Nefarious Industries

Anxious Wave, Live From The Poison Factory (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Punk rock foursome Anxious Wave ply their trade with Live From The Poison Factory.

Stemming from Providence, Rhode Island, Brandon St. Pierre (vocals), Mikey Belcastro (guitar), Sam Okon (bass), and Dylan Lagory (drums) make up Anxious Wave. The band has been together since 2018, issuing a demo, an EP, and a split since then. Live From The Poison Factory is their first full-length album.

There are ten tracks on the record with an average running time of about two minutes. Number one in line is “Complex Needs.” Drums enter first, then a great bass line, a riff, and punk vocals. We are off and running now. Without listening to the lyrics at all you get the attitude from the tone. The complex needs seem to be a real pain in the ass – that’s what I am taking away from it. “The Silk Fortress” puts together disparate stances and makes them dance together as the bass line seems to have a mind of its own, the vocal is sad then mad, and the riff is surprisingly linear. It is like if an earthquake somehow created a perfect portrait in the generated ruin.

“Mirror Bed,” different still, does put me in mind of classic punk music from way back. It has a nice bounciness that helps the anger move along. “Nothing Elicits Joy” sounds like the title of a comment card at a crisis therapist’s office, and then “Regards” is a lovely ballad. Sort of.

The back half is similarly variegated. Lots of great juxtapositions, but also excellent straight-forward constructions, too. I am particularly enamored with “Executive Dissector,” with its additional vocal line and the flagrant raggedness of it all. It could just be me, but I get a strong nostalgic feel for the punk I used to listen to when I first listened to punk as I listen to Anxious Wave now. Yeah. Recommended.

Nefarious Industries will let Live From The Poison Factory loose on Friday, September 2nd on vinyl, cassette, and digital.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://anxiouswave.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/anxiouswave/

Nefarious Industries, https://www.nefariousindustries.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Anxious Wave, Live From The Poison Factory (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicago hardcore band Nequient release their second full-length studio album this week, Darker Than Death Or Night.

You’ll see Nequient described as a hardcore band or maybe a death metal band. The press release declares the band’s music to be from a variety of wells, and that the band draws “influences from a broad spectrum of aggressive styles including grindcore, crust, sludge, death metal, black metal, and noise rock.” That covers a lot of ground, and it absolutely rings true. Wolves At The Door (2018) was Nequient’s first long-player, and I think the new one is even better. The band is Chris Avgerin (drums), Keenan Clifford (bass), Patrick Conahan (guitar), and Jason Kolkey (vocals).

The first track is a rampage, “First Casualty.” It sets the bar very high right at the jump. The chaos of “Worshippers of the Apocalypse” is what I imagine being gargled in Satan’s colon might be like; so to, “Consensual Hallucination.” The ragged rawness of these tracks is enough to make your gums bleed. The intensity and rapidly shifting off-angle attacks are a true aural battering. But this manner of music isn’t the only look you get, even if it does predominate. “Minotaur” is a gloriously doom-ridden landscape of mountain-high walls past which you cannot see the sun. “Wrongs” does this a bit, too, but with a more active brand of gloom.

The number one track for me comes near the end, “Bootlicker.” Here the emanations are barely contained. At many points along the way it seems like the music might burst apart into a ball of fire. “Golden Age of the Grift” is the kiss goodnight, and it is more of a kidney punch than a peck on the cheek. Nequient has put together one of the fiercest albums I have heard this year. Recommended.

Nefarious Industries will release Darker Than Death Or Night in multiple formats on Friday, March 18th and you can preorder it now.

Band photo by Nicolas Côté.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://nequient.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/nequientband

Nefarious Industries, https://www.nefariousindustries.com/

© Wayne Edwards. All rights reserved.

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Plum Green, Somnambulistic (Nefarious Industries 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Back with a new collection of beautifully dark songs, Plum Green releases Somnambulistic.

Plum Green is from Melbourne, Australia. She has released a string of captivating albums in the last decade that that convey solemnity, almost as a berceuse for the grave. This is especially true on the new album. The music is dark and quiet, and it leaves an impression.

The opening song begins with beautiful, soothing, lyrical passages, but in a way that could be the soundtrack to euthanasia. That first track, “Raspberry Vine,” is very much what I mean when I talk about Acoustic Doom. In the press materials, the music is described as “atmospheric dream folk,” and I like that description, too. It is the emotion that is heavy and that does not require loudness.

There are strong gothic elements here as well. In the second track, “Eyes Shut,” the vocalizations draw a strong eidolon of Johnette Napolitano without really sounding much like her. It is bewitching, this music. It takes you away with its gentleness and at the same time has an emotionally penetrating effect. Like the singing of a wraith that means you no harm – or appears to mean you no harm – you find yourself trusting the music to have a meaningful effect on you.

The strings on “Grave Snuggler” have a hypnotizing effect. And Green’s voice, of course. Every track is enchanting and mysterious. The vocal duet on “Belleza Nocturna” was a surprise and it fit in perfectly with the rest of the set. Eerie, engaging, and unforgettable, Plum Green is an artist you should know about. Start with this new album and work your way backward through the catalogue. What you will find might surprise you. Recommended.

Somnambulistic is available on September 17th through Nefarious Industries. Explore the links below.

Band photo by Zach Salar.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://plumgreen.bandcamp.com/

Plum Green website, http://www.plumgreenmusic.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/plumgreenmusic

Nefarious Industries, https://www.nefariousindustries.com/collections/new-releases/products/somnambulistic

Plum Green, Somnambulistic (Nefarious Industries 2021)

Machinist! ~ Dead Hand, Split (Nefarious Industries 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Dead Hand and Machinist! join forces to produce a hammerfall split that will leave your ears ringing.

Machinist! is a high-test metal band with a gravely disposition and clobbering attitude. The band – Jeff Hill (vocals), Jeremy McGuire (drums), Matt Marshall (guitar), and Matt Zagorski (bass) – offer two songs on the split. The first one opens with the flick of a Zippo then proceeds to tear down the tin shack with fearsome aggression in “Bask In The White Light.” The song bends to doom in the second half and finishes with noise. “The Nail” has a slower beginning but has just as much shouting. Never fear, they do wail on you and the tempo becomes clompy with a punk sneer before the wrap.

Machinist!

Dead Hand is a doom operation peopled by Clifton Carr (guitar and vocals), Shannon Harris (synth and vocals), Stephen Williams (guitar and vocals), Carson Pace (drums), and Andrew Seth (bass). Their track is “Muirgeilt” and it flows over you for almost eight minutes like thick cement laced with sharp, rusty pieces of steel. You feel a filtered gothic atmosphere, an overriding sense of decadence and, especially in the middle, inevitable suffocation. It is a terrorizing piece that conjures calamity.

Dead Hand

These three songs taken together are a menace to your sanity. The styles are very different and the complement each other. Recommended.

Friday March 19th is the release day, and with a digital preorder you can hear two out of the three tracks now. Bandcamp is the easy hook-up.

Dead Hand photo by Dakota Williams.

Machinist! Photo by Matt Zagorsky.

Links.

Machinist! Bandcamp, https://machinistga.bandcamp.com/

Dead Hand Bandcamp, https://deadhandcollective.bandcamp.com/

Machinist! Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/machinistga

Dead Hand Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/deadhandcollective

Label, https://shop.nefariousindustries.com/collections/machinist-dead-hand-split

Machinist! ~ Dead Hand, Split (Nefarious Industries 2021)

Psychosomatic, The Invisible Prison review (Nefarious Industries 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , ,

Sacramento Thrash Metal band Psychosomatic roll out lucky number seven, The Invisible Prison.

There should be more Thrash, I think. The heavy music landscape has tilted toward Doom and Death over the past many years. Thrash is still out there, though, alive and well and personified by bands like Exodus, Testament, [insert your favorite Thrash bands here], and Psychosomatic who keep putting out great music. This band has been around for more than thirty years, and they are just as fierce as ever. The lineup is founder Jeff Salgado (bass, lead vocals), Daniel Mills (guitars, vocals), Viktor Hansen (guitars, vocals), and Toby Swope (drums).

The album is twelve towering tracks, starting with “We Don’t Trust You,” which is enough to make me remember this one forever. You know it is all fast, loud, and thrumming, with the pedal to the floor all the way through so I don’t have to tell you that. Picking over the songs for highlights is something of a chore because of the solid nature of the entire set. Along with the opener, the title track stands out as being to most frenetic of the bunch in both rhythm and lead. It’ll ring your ears. There is an excellent cover of the Vio-lence song “Serial Killer” which is not to be missed – Decibel magazine is premiering that track so you can hear it in advance of the album’s release if you head over to their website. “Agents of Surveillance” is the shortest song and it might also be the most savage in a stabby kind of way. When you listen to the album you will find your own favorites and make a list to add to your saved songs on Spotify. It is going to raise your blood pressure.

August 28th is the drop date for The Invisible Prison with all the usual attributes of download, physicals, and bundles at Bandcamp and the Nefarious Industries sites. Trust might be thin on the ground but this album is a thrash-fest guarantee. Recommended.

Band photo by Michael Alvarez.

Links.

http://officialpsychosomatic.com

https://psychosomatic.bandcamp.com

http://www.facebook.com/NefariousIndustries

http://nefariousindustries.com

https://www.facebook.com/officialpsychosomatic

Psychosomatic, The Invisible Prison review (Nefarious Industries 2020)

Titan To Tachyons, Cactides review (Nefarious Industries 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , ,

If you are looking for music that sounds like the inside of a crashing spaceship if the entire crew was blasted on edibles as the impact approached, you have found it.

This might not actually be improvisational jazz, but it certainly sounds and feels like it. Titan To Tachyons is a NYC band centered around guitarist Sally Gates who, along with Matt Hollenberg and Kenny Grohowski, endanger your piece of mind with their music.

The press release describes the group as an “avant/instrumental metal trio.” Their Bandcamp page describes the band as a “new trio” and their music as “Instrumentally depicting the realms of surrealistic sci-fi, the band make use of angular and experimental passages, juxtaposed by fluid grooves and metallic flurries.” The Facebook genre is “Prog/Experimental/Metal.” So what is going on here? I think people are going to have a very individualized experience listening to this music. For me it lights up my dysphoric madness receptors and I enjoy the chaos and Les Claypoolesque clankiness that shows up regularly. What I am not hearing is the metal. You have to listen very hard for the metal. Fuzzy tones do pop in now and then with the fluid and delightful guitar work, and there is a crunchy riff there and again, but the chaotic avant-garde is front and center – it is most definitely piloting this vessel.

The songs have a gravitational center around the guitar, but not necessarily a geographic one. There are a lot of ideas at play, yet you can detect patterns if you are looking for them. Alternately, you can just let this all flow over you and do what it does. In fact, that is the better idea – let the music do what it does.

Cactides is out on Friday, August 14 on LP and digital. You can stream two tracks right now, and there is some merch to snag, if you like. My advice is listen to some of this on Spotify or the like first and see what you think. If it is your thing, kick some cash in at Bandcamp. Recommended for the adventure.

Band photo by Karen Jerzyk.

Links.

https://titantotachyons.com

https://titantotachyons.bandcamp.com

http://nefariousindustries.com

https://nefariousindustries.bandcamp.com

Titan To Tachyons, Cactides review (Nefarious Industries 2020)