Album
Type: Full Length
Date
Released: July 21st 2015
Label:
Midnite
Collective / Black Voodoo Records
The
Filth Element - Track Listing:
1.Leeloo
2.Korben Dallas
3.Diva Plavalaguna
4.Jean-Baptiste
Emmanuel Zorg
5.Mr. Shadow
6.The Divine Light
Band
Members
Zak Esparza -
Guitar/Vocals
Geoff Jones - Drums
Ernie Ballerz - Bass
Rob Trujillo -
Guitar
Bio:
Trapped Within
Burning Machinery began as a one-man sludge project in 2007 when Zak
Esparza (lead guitar/vocalist) needed an extended outlet for the
ideas and riffs plaguing his consciousness. After recording a few
demos, Zak recruited close friend Geoff Jones to play drums and Juan
Rodriguez to fill in on bass. The trio wrote and recorded their raw,
powerful first demo, Evolutionary Transmitted Disease, and
self-released it in the summer of 2009. In January 2011, the band
entered the studio to record their first full-length album, The
Putrid Stench of Decaying Self, this time with new bassist Ernie
Ballerz and second guitarist Robert Trujillo. TWBM then released the
album through Black Voodoo Records on October 5th, 2012. In early
2014, the band released a limited split tape with Long Beach's
bass-and-drums sludge duo Pigeonwing.
After a period of
extreme discontent with life in general during the Putrid Stench Of
Decaying Self-era, TWBM wanted to continue with the same kind of dark
subject matter but from shifting perspectives. So, with the addition
of a third guitarist, James Inglett, they began writing music and
thinking of lyric ideas. One day, guitarist Robert Trujillo got
inspired and blurted out something involving "the blue lady from
The Fifth Element.” They had all been huge fans of the movie, and
after pondering on it, became obsessed with the idea of riffing off
of themes from the movie.
One song about the Diva Plavalaguna turned
into an hour long, doom metal space opera and they submerged
themselves into it. Using the characters in the story as hosts, they
found that they could write from many different angles and bounce
around stylistically without straying from the core sound of the
band. The idea of an ancient being traveling to future Earth in hopes
of saving it from the epitome of evil really spoke to them, because,
as said by Zak Esparza, “We're fuckin’ nerds and the lessons of
love and compassion in the story really round out the negativity we
usually spew in our music.” They got to write songs from the
perspectives of characters that don't have much too back story in
this two-hour film, so it gave them some breathing room to do their
own thing without being confined to some strict canon or lore.
Ultimately, the
marriage of sludge and lore comes together to create The Filth
Element, a more hopeful-sounding record than ever recorded before by
TWBM, though the sludge is very much alive and well—and the dark
places are never far from the theme at hand
Review:
This
is the 2nd full length from a band of tarpit workers who excel in
doom & sludge and live up to their brutal name. The album is based on "The Fifth Element" which is a science
fiction tale about a supreme being who saves the earth with the help
of an unlikely earthling. Each song on the album is dedicated to some
of the characters (as well as entities:"Mr.Shadow"-the
grand evil destroyer who grows in size when absorbing negative energy
and "The Divine Light"-the combined power of the elements
to eradicate the ultimate evil. This is where the similarity ends
between them. The movie is colorful and entertaining with a cast of
characters all involved in the destruction or deliverance of mankind.
The album and it's songs are dirty and filthy, unlike the vibrant
futuristic cast costumes and vivid fanfare associated with the movie.
This
is a rewarding sonic experience that will at times paralyze in order
to prepare transport, not unlike a cryogenic coma during flight to
another dimension. You will hear grand riffs, shrieking feedback &
goblin roars. You will hear subdued instrument work, earth tones and
human pleads. You will hear plucking, shimmering, growling,
pulsating, droning & pounding throughout this doom metal saga.
All
these different sounds culminate in telling a story based on the
universe being saved by an alien love. The science fiction epics of
The Fifth Element, Alien and Blade Runner all share similar subject
matter dealing with the destruction of mankind through mankind and
the search for love, but the music on this album reminds me more of
the bleak, technical, wet, slimy machine-Gigeresque landscape
associated with Alien or Blade Runner.
This
is headphone music. This is a constant storm with periods of
tumultuous wind, lightning flash, and thunder claps mixed with quiet
rainfall and rustling leaves all wrapped in sporadic heavy fog or
mist.This is a special gift...a dark prophecy wrapped in a Harkonnen
steam bath. According to the story, the "grand evil" only
comes around every 5,000 years...I hope we don't have to wait that
long for another old, yet futuristic, adaptation concept experience
and fantastic human survival album masterpiece. I can't wait to get
my hands on the double gatefold LP. Be thankful that music like this
is being made again.
Words
by Nick Palmisano
Thanks
To Cat Jones at Southern Cross PR for promo. The Filth Element will
be available to buy from Midnite Collective / Black Voodoo Records on DD/Vinyl from 21st July 2015.
For
More Information
