Blue Sabbath Black Cheer / Griefer - We Hate You / Dancho Danchev Suck My Dick (2010)

Split, Deterrent Records
2010

Genre: Noise/Industrial/Death Industrial/Power Electronics
Region: USA

Hope you're not tired of noise yet — I'll get to some more recent and palatable releases soon. I meant to get this split posted here like a year ago and I don't know if any other blogs have it up out there. Two excellent noise inducers of very different styles.

As always Blue Sabbath Black Cheer unleash a shuddering heap of droning noise in one 14 minute track titled We Hate You. This was actually my introduction to this duo and it is genuinely impressive. It starts off as a coarse cannonade of bassy, rumbling ambiance and slowly snowballs into a grotesque tower of howling static complete with those absolutely ferocious vocals I love so much, basking in malice, pain and animosity (as the title suggests).

When they appear it's by far the best part of the track. They're accompanied by some kind of reverberating and obviously massive bell tone at points which add so much to their force An intense squall is stimulated by the final half with successive muffled explosions and knocks.

It molds a destitute landscape in the best way, becoming oppressively loud near the end. A huge atmosphere, a perfect build up to unfettered cruelty, and a disturbing decline as the harsh howls subside is what awaits all listeners.

Griefer's side is composed of 4 tracks of varying sonic malfeasance through power electronics. There are some exceptional and blunt lyrics buried under fierce processing, perfectly translating computer and network deviancy and themes of digital tyranny and brutality.

"Criminal Aggregators" starts us of well expressing the dismal character of financial an stock industries in the most blunt and aggressive manner possible, with a percussive force like that of a wrecking ball fading in and out. The sharp cycling rusted squeal and the warbled buzz serving as a base for the deeply distorted and digitized vocals. "SMS Ransomware" reads like computer prompts and code in lyrical form decoding the reality of SMS services and the implications for network security. A sharp buzzing with intermittent dips into crumpled metallic scrapes and knocks, spiraling upwards with pained frequencies; they are climbing relentlessly.

"Dancho Danchev", the subject of this split and the third track, uses this cyber threat analyst as a target with one of the more chilling lines on this record:

"you take care of yourself 

because it would be terrible 

if something were to happen to you."

A muffled rumbling and then growing bit-distorted signals rise more and more as the words are distant, masked and shaky. Rough booms enter eventually and from here it grows. This one is ominous and disturbing and by far the most entrancing, and the lyrics definitely feel the most direct and personal. "SS8 Interceptor" is the final track, once again reading like an windows error message for the first half, but far more clear, focusing on a specific cyber intelligence and security company. Spiking warbled sirens and a hypnotic buzz to blanket them are the core elements with only slight aberrations.

A great noisy and ugly split. Both artists lay down impressive material here. Head over to Deterrent Industries or Absurd Exposition to get a copy of this split in limited marble brown vinyl format.

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Blue Sabbath Black Cheer - Untitled (2012)

Full Length, Equation Records / Dead Accent Records
August 3rd, 2012

Genre: Noise/Industrial/Death Industrial/Power Electronics
Region: USA

This is the last piece of material from the releases enclosed on "The Boundary Between The Living And The Deceased Dissolved"; a set of rare and unreleased tracks in the Blue Sabbath Black Cheer catalogue. Not being as familiar with his various releases as I would like I cannot tell you when these were recorded, however it is quite a compilation of vile sounds to ingest.

There's a great deal of variance in terms of arrangement and intensity to be found on this album. Despite this the atmosphere never strays far from a violent hellstorm. It is truly a string of monstrous sonic eruptions, the essence of destruction laid down in harsh and unforgiving terms, never lacking in structure but always creative and surprising. Track lengths run from 4 minutes at their shortest to one 11 minute conjuration of spellbinding horror and everything in between; even on the more lengthy track it never loses you which is a testament to this acts ability and talent in such a niche genre.

Out of the gate I was immediately impressed by "The Sense of Violence", one wonders just how much you can do with harsh noise but Blue Sabbath Black Cheer prove continuously that it can be as engaging and creative as any other style. The sharp shrieks of metal on metal and roars of ferocity merge with metallic clangs, high pitch noise and muffled booms to create a jarring and haunted grind in this opener. Feedback and a rotating static grows before the iron clangs come back for a brief section of gritty silence, split open by feral roars. An industrial landscape being ruined by some unearthly evil.

"Man Is The Bastard" follows, and the last moments of the first track bleed into it with a crash; overwhelming radio static beneath. This track is only slightly shorter and certainly no less oppressive. The groan of machinery rumbles forth with purpose, as hollowed howls clash with urgent wailing sirens — it creates what one may hear in a hurricane ignited by the flames of an exploding volcano as it passes over you, fading into the distance horizon.

It's certainly a rarity when a quiet moment appears, really there's only varying levels of controlled chaos and bleak loudness. "Demise" displays this well with a fading silence overtaken by shifting distorted frequencies, a stinging high-pitched digital cry fades and returns as those demonic vocals go from low to a frightening high — all the more distorted as they rise. You almost think silence will return but it never does as that whine comes back, pulsing and shaking as it gets louder amongst the background noise.

Then it ends abruptly as a segue into the hypnotic muffled booms of the first "Untitled" song. This album just continues to impress.

Quiet at first but the noise soaks it up as those dulled impacts continue to rotate. This is an industrial goliath that builds over the 11 minutes you're immersed in it. Again the distinct wail of metal scraped on metal returns, circling a cosmic drain as more elements are sucked into it to grow the chaos. It feels ancient, rhythmic, powerful. Nightmarish sounds from some tortured extra-dimensional entity pulse in and out of the fray. This repeats for the entire track as some elements fade and grow in volume until about the 7 minute mark when the booms disappear, replaced by electric crackles, hums and scratching all shifting in pitch and intensity. It becomes a deafening whirlwind before releasing, transforming into a static-laced quiet, and it is captivating the entire time.

Again the last track bleeds into the next. "Disgusting Body" carries a similar mesmerizing rhythm in it as well, replacing crushing industrial blows for a repeating alarm carried by more unholy bellows. It's less chaotic, more simple then the previous track and yet still jarring while showing a slight change in direction, staying fresh but no less intimidating. It only changes the formula right at the end as the alarm is slowed way down.

With a startling quake we are welcomed to "No Escape... You'll Still Die" — a buzz and successive, concussive slams under a suffocated growl. Grotesque static bursts in between the crushing blows and a frightening demonic howl wavers between the right and left channel.

The title is absolutely appropriate as this track conjures an image of a very violent, unfathomably powerful, rudely awakened cosmic force ravaging planets creating a piercing, harsh frequency as it inhales. You have no chance to escape it. When you're swallowed the rumbles of the outside environment become drowned and the hums of the inner-workings deaden your senses, ever increasing in volume — then it passes, leaving only a faint whirring chime in its wake.

A track like "Song For The Dead" literally sounds like an absurdly twisted emergency siren on some enormous marine vessel being overtaken by biblical sea creature. The constant cycling noise and whine grows at an agonizing pace with tortured shrieks bubbling to the surface more and more, only to slowly fade as that vessel sinks into the abyss.

The second "Untitled" track (closing the album) is an example of the BSBC formula at it's most quiet, breaching that silence with spectral croaks and moans as echoing stomps and a low reverberating hum grows steadily. These far off impacts in the background, and the intermittent knocking sound like the earth being pummeled by howitzers in the distance as you're huddled in a haunted bunker. It's on the edge of being ambient.

This is a compilation of forgotten sounds that is worth listening to. It plays as one whole song of mechanical, cruel, unstoppable collapse of empyrean might brought on by unknowable forces.

Truly a wicked journey that must be heard. I can definitely recommend this one. While this cd comes with the aforementioned package available for a limited time on Equation Records (also available over at Aquarius Records), you can also find a copy of this compilation on its own over at Dead Accents if you're only interested in this unreleased material.

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Blue Sabbath Black Cheer - The Boundary Between The Living And The Deceased Dissolved (2012)

Full Length, Equation Records
July, 2012

Genre: Noise/Industrial/Death Industrial/Power Electronics
Region: USA

Time to review and share a genre I'm not very familiar with but have an increasing interest in. Take my opinions with a grain of salt even more so here as I have a very small frame of reference for this style. This is a two-in-one review of cult noise sorcerer Blue Sabbath Black Cheer's new material from a live show on a 12" LP and a dedication on a 7" EP. The bundle came with these two as well as a bonus CD of unreleased material (and much more) which I will put up after this post separately sometime soon.

The focus here is primarily on the 12".

My first exposure to Blue Sabbath Black Cheer was actually a late one, that being his split with Victoria, BC's death industrial act Griefer and while both sides of the split are excellent it was BSBC's side that blew me away. Since then I've heard the Endless Blockade and a few others but not in heavy rotation; I suspect this will change.

This LP contains a 20 minute session performed live last Halloween. From the very few noise acts I've seen live it seems that while the recordings are always harrowing and cold, the performance has been something even more powerful if done right. Griefer's set when I saw it summer 2011 was stunning, even more so than his "Brute Force" album (which is marvelous), and much like his BSBC's live sets obviously bring the already oppressive undulating wall of catastrophic noise to another level. This record is evidence of that.

I would imagine it is a little more difficult to bring the atmosphere of such a style performed live and set it to physical form than it is with others, but I'd say it was absolutely done right with this one. You can barely tell it was a live ritual. It's crystal clear, and the atmosphere is thick.

The track is unsettling right from the start with deafening crashes of I would guess is a cymbal or gong with a slow, rising bass hum between the echoes. The slow start will fool you into believing this will be an ambient journey but you'll soon realize it's the complete opposite.

It feels like it was performed in some primeval sunken chamber or dungeon. It's such a slow and eerie build, with what sounds like an approaching storm or avalanche; the faint howling of wind, rumbling and eventually a prolonged moan or roar. There's something I really admire about his style of noise and that is it's literally creepy how the atmosphere expands so gradually, growing so loud at points it's nightmarish.

When vocals do emerge they're absolutely inhuman, you would absolutely believe this was some kind of paranormal or demonic entity. They take over from the halfway point onward and spike in and out, pained and heavily distorted, from the cycling, reverberating cymbals and cataclysmic crackling quakes.

At this point if you haven't shit your pants and passed out you feel like climbing out of your own skin to escape the hellish, harsh onslaught of sonic death. But it just keeps coming, growing more disturbing as horn-like noises shift pitch and drone in intimidating fashion. The sounds of possession collapse onward until they die suddenly, and all that remains is the sudden, startling smashes heard in the opening.

This record is terrifying. A soundtrack to the apocalypse. Best enjoyed in the dark with a good set of headphones. Do not listen if you have a weak heart.

After a taste of the main course, we move now to a short desert in the form of a 7" titled Destruction Dedicated To The Cherry Point which is "inspired and dedicated to The Cherry Point", another harsh noise artist (one I have not heard). It is immediately obvious that this is a far different creature than the LP, presenting a thick, muffled wall of harsh noise that drones for it's entire length, almost never wavering from this pattern. It's simple, direct and very short, and there's not much I can even say about it — I feel far more out of my comfort zone with this than the 12".

Despite the fact I'm far from a noise enthusiast at this point in my listening habits I know when I hear something great, and I can absolutely say that the LP is totally worth checking out and definitely worth buying; especially if you want to to be horrified in the most pleasurable manner possible. It has encouraged me to seek out more of BSBC's work. The EP while much more simple is an added bonus with all the other goodies that come with the full record. If you want this excellent package of merch and sounds you can storm Equation Records (or Aquarius Records) to get a copy. It comes with a bunch of excellent Blue Sabbath Black Cheer swag (all listed on their site).They're limited to 235 copies so act fast.

The Boundary Between The Living And The Deceased Dissolved 12" LP:

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Destruction Dedicated To The Cherry Point 7" EP:

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