Thursday 28 November 2013

Theologian - Some Things Have To Be Endured (Album Review)



Album Type : Full Length
Date Released :  18/10/2013
Label : Crucial Blast

 Some Things Have To Be Endured, album track listing :

1). Black Coven Myopia 04:32
2).The Conjoined Deviant Procession 05:13
3). Gore Stained Ramparts 08:32
4). Grand Guignol 04:04
5). Like Love, Only Real 05:38
6). The Conjoned Deviant Procession 04:49
7). Welcome To The Golden Age of Beggars 06:18
8). Writing Corpus Landscape 08:05

Bio :

The latest offering from THEOLOGIAN -- a.k.a. Leech, also the mastermind behind the renowned power electronics/death industrial outfit Navicon Torture Technologies -- Some Things Have To Be Endured features eight new tracks of punishing black industrial, apocalyptic darkwave frequencies, and nerve-rending electronic deathscapes. The album is a collection of collaborations between THEOLOGIAN and a lineup of female vocalists/artists from both within the industrial / noise / dark ambient / coldwave realm and beyond, with contributions from Rachael Kozak (Hecate), Kristen MacArthur (Sewer Goddess), Rachel Maloney (Tonikom), Nikki Telladictorian (Prometheus Burning), Patricia Benitez (Fetish Drone), Gillian Leigh Bowling (Teloahqaal), Christiana Key (Delphic Oracle), Joan Hacker (Factoria), Shari Vari (Void Vision), and professional opera singer Melissa C. Kelly. The tracks shift from grinding industrial dread to ethereal coldwave beauty, blasts of rumbling blackened synthcrush met with washes of haunting electronic melody, while always remaining rooted in THEOLOGIAN's bleak, jet-black industrial sound. Co-produced with Derek Rush/Dream Into Dust and mastered by James Plotkin, Some Things Have To Be Endured contains some of the most moving and dramatic music to emerge from THEOLOGIAN's black sonic abyss, and the album comes adorned with striking photography by Ione Rucquoi that makes this one of the more visually arresting releases in the outfit’s growing catalog

Review :

Theologian play dark industrial ambient noise, the likes of which has probably never been witnessed before. To listen to 'Some Things Have To be Endured' is like staring into the abyss, and trying desperately not to make eye contact with what stares back at you. Masterminded by NY based noizenik Leech and uniquely featuring a slew of guest female vocalists, the record is seeing a release via the experimental Crucial Blast label in an unholy union that is sure to reap rewards.

'Black Cavern Myopia' commences with Sunn o))) style depth and discordance, before a nauseating industrial beat springs forth to dominate. Throughout the track it's never in danger of becoming overbearing on misplaced, it lurks in the shadows with pure menace, perfectly poised. This is true dark ambiance, ushered forth from a long night of the soul. The vocals of Rachael Kozak are haunting and sensual, and will frankly creep you out. She sounds like she was either drugged or possessed or a combination of both during the recording process. Brilliant.

'Gore-Stained Ramparts' is more uneasy listening, but in a gradual sense. It begins in an inoffensive enough manner, but the increase in tension suggests that testing times lay ahead. And sure enough the clangs of machinery from the seventh circle of hell start to weed their way into the score and the effort starts to sound like a passage from the book of Job. This is suffering in a magnificent manner, the feeling of panic is so tangible and escalating that I actually began to experience anxiety. And if music can start to affect a listener in such a physical way? Well, that's true power right there folks. It never gets seriously loud, and it doesn't need to force it's will upon you. Scary stuff.

'The Conjoined Deviant Procession' features a steady hiss as if something is only half tuned in, and an unsteady beat in the background that could be a health hazard. All the while twinned with more unearthly female vocals, this time provided by Christiana Key of Delphic Oracle. I imagine that being in a sensory deprivation tank for too long could lead to hallucinations that this song could successfully soundtrack. Bleak in every sense of the word, you'll feel heavily medicated with no escape before this composition is through with you.

Not for the faint of heart or expectant mothers, 'Some Things Have To Be Endured' is just what it's title suggests, an exercise in endurance. It will however reward that endurance and repeated plays with an increasingly fantastic record that must have been hell to conceive, and just as difficult to physically create. But what a creation, one of stunning malevolence and bitter beauty.

Listen to Theologian - It should scare the shit out of you. If it doesn't, you're a stronger person than I.

Words by :  Matt Fitton

You can buy it here 
 


For more information :
http://gash-theologian.tumblr.com
http://www.crucialblast.net

https://www.facebook.com/CrucialBlast

https://crucialblast.bandcamp.com