From Corners Unknown

In episode twenty-five, we get ensnared within the oozing tech-death miasma of Replicant’s Negative Life. We trek across the majestic medieval expanses conjured on Isegrimm’s Der Herr Von Verona and we suffocate in the pestilent blackened death metal tomb of Mylingar’s Döda Drömmar.

Thank you so much for listening. Artist details and links are provided below. Let us know what you thought about each of these records and please feel free to leave us some album suggestions for future episodes.

Cyttorak is a sludge brigade from Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established as a two-piece by Rich (bassist/vocalist) and Paul (drummer), the duo set out to channel a sound of planetary heft using their unadorned set-up. In the early months of their formation, they wrote several songs, which would come to light in June 2018 as their debut four-track demo. Primitive yet crushing, these tracks paid homage to creatures of cryptozoology and transmitted the eerie energy surrounding their respective existences via Rich’s shifting bass timbres and Paul’s lethargic plods. Shortly after their demo’s release, Rich and Paul added Evan to Cyttorak’s ranks, doubling the brigade’s pile of bass cords.

Since augmenting the outfit, Cyttorak has been undergoing a metamorphosis that has yet to broach the ears of those not local to the Providence area. With Evan now contributing and writing his own parts, the band has gravitated toward a spacier stratosphere whilst retaining components of the sludgy crunch heard on their demo. This tonal evolution, in part, stems from Evan’s craft honed in the territories of harsh noise and dreary dark ambient, though this evolution is only one transition phase for Cyttorak. Beyond the scope of their two splits planned for release in the first half of 2019 with Rabid Peak and Warstone, Rich notes their desire to seep dungeon synth into their sludgy thrums. This idea, while nascent, is of particular intrigue as it will mark the band embracing themes of places both ancient and mystical and they will simultaneously siphon the auras of the old United States lands upon which they reside.

In this conversation, Rich delves into the formation of Cyttorak, the band’s gruff sound, and the lyrics underlying those tracks on the demo. Evan discusses his noise and ambient background, describing how these influence his Cyttorak contributions. They also divulge some details about their upcoming splits, provide deeper insights into where they see Cyttorak evolving, and a good deal more. Thank you so much for listening.

In episode twenty-four, we get steamrolled by the sludgy, experimental dual bass, drum, and vocal grind of Burmese’s privileged. We are ported back to 14th century China in HolyArrow’s epic black metal opus, 靖難/Fight back for the Fatherland, and we convulse in the sludge ‘n roll bliss of BUMMER’s Holy Terror.

Thank you so much for listening. Let us know what you think about each of these records down below and please feel free to leave us some album suggestions for future episodes.

In episode twenty-three, we languish in the dreary, isolated harsh noise auras erected by Worm Monolith. We seek reprieve from our monotonous existence via the unfettered noise rock energy promulgated in Tongue Party’s Looking for a Painful Death, and we traverse the night sky with Allogenic’s Rites of Fear, stepping into its experimental electronic portal to explore the occult secrets lying beyond.

Thank you for listening. We always appreciate feedback and suggestions regarding this series, so please do not hesitate to say hello or drop us a note. Also, please feel free to suggest albums for us to discuss in future episodes as we do our best to curate each, though we certainly miss some gems in our searches.

In episode twenty-two, we are cloaked in the droning, industrial-tinged sound palettes of Grave Blankets’ self-titled debut EP. We get hanged, drawn and quartered by the technical, groove-laden death metal savagery of Cognitive’s new LP, Matricide, and we stride across the neon synth skylines of MULE’s future retro debut record, Music for B-Movies.

Thank you so much for listening. Let us know what you think about each of these records down below and please feel free to leave us some album suggestions for future episodes.

Death Orgone is the experimental audiovisual laboratory of Frédérick Maheux. Established in 2015, this moniker rose from the embers of another of his named Lamashtu, which subsisted from 2007 to 2015. Lamashtu harbored a bevy of Frédérick’s artistic vectors such as experimental cinema, zines, and collage zines; and it maintained morose, albeit raw expressions of hypocrisies he perceived in the world surrounding him. Time gave way to these interests, however, and given that he allows his perspectives to morph with the reams of literature he absorbs, it was time to move on. Thus emerged Death Orgone.

Though still rather incipient, Death Orgone ushers in a new chapter of interests for Frédérick. Glitch art is chief among them and he exhibited this technique in his 65-minute experimental film, Ana (released in 2015). In 2018, after years of work, he completed his experimental documentary Drug Porn. Both of these cinema explore some of the darker subcultures lurking on the Web, the latter of which delves into narcotics abuse published on social media; the pairing of the spectral glitch apparitions with the hypnotic soundtrack from Bruno R. Julian renders Drug Porn an unnerving, yet mesmerizing escape into a rabbit hole hiding in plain sight. At their core, these films embody Frédérick’s intrigue with the spectacle of the self, the willingness of these individuals to self-destruct, and how the Web can mutate the seemingly sacrosanct notions of community, love, and family into filth.

From Lamashtu, Frédérick has retained his intrigue with collage, but his angle shifted toward his fascination with transhumanism as Death Orgone. In October 2018, he debuted his collage series “Flesh Intolerance” at Maison Close in Bangkok, where he merged and spliced together images from vintage medical textbooks. Its purpose is to unveil clandestine meanings beyond mere flesh and to explore the potential avenues humans could traverse to overcome their corporeal limitations. This endeavor is rather fledgling, though Frédérick plans to augment this series in the year ahead as ideas continue to swirl and mull about in his skull.

Outside of Death Orgone, Frédérick also produces blood curdling, migraine-inducing noise as Un Regard Froid. His frequencies exist somewhere between the harsh terrains of power electronics and death industrial. Algolagnie was his first release, published in 2014. Since then he has unfurled several relatively brief EPs and just in October 2018 he had his first LP, Palinodie (Anticinéma), released by Cioran Records—a belligerent, caustic cluster of tracks channeling the atavistic energy underlying the films each track is based on. Despite this endeavor standing separate from Death Orgone, Frédérick is no stranger to producing noise as he tended to compose the soundtracks for his Lamashtu-era films. Un Regard Froid, however, exists as an uncompromising outlet for him to promulgate distilled antipathy. And somewhere in the abyss prowls a new moniker of his, but its name, its sound, its energy, is and will remain unknown.

In this conversation, Frédérick provides a glimpse at his personal history that led him toward the creation of Lamashtu and the subsequent birth of Death Orgone. He delves into “Flesh Intolerance”, describing his interest in transhumanism and how he went about producing his collage pieces. He articulates the ideas and moods he crafted on Palinodie (Anticinéma), he dissects some of the layers of his glitch technique whilst discussing the creation process of Drug Porn, and he looks to a new frontier of artistic expression: video games. There is much to unearth in this conversation. Thank you so much for listening.

In episode twenty-one, we caravan across the pyramid pocked planes through billows of weed smoke in the stoner rock quartet Burn Ritual’s debut LP, Blood of the Raven. We immerse ourselves in the droning dark ambient abyss of Jeton Hoxha’s VOWEL and reflect upon our distortion of memories. And we frenetically fumble through the humid, war torn jungles of Vietnam in Forms of Unreasoning Fear, the demo from Los Angeles death metallers, Mortal Wound.

Thank you so much for listening. Let us know what you think about each of these records down below and please feel free to leave us some album suggestions for future episodes.

Noisechrist is a nascent, albeit flourishing, harsh noise project from North Texas denizen, Aaron Kirby. Brought into existence mere months ago in July 2018, Aaron embarked on this endeavor to journey into aural terrains not traversed by his solo black metal project, Ascending King, and his unnerving drone outfit, Thief On The Cross. At the same time, wandering into this unmarked tundra as Noisechrist allowed Aaron to bask in themes and concepts of genuine intrigue that were unsuitable for his aforementioned projects. The paranormal, apparitions, conspiracies; his mind could run rampant, distilling these interests down into pure, raw energy.

His first album and tape, Apparition, released via Burning Stake, was thirty minutes of curdling harsh noise partitioned into two untitled tracks. Then came a split with Lolipoop, where Aaron crafted three sanity splintering tracks. This splintering of sanity, or alternatively articulated as threads of insanity intermittently protruding throughout his towers of noise, is a core element to his minimalist sound. When listening to his compositions, Aaron wants listeners to question exactly what they are hearing beyond the humming abyss of scathing frequencies, be it via an eerie creak or some malefic convulsion. This has permeated his fledgling discography, and in a soon to be released split with Michigan-based Worm Monolith, he descends deeper into abhorrent catacombs to engulf listeners in utter despair.

In this conversation, Aaron discusses his early career in music. He speaks about his old metalcore band, Dryline, and how after its dissolution in the late aughts and a rather long spell of not producing music thereafter, the itch to create music began to unfurl upon his flesh. He discusses his development in musical tastes toward more extreme metal, as exhibited by his black metal project, and then he delves into the origin of Noisechrist, taking us from his first experience of listening to harsh noise wall and how he began producing it. Thank you so much for listening.

In episode twenty of Voices From Corners Unknown, we explore time travel theory as articulated in Peter Edwards’s latest futuristic ambient album, temporal.Divergence. We also bury ourselves in the grimy sewer pipes of the debut LP, Audio Nasty, from U.K.-based deathcrust/stenchcore quintet, Iron Eagle. And we adventure into the euphoric blackgaze expanses crafted by the new electronic metal duo, Bliss Signal. Thank you so much for listening.

This episode is dedicated to Connor’s childhood friend, Jordon “Sturty” Sturtevant, who tragically took his own life a couple of weeks ago. Rest in bliss and may you be free of all pain, old friend.

* Please note that there is a small audio quirk pervading throughout this episode from Ryan’s microphone where crackles of soft static bubble beneath his words when he speaks. We did our best to reduce this noise, but it still exists. Fortunately, it should not be too distracting, though in future episodes, we will run tests before recording to avoid this issue again (this is the first time this has occurred). Thank you again for your support.

Potmos Hetoimos (Greek for “Doom is at Hand”) is the solo metal project of Matt Matheson that came into existence some time in 2005. When he embarked on this endeavor, his sound was of sludgy, crushing doom with stoner undercurrents. Each track was improvised; their respective recordings were completed in one take and any slip ups were not removed. No re-recordings took place; it was Matt just putting himself out there. This crafted a raw aura that permeated throughout Matt’s first few albums, though as he aged, matured, and progressed through life, so did Potmos Hetoimos. Many of his earlier albums were recorded and released about one month later, but as the complexity of his albums grew—be it by bringing on guest vocals or constructing vibrant instrumental arrangements with saxophone, piano, woodwinds, and a sundry of other strings—the time he spent producing each lengthened. Additionally there emerged a more progressive tone in his work. He, more or less, shed his stonier inclinations and on his eleventh (and most recent) Potmos Hetoimos record, Vox Medusae, he embraced a sound of progressive blackened sludge with heavier infusions of jazz. And amidst this aural evolution, a key characteristic of Matt’s style persisted: the articulation of a ponderous concept.

Vox Medusae encapsulates Matt’s personal struggle with pornography addiction. It is utterly intricate in its formulation as it’s pieced together as a play comprised of nine distinct characters, each of which have their own unique voice provided via a non-traditional musical scale. Medusa, the physical embodiment of lust (voiced by Jane Vincent of Curse), is, for lack of a better term, Vox Medusae‘s antagonist. She theatrically and vociferously protrudes throughout the album’s duration as a bevy of characters inside the protagonist’s (the Addict’s) mind snarl, indulge, and manically jest and argue with one another. At times it is chaotic, but passages serene, dismal, warm, and intense, percolate. And the catharsis Vox Medusae yields near its end is overwhelming, yet the conquering of his struggle is left ambiguous.

In this conversation, Matt takes us deeper into Vox Medusae. He describes how he selected the musical scales associated with each character, how this concept developed, his sentiments regarding the rawness of this record, and how it feels to be so frank and open with listeners about this struggle. Thank you so much for listening.