- There is a work by Nineteenth Century Romantic painter John Martin that is one of the most suffocating and seductive portrayals of Hell ever committed to canvas. Its imposing sense of doom emerges from a sea of black and blood red flames. A crimson flash of electricity from charred skies revels a palace of demons as the pits of hell illuminate a robed figure, presiding over the scene. Captivating in its intensity, beauty and portrayal of chaotic despair, I am positive that the latest collaborative release from Portland's prolific experimental doom duo The Body and New York-based industrial thrashers Uniform plays there on repeat.
Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back is a pulsing pit of fury and ferocity. It swallows whole disparate elements of doom, black metal, thrash, noise, trip hop, pop and darkwave and from its frothing mouth spits out an uncompromising behemoth, a modern industrial masterpiece.
Without restraining the dark energy the four piece first evoked on their first collaboration, 2018’s Mental Wounds Not Healing LP, it’s clear the reigns have been pulled a little closer and tighter on the beast. Production is a little crisper, with slightly more breathing space granted to the tracks. The clean, minimal electronica elements -more apparent in this second coming- lend a refined, razor-sharp edge to the work. Creative and considered inclusions of trap, industrial, avant garde and synthwave meet in the chaos to pull you thru the seven circles of hell, in an undeniably enjoyable way.
Gallows in Heaven opens the album with a buzzing akin to a plague of locusts. Vocalist Michael Berdans’ baying lashes out from under Lee Bufords’ unrelenting blows to the drums and sets the frustrated and spite-filled tone for an album that’s both furious and frightfully fun. Chip Kings’ shrill, haunted howls pierce the heavy veil of static, synth and Ben Greenbergs’ gut wrenching guitars and call the album’s ever present anxiety to the surface.
Patron Saint of Regret (track four) recalls Massive Attack’s iconic Teardrop in which the ethereal voice of Liz Fraser graced the trip-hop tack and elevated it somewhere unforeseeable. Here, however, the dreamlike vocals of darkwave demoness Kennedy Ashlyn emerge unexpectedly halfway through and oscillate, eerily, like a spirit fading in and out over a haunted frequency.
Throbbing industrial elements give way to stadium-rock-inspired guitar solos and down-tempo darkwave breaks whilst the more direct doom & thrash metal origins of the individual bands continue to reign supreme throughout. By the time you arrive at Contempt -the heaving, heavy convulsion of a conclusion the album deserves- you’re left feeling cleansed by the fury of it all: refreshed, with your nerves roused raw by the viscerality.
Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back joins the ranks with other seminal, genre-blending albums in the industrial pantheon, such as Nine Inch Nails’ 1990’s industrial pop masterpiece Pretty Hate Machine or closer to home, Severed Heads’ Come Visit The Big Bigot. Contemporaneously, I feel elements of Beirut and NYC based avant industrial act Mamaleek and hip hop pop poet Yves Tumour. The aural discordance and philosophic disregard for ‘easy’ music references Throbbing Gristle's anti-music manifesto while the danceable synth and electronica breaks speak to New Order and early Ministry influences.
Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back joins this legacy of punishing provocateurs and proves the most exciting & enticing things come from the spaces between. It is a seething site of convergence for progressive genres -of terror and bliss- making for one of the most intriguing albums of the year.
- Dominique Furphy.