|
|
Torture Wheel & Uncertainty Principle - Split
NULLL Records, 2003
6 tracks, 67:04 playing length
|
Doom and gloom, deliberate ultra-heavy noiselike soundscapes, entrancing
atmospheres and chilling drones, this split has it all. The two bands fit well
together and make this disc a rewarding listening experience. But let us start
with the beginning – enter the mighty TORTURE WHEEL…
From the first
guitar dirge that crawls out of the speakers a thick, impenetrable, mysterious
haze of sound clings to the room and chokes the noises of life. The world
darkens, the walls close in on you and soon there is no escape from the
haunting, seemingly physical entity of sound the three TORTURE WHEEL tracks
create. Woven around dragged, crushing beats, the songs slowly unfold their
ghostly, otherworldly atmosphere and maintain a relentless grip on the
listener´s attention. All tracks have this fascinating, mystic and incredibly
thick atmosphere in common. Although they leave the listener barely enough air
to breathe due to their strong presence, there is also a strange beauty to the
compositions. Sad, lone melodies lurk half buried beneath the leaden, snail
paced wall of sound and give a twist of hidden beauty to the massive onslaught
of doom.
Thickly layered and heavily edited vocals add an organic, alien
quality to the heavy, dejected tracks – the voice of haunted spirits, calling
from beyond the thin fabric of reality…
TORTURE WHEEL´s part of the split
offers horror doom par excellence that never quite loses its disturbing quality,
no matter how often you listen to it.
But can UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE meet
the high standard TORTURE WHEEL has set?
Their short, noisy and very abstract
first track “All These Moments Will Be Lost” sets the stage for the things to
come. Soon eerie, delayed guitar work and distortion galore plunge the listener
into a desolate doomscape, a nearly post-industrial world of hidden electronic
weirdness, doomy guitar work and foreboding, plodding drums. UNCERTAINTY
PRINCIPLE´s sound is very harsh and the slow hymns to annihilation showcase a
bewildering mechanical texture, leaning heavily towards noise and drone. The
spiky, metallic closing track “Ouroboros”, the longest offering on the split,
possesses a barely subdued, lethargic aggressiveness that summons forth images
of colossal robot beings that wage war upon an earth purged through a horrible
nuclear holocaust.
Through its strong and violent sound, UNCERTAINTY
PRINCIPLE more than fulfils the high expectations towards the split´s second
half. Much akin to the merciless, automatic and infallible movements of a
machine, the project drives this album home and provides a fitting finale to one
of NULLL Record´s finest releases.
written 20/06/2004 by O.S.
Web site UP : http://uk.geocities.com/uncertaintyprinciple2003
Web site TW : listen.to/wotr
|
|