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Released on October 13, 2015 via Broken Limbs Recordings
From the dank depths of human depravation comes a Broken Limbs Recordings release that dares to speak of such personal and societal degradation. That album is Ad Nauseum’s self-titled effort, an accurate portrayal of a world close to extinction in the form of nihilistic doom metal.
Curiously enough some tracks are laced with fast rudiments, besides touches of black metal, but Ad Nauseum’s release is mostly an industrial doom record with plenty of electro-noise. The down picks don’t need more creativity in the form of groovy chugga-chugga and punk riffery. The sheer weight and density of the guitar riffs makes for an apt excursion down a manhole in the pouring rain during a storm.
This record sounds post-apocalyptic. Famine and death rule at the heart of a wasteland of extinguished neon lights and lines of hungry people at soup kitchens. The noise samples give the album an Einsturzende Neubauten touch to go with the deafening roars and heavy dissonant down picks. The vocalist screams like he’s been forgotten in an isolation chamber the size of a casket.
There are four tracks that introduce you to Ad Nauseum. Moshpits will not swirl to the sound of deafening guitar strums, but you can bet the club’s going to burn all the way down. The drummer plays counterpoint to the tempo somewhat on track one, ‘Walls’, where the high-hat striking picks up the pace while the band are obviously playing slower than a toddler trying to pronounce the name Ad Nauseum correctly. The down picks are earth-shattering at high volume. Turned up as loud as my receiver can handle, the guitar strums sent neighbors scampering for bomb shelters.
Track two, ‘Futility’, is aptly-titled. Instead of an all-out rampage at the point of imminent failure, the band sound like it’s going all the way down from the first plummeting into the depths, never ceasing, never easing into any form of redemption. The layers of noise create a wall of sound that adds tons of grit to the dissonant guitar.
Track three, ‘Locked In’, is my favorite. The vocalist must have been speechless after laying down the vocal tracks on record, mainly because his vocal chords would have hemorrhaged beyond repair. The track is intense without going more than five RPMs. It’s dismal and torrid, no matter what the tempo.
Track four, ‘Slalom in a Public River’, sounds like a steady group of homeless people drudging through a polluted river, with skin blistered and diseased beyond the help of medication, having to wade through filth on a daily basis just to find something still worth eating. The song ends in electro-noise heaven, white noise adding to feedback and vocal roars the sort of which is akin to an oily, grimy, garbage-strewn industrial factory district where feral animals feed on corpses.
Ad Nauseum’s self-titled is a soundtrack to city rot more than it is a collection of individual songs. This is mood music that you won’t want to take without a good dose of your prozac. It’s not catchy, pop-chorus material in any way imaginable. Like metal? Won’t guarantee you’ll like this. Like noise? This album won’t please with certainty either. Like obscure music for dark days filled with nightmarish urban landscapes? Fall in line and support this record from Broken Limbs Recordings.
