4 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: James Plotkin

hahahah CHRISTMAS.  I was all set to die for however long the runtime of this disc was, assuming I’d have to swallow my ears and just deal for 8 tracks.  When I put the disc in my computer to rip it, the first track started to play: Vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter screaming like a goddamned Swedish banshee at an ear shattering hell pitch.  I hit ‘stop’ and just let the rip continue, pant pant.  This would be a test, I thought.  Agoraphobic Nosebleed – sure it took me a song to get it, but once I could soak up the noise, its just heavy guitars and growling, and the blistering pitch is pretty fun.  But Khlyst had this mad woman and fucking James Plotkin, who’s a devil genius capable of stringing together the most intensely abrasive nigh-music conceivable (or often, eh, inconceivable).  Thus, mine logic went: I am prepared to write my first “I hate it” HH review.

I admitted that with Nosebleed it wasn’t exactly my scene, but that something something within the confines of the genre I enjoyed it.  I don’t even have to make concessions for Khlyst, though: I love it.  I want more of it.  Yes, Runhild scares the poo-knees outta me – though maybe that’s the point – but I’ve never experienced music this atrociously appealingly horror-strewn and yet gorgeous; this abstract and yet musical…  The reviews on the album are totally polarized between calling it brilliance and calling it pointless dreck.  Obviously I lean toward the former, but I’m going to stop shy of throwing ‘perfection’ descriptors at ‘Chaos’ because, well, its not.  There’s certainly a barrier to entry, and the ‘concept’ of the disc feels extended perhaps one set of tracks too long – split up into 8 sections, the album very purposefully alternates between Runhild’s blood curdling wailing, which will lead into this totally unexpected squiggly jazz guitar and tippy-tap drumwork, eventually congealing into a repeated noise or echo which will produce a theme for the next track, which will ambient, spooky explorations of echos and feedback.  After a few minutes, this will fade out, then Runhild starts to scream again for the next pair of similarly linked tracks.  It’s a pretty unique balance that puts a nice framework on the album and actually makes it more palatable by giving your sense something to latch on to.  However, the magic wear thin by part 7 – my attention span generally wanders by this point, the barrage and ebb and flow having done their trick of grabbing me and rattling me to the extent that, by then, I’m desensitized, and it becomes background music (oddly enough, I muse, ’cause this would be pretty funny background music to have on in most scenarios).  Plus, I think most of the tricks have been cashed in – the guitar noodling has been worked into a more aggressive distorted riff at one point, and Plotkin is able to get his electronic groove on at another point when the music dips into a Phantomsmasher-lite cut-up breakdown.

There are lyrics included within, of which I don’t know how to feel, since its more doomy feeling thinking that this is just a woman possessed and shrieking uncontrollably, but those lyrics are totes in Swedish, so, uh, until someone tells me she’s singing about ponies, Runhild’s guttural glop is plenty effective.

I’m not a dedicant of any particular genre, and noise music can strike me in a billion different ways, perhaps depending on my perception of the artist’s intentions based on something random and stupid…  And I’ve heard sides of Plotkin I make googly eyes toward and sides that make me vomit, so if there was any pre-bias here – alongside my revulsion when that initial snippet played – it would’ve leant toward a thumbs down over a thumbs up.  Making my quick turnaround on this all the more impressive.  It’s for sure an ‘open mind’ listen, and I wouldn’t criticize any haters, but Hydra Head has yet again proven itself to be a source of fascinating works of music art from all splinters of the hardcore world.