Monday, April 14, 2008

Best of 2007 - #2


2. black sun - 'hour of the wolf'
Here's the reason why some people call me a schizo. On the very podium of my favourite albums of last year, there's the direct leap from Ulver's album, the most quietly beautiful release of the year, to this - the most abrasively noisy piece of ugly dirtiness of the year. No subtlety, pleasantries or any kind of remorse in sight, Black Sun just beat you into a fucking pulp until you stop moving and then they keep doing it and doing it and doing it until they're satisfied with the mess you're in. And then they do it for a long while more. Many parts of songs consist of ripping the same THUD! chord out of their instruments for several minutes while spewing forth some words of hatred, while others ooze the sludgiest, grittiest riffs this side of fuck knows what. I had this to say when I reviewed the wretched thing for issue #154 of Terrorizer magazine, and it's pretty accurate still:

With James Plotkin doing the mixing and mastering of the album and Billy Anderson throwing in a mix as well for one of the songs, you can more or less form an idea of what to expect from Glasgwegians Black Sun. Despite that, you’ll never be totally prepared for the filth that’s coming. The easiest reference point would be the Swans’ early output, as the pounding, confrontational nihilism of ‘Hour Of The Wolf’ resonates with the same sense of foreboding evil. The dirty rumble also brings to mind the vicious menace of Eyehategod or Godflesh’s ‘Streetcleaner’, but Black Sun are operating primarily on their own twisted mindspace here. You just don’t fuck with Black Sun - witness in horror as ‘Krokodil’ spirals down into slower-and-slower repetition for the latter half of the song, cower in fear as the furious ‘Stuck Pig’ mercilessly beats you up and finally surrender to the slow-burning heaviness of the 18-minute long ‘A Deputation Of Spastics’. Essential stuff.

Put it this way. Black Sun have a t-shirt, that I admit I wear rather proudly, that says 'BLACK SUN.' on the front. On the back, the ugliest skull you've ever seen, black cross on its forehead, slapped in between the lettering 'YOU WON'T LIKE IT.'
Yeah, that sums it up.

Black Sun - 'Disintegrate To Khrist'

1 comment:

  1. I haven't listened to it neither the band, but given your review, I think this is a really nice album. I will search for it and download it. Thank you man. Nice post.

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