Undergrind Metal

DSKNT – PhSPHR Entropy Sentient Ruin Records – 2017 DSKNT has been active since 2013, and somehow I only discovered them recently. As a fan of catastrophic black metal à la Deathspell Omega or Plebeian Grandstand, I was delighted to find another band in the relatively barren field of good avant garde black metal. The album kicks off with the best kind of strange, unnerving riff that sends a warning to the listener – you're in for a project with greater amplitude than most. Almost all of the riffs, excluding one or two in the latter portion of the record, have been soaked in the bath of avant garde, dripping with experimentation. Not scared of narrative composition, giving us a trip into his strange maze of a mind, Asknt creates sinuous riffs, with jagged edges and unnatural angles, but with more focus on the sinues and flow than similar artists, who often go for a slightly sharper aesthetic. There are moments of clarity, descents into madness, and long trips across ble...

Mama came out in 2015, and while the objective here is to cover the most recent output, this album holds a special place in my heart and I couldn’t resist adding it to the list. I haven’t listened to many albums that resemble this one – I’m not sure there’s anyone out there who does a better job at mixing harsh noise, grindcore and black metal. Endon describe themselves as “catastrophic noise metal”, and it suits them well. Everything happening in Mama is either ominous, cataclysmic, or downright frightening. It’s the first album that made me actually grind my teeth from the intensity in years, and it’s a quality the record keeps for a while. The album starts off with some interesting black metal-tinged guitar work, but that soon grinds into noise, with parasite sounds appearing, more intense riffs and drumming, and the craziest vocals since Silencer. It’s great to hear how Endon can push the limits of a section until it turns around and eats itself, becoming some ungodly crea...

Canadian noise/dark electronics project Wet Nurse just released V A S E S, and it’s making me uneasy in the best kind of way. I hadn’t felt this unnerved since the Noisefest last year, and it’s all thanks to the masterful mix of sound manipulations and creepy vocals present here. Disturbed lyrics speaking of drugs, sex, depression and depravity are common in the noise genres, but they’re not so “in your face” as say Whitehouse or other power electronics groups would present them. Instead they feel composed, deliberate, and they mesh well with the disturbances underneath. Alabama poet Matt Finney is responsible for these words, and he knows how to get me going when it comes to grime and filthy ambiance. The album seems to get more intense as it goes in, with V A S E S being so calm it almost doesn’t fit in with the others. There’s almost a duality going on with the soft-spoken vocals during the first track and the distorted anger in the second half of the last song. The music i...