Various groups have been predicting the world’s demise and the demise of humanity for a long time. It’s almost like clockwork. However one day, possibly very soon, the doomsday theorists will become legit prophets. Whether man destroys themselves through various modes of war and armament or Mother Earth decides to fight back and deliver some sort of death knell, perhaps swallowing us whole, is immaterial. However when the end times finally arrive it will most likely be the audio and visual equivalent of this album.
Master, We Perish is the newest EP from The Body and quite frankly what this band has been able to accomplish in only three tracks is, in and of itself, off-putting. There is some much desperation, anxiety, loathing and downright evil on this album that no sane human could stomach a full albums worth. The opening track, “The Ebb And Flow Of Tides In A Sea Of Ash”, kicks things off with an air-raid siren and an absolutely mind-numbing barrage of drums and distortion. It’s a crust and doom lovers dream as this track conjures up visions of prehistoric beasts come arisen again to rampage through an Earth that no longer hosts human life. The second track, “The Blessed Lay Down And Writhe In Agony”, starts with a lone note strum over and over as a ghostly female voice serenely wails and a sample of another woman talking about trying to ‘escape’ something to no avail is played underneath. Halfway through you hear the tortured screams, the rifle cock, and the glorious, thunderous cacophony that The Body is clearly capable of conjuring.
Possibly the most ambitious track on the EP though is closer, “Worship”. Clocking in at over nine minutes, this track starts with tribal rhythms, only to quickly careen into a tidal wave of noise and vision-inducing sounds. Finally it digresses into something out of the sickest of horror movies with low level distortion attempting to cover up garbled voices. Frankly, this entire EP is nightmare-inducing stuff of the highest order. To try and place labels on it is futile. The aforementioned doom and crust elements are prevalent, while everything from grind to lo-fi black metal have clearly played a role in this band’s sound. If you’re a fan of bands like Neurosis, Cough, Amenra or even a band like Dragged Into Sunlight you’re going to find a ton to like with this release.
Master, We Perish is out now on various formats courtesy of At A Loss Recordings. You can check out videos for two of the three songs over at Invisible Oranges.
Metal Homework:
Your metal homework this week is completely self-serving on my part (even more so than usual). Beginning this Friday, May 3 and continuing every Friday night at 8 pm EST on Cygnus Radio yours truly will be hosting a new weekly metal show called 666 Days of Metal. Tune in, listen and love.
