noise, doom, filth. It's terrifying as always and well worth listening to over and over. This is my first exposure to Corephallism and I was wondering who would compliment/juxtapose Gnaw Their Tongues' insanity. What I found was something that actually does both. The two tracks from Corephallism have an underlining drone of beautiful swelling strings and synths. On their own these could both be solid tracks but then there is a constant destruction of these tracks that completely elevates them to a new level of anxiety and tension. I am very happy to have found this one.
Visually it's simple but really perfect. Nice simple design with some creepy photos of bound breast and dead looking legs. It's slightly disturbing enough to realize that after I die and my daughter has inherited all my records she is going to find this and think, "yup, Pop was a creep". The typography is pretty cool. The upside down cross on the cover is maybe a little obvious but it still looks cool with the san serif font (maybe Cassius Sans). It's solid. Would I buy this? Yes
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