ALBUM REVIEW: Sightless Pit, "Grave of a Dog"

By: Josh McIntyre

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 21/02/2020

Label: Thrill Jockey

“Grave of a Dog” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Kingscorpse
2. Immersion Dispersal
3. The Ocean Of Mercy
4. Violent Rain
5. Drunk On Marrow
6. Miles Of Chain
7. Whom The Devil Long Sought To Strangle
8. Love is Dead, All Love Is Dead

The Review:

This is not a metal album. That does not, however, make it any less heavy or nasty sounding. Sightless Pit consists of Lee Buford (The Body), Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota), and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell) and it is a deep exploration of the more electronic elements of each project’s respective sound. All three artists have been at the forefront of underground heavy music for years now and I would argue that this success has been aided by this shared interest in adding sampled effects, drum machine beats, and other sounds that really sets them apart from other sludge, grindcore, and noise musicians. There’s also the fact that these artists already have a bond as they have consistently toured together and collaborated. “Grave of a Dog” is the result of a strong chemistry between three artists leaning on each other to discover exciting possibilities with the music that they create. 

So the existence of Sightless Pit comes as no surprise to fans. Once the first song dropped on the public (“Kingscorpse”) I saw comparisons to the previous Full of Hell/The Body albums being made online, oftentimes with a sense of disappointment that new ideas weren’t apparent. Thankfully, these predictions are very wrong. One only needs to proceed to track two to see that this is a unique record. Every song has its own character, by far more so than most albums. Drum loops range from hip-hop grooves to militaristic and harsh. Layers of piano, synth, and distortion guide the album and give songs their melodic purpose. Dylan and Kristin both perform vocals throughout, adding their own timbres to already complex layers of sound. One of the most interesting parts is when autotune is added to Kristin’s melismatic singing in “Violent Rain”, somehow making it sound even more emotional in a fashion that recalls Kanye West’s outro in “Runaway”.

As mentioned, all of these elements have been present in each members’ primary project to a degree but it’s the focus on them here that makes “Grave of a Dog” such a fascinating record. I can’t help but compare it to a zombified Portishead or Burial. They’ve been murdered, dug into the ground, and resurrected as horrifying and scarred bastards. This isn’t just in the crackled sounds, its emotion reeks of mournfulness and dread. Even the screams have a strong sense of sadness, if not desperation, in them. There isn’t a single sign of light to be seen and sometimes it’s raining. It’s truly cinematic. It feels like a film where a zombie is brought back to enact vengeance on its killer but ends up still feeling empty in a very human way. The titles certainly help to bring this to mind. 

My guess is that the three were chatting one day and simply decided to make a record between them as more of a fun thing to do rather than to make some flashy supergroup display. Whatever the case may be, “Grave of a Dog” is a phenomenal and thought-provoking project. It can easily compete with the various albums released between the trio’s other works. The difference is that there are no riffs here.

Similarities are more abound to Tim Hecker’s “Virgins” and Portishead’s “Third” than anything metal or punk. I adore it all the more because of this.

“Grave of a Dog” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: End Christian – "Energy & Strength"

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 18/08/2017

Label: Translation Loss Records

“Energy & Strength” CD//DD track listing

1. Froze Red

2. Traverse

3. Preacher

4. Delivered in Shame

5. Ballinger

6. 8 Hour Job

7. Quiet Nights

8. A Relaxing Time

9. Ore Da Barbarian

10. Oscillate Forms

11. Call About Trix

The Review

 “This is a message of energy and strength!”  Among the wispy, heavily processed, often indiscernible vocals and lyrics of End Christian’s full-length debut, this mantra serves as a thesis statement for a collective that continuously shifts between genres and emotions.  Comprised of members of Fad Nauseam (Dreadful), Hex Inverter (McKenna), Starkweather (Rosa), and Brutal Truth (Hoak), End Christian eschews the “heaviest lineup/heaviest sound” posturing that damns most supergroups.  Instead, “Energy & Strength” embraces their retro pop, shoegaze, and techno obsessions – which have recently garnered crossover success for artists like Perturbator, Gost, and Youth Code within the heavy music scenes.  Despite these analogies, however, End Christian’s debut doesn’t coast on nostalgia, but manages to be a rewarding, challenging work of experimental music.

               

Opener “Froze Red” is a blissed out slice of dream pop that would fit alongside any entry into the classic 4AD catalogue – whispery goth vocals, swelling synth chords, just the right amount of rhythm to slow dance with your pale companion or all by yourself.  If they continued in this vein, “Energy & Strength” would be a serviceable foray into pop for at least an EP.  But instead “Traverse” turns on the darkness, locking around a doom and gloom bass line that recalls NIN’s “Ghost” recordings.  “Preacher” goes full ambient mode, while “Delivered in Shame” is a buzzing piece of electronic hardcore and retro drumpad beats, while a Vocoder makes the whole thing twist into a track like Giorgio Moroder on downers.

By the end of the record, I was mostly recalling seminal compilations like “No New York,” that captured a brief era in the morphing post-punk and art rock scenes of the late 70s using just four artists – disparate but collaborative, bound by aesthetic similarities but not yet distilled into any formula for success.  This borderless experimentation can be taxing, as the relentlessly loose “Quiet Nights” verges on excess, while the frenetic avant jazz weirdness of “A Relaxing Time” is as “no wave” as it gets.    And yet there is undeniable positivity that flows through the record, balancing the darkness creeping at the edges.  The Vangelis-meets-dub beauty of “Oscillate Forms”; the slightly askew string lines of Ballinger; the repeated reminders that “This is a message of energy and strength!” – are just a few of the beautiful moments that propel End Christian’s debut through any rough spots.  I, for one, hope they continue to challenge, experiment, and confound expectations.

“Energy & Strength” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook