New Spins: 19th October 2020
Another busy week has gone by, and whilst I haven't been able to get any full reviews or articles on the blog for a few weeks, you can find some of my recent reviews at The Sleeping Shaman and Cave Dweller Music. That said there should be a really interesting new review coming this week, but in the meantime here is some more new spins...
Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson and Balazs Pandi - Cuts Open
Merzbow is probably as well known for his ridiculously large discography as he is for the stunning noise music that he continues to be the master of. His Wikipedia claims that in 2020 alone he has released 23 studio albums - I've heard about artists not being able to play gigs so writing lots of new music during the lockdown, but this is something else! Anyway, back in September (a lifetime ago in Merzbow's world) he released the third in a series of collaboration records with Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Hungarian drummer Balazs Pandi, a trio who have played together live for many years. Cuts Open follows up from Cuts and Cuts Of Guilt, Cuts Deeper (which also featured Thurston Moore). These were both pretty marvellous clashes of free jazz and noise, but Cuts Open has really shown a new side to this group. The album combines some more atmospheric tendencies into the group's well constructed sonic wall, but is equally as capricious and unpredictable even on repeat listens. It shows that after 40 years and over 400 albums Merzbow is still finding new and unique ways to push the boundaries of music.
Faceless Nihilist - The Absurd Existence
I rarely get that excited about raw-production black metal these days; that's not to say I can't enjoy it, but it can be quite tiresome to listen to and many acts end up as mere copycats of the early Norwegian masters. However occasionally something with this style will peak my interest, and the one-man project Faceless Nihilist from Serbia has done exactly that. There is something about The Absurd Existence which reminds me of early Xasthur in it's slightly romantic approach to depression, but Faceless Nihilist's sound foregoes the horrific screams of mental anguish, opting instead for an extreme sense of misery and mystery and letting the instrumentals speak for themselves. There is nearly two hours of music on this album, but the reverb soaked raw production completely draws you in; it's so atmospheric that you can easily spend those two hours completely lost within the record's haunting aura.
Abysm - A Grim Reminder
Another one man instrumental project, but this one of an entirely different kind. Hailing from Ireland, Abysm delivers us some utterly ferocious death-sludge on this, the project's first release. Sitting somewhere between the seven string grooves of modern deathcore and the crushing downtuned sound of modern sludge, it's a quite devastating listen that really approaches Conan levels of heavy only with a more evil melodic sense. Much like Bongripper, on first listen you somewhat miss the vocals, but after repeat listens the riffs really start to come alive on their own. There are some particularly interesting slower and quieter passages too which have a real air of menace about them, and the use of some wildly atonal chords make A Grim Reminder a very interesting listen. It's not perfect by any means, the songwriting could use some improvement and some of the riffs do stretch out for a little too long, but regardless it's still a terrific start for this project.
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