Published by Davide Pappalardo on January 6, 2018
Colossloth should be no new name for long time readers of our webzine. At the beginning of 2016 we reviewed his astonishing debut on Cold Spring called Outstretch your hand for the impress of truth, the sum of a sound he has perfected through a series of limited releases on tape (Black Mermaid / A Circle Of Thrones for Scumbag Relations), CDr (Fly Silver Corpse! Fly! for Skribble Records, a self-titled single for Noise Park Activities, Torn By The Black Talons Of God for Bone Structure, and a split with black metal band Baalberith for Dark Meadow Recordings) vinyl (Antipathy In Nature for Doom-Mantra Records) and even on digital (Black Deeds From Dead Seeds for Final Trauma Recordings and Butterflies Are Witches for Sombre Soniks). A fusion of doom, ritualistic and tribal music, power electronics, noise, modern electronics, experimental music.
On paper a mix like this could sound like a mess, but let’s be assured: the British artist knows how to fuse modern technologies and atavistic movements like no other, and he is a master of manipulation when it comes to noise layers, feedback, drones. The result is a unique bland of elements giving us an estranging but at the same time enthralling atmosphere, a subdued tension aptly teased by him without giving in to pure cacophonous harsh noise. Now he further develops his craft thanks to the new album Heathen needles, once again published by Cold Spring. Here things sound even more focused and somewhat more menacing, with a more prominent power electronics-inspired soundscape upon which different sonic and rhythmic experiments take place. Ambiance, dissonance, distortions, manipulated loops, sudden soothing arpeggios, everything concur to a common esoteric path in which we find different faces of a droning inner journey.
Justify your youth starts with a distorted and manipulated loop of melody, upon which cosmic sounds and shrilling effects are layered. It soon degenerates into a grandiose cacophony aimed to disturb our listening experience, but never unbearable (if you are no new to noise music, of course). Goodwill scars continues on the same path adding ultra-distorted screams upon a disturbing power electronics-themed layer. The track ends with a piano sound, but it never gives up on scary, harsh effects.
Comfort in defeat gives us distorted mechanical effects underlined by an evocative drone, soon reached by an obsessive disturbance. The second half of the track surprises us with soothing ambient sounds and acoustic guitars, developing a calm and reflective mood. The title track starts with a manipulated riff enriched by factory-like effects, and then it adds hypnotic xylophone’s melodies amidst the growing abrasive loop.
Lain inert uses dark ambient layers soon distorted into something else, a building cacophony intersected with sci-fi sounds and sudden guitar solos. During the second half inhumane vocals and menacing looping industrial effects dominate the soundscape. We had a pact takes us once again to dark ambient territories, showing the eerier and more evocative side of Colossloth. Ancient roaring sounds and sidereal effects akin to Lustmord have their place, together with diaphanous samples (could it be a manipulated version of the beginning of Skinny Puppy‘s Love in vein the melancholic melody we are hearing?).
There will be islands is a cacophonous attack made of abrasive distortions, or so it seems: soon ghostly violins are added, but their peace is violated by dissonant noises, and at the end ghoulish voices completes the delirious track. Marks of control mixes an ambient drone with shrilling interferences, until it erupts into a syncopated, IDM inspired broken rhythm. But the surprises are not at end, and after a more meditative bridge field-recording layers and obsessive bleeps have their say.
A place where your dreams can die alone returns to cosmic territories thanks to a synth loop united with nightly samples and digital effects. Then, things get ugly and a distorted drone dominates the scene developing a growing crescendo, but without erasing the aforementioned sonic loop, which returns at the end together with a sacral, evocative sound. Forcing the error is a noisy affair in which bleeping loops ventures into a kaleidoscopic drone completed by heavily manipulated distortions, and the final track Sedentary signals ends our journey with a long dark ambient piece built on sidereal layers, piano sounds, delicate atmospheres: this is true until the arrival of tribal drums and looping arpeggios. The track then develops into a noisier affair made of abrasive disturbances, but we should not feel so sure about its nature. That’s because a sudden synthetic melody takes its place among the droning ambient layer, guiding us toward the final harsh noise cacophony. Maybe we have here the most violent moment on the album, a destructive path ending with an in-reverse effect.
Colossloth menages to repeat the same surprising effect of his debut without repeating himself. The common elements with Outstretch your hand for the impress of truth are not hidden, but the two albums have a different feeling. Whereas the first one had more of a ritualistic atmosphere and structure, here the usage of melancholic anti-melodies and dissonance perpetrates a malicious mantra recalling the early day of noise and industrial music. Sometimes we find pure power electronics tracks, other times we have glitch and robotic sounds, and even cosmic ambient movements are not forgotten. If you want modern sounding experimental and droning music with an eye on the past and a foot in the present, look no further: Colossloth is you choice.
Label: Cold Spring
Rating: 9