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Released on October 23, 2015 via Neurot Recordings
The prospect of this band in sound and contributions is indeed exciting. Including the heavyweights of the sludge and doom metal genre is bound to result in something interesting yet cathartic and desperately heavy. On Know How To Carry The Whip, Scott Kelly, Mike IX Williams and their merry group of mechanical sound juggernauts achieve a dissonant experience led by pulsating synths, primitive drumming and poetry of misery, decay and the all out dismissal of humanity, in a way that the band’s 2013 effort Last City Zero only just missed.
The first track is the beginning of a march that commands the rest of the album, ‘Crossing My One Good Finger’ holds a ritualistic beat that drags the song through bursts of synth lines like a call to arms. It’s when the guitars enter that you know how serious this sound is; the mix of Neurosis style drumming and guitars and the atmospheric, pulsating synths work so well it’s astounding. The Eyehategod vocalist contributes with strength and aggression throughout the track listing, weaving unnerving, panic inducing imagery in his wretches and spoken-word poetry.
The album doesn’t let up in this way, the thunder of the guitars that rolls under the crushing synthesizers carry on pounding until each track climaxes, especially in ‘Hopeless Moronic’. The track plays out with a sorrowful guitar tone and the layered vocals of Scott Kelly and Mike IX Williams, among the endless pounding of the instrumentation; a surprise that shows bare the true emotion buried beneath the ever-moving mountain that fills your speakers and crumbles the world around you.
It’s ‘Visions Divide’ where the apocalypse is reached, and provides a brilliant nod to classic neo-folk sounds that the likes of Death In June established. The acoustic guitar still sounds metallic and echoing in the mix, one of the few moments of the record with a stand alone instrument, free from the clutches of the synth and bass line whirlwind. The vocals warble in the back, making this track a stand-out and breath of fresh, dusty, post-apocalyptic air.
The machine is not dormant for long however, and the bionic clicking of ‘The Hall Of Cost’ revs up the cogs of the machine once more. The incredibly titled I Was Never Good At Meth’ is a fuzzy drone with brilliantly delivered spoken word, as if a preacher in the street talks unwary folks into an uprising. The fire begins to slowly die down in that track that follows, ‘Burn The Witness’, which trudges, whirs and pulsates through to the 45th minute of this uncompromising and engaging record.
As far as I’m concerned, there is little to nothing wrong with this record. Perhaps the gunshot sounds in the second track here could have been left out, especially as they seem poorly recorded though this could be intentional. Despite this picky factor, this is a shining example of a metal and industrial fused record, one that successfully fuels the undeniable fact that the artists behind Corrections House still stand as the most creative and influential individuals in the genre.
