Bone-crushingly heavy? That’s cute.
The collaboration of noisy experimetallists The Body and sonic warlock The Haxan Cloak is one that makes so much sense I feel as though literal syzygy may have been involved. The album seems massive enough in scale to support that theory, anyway. Both artists have a disposition towards the arcane, and both artists seem more interested in what terrifying timbres they can force out of their respective instruments than in crafting anything most people would consider ‘music’. These idiosyncrasies are taken to their extremes on I Shall Die Here, a record which feels like an exercise in extremity.
Earth-shatteringly heavy? Yawn.
Last year was a big year for both of these acts, releasing LPs which garnered praise in their communities and beyond. The shadows of The Body’s Christs, Redeemers and The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation lay heavy on I Shall Die Here. Elements from these LPs pop up all over I Shall Die Here, but the synergistic effect of this collaboration has both artists taking these elements and pushing them to their deepest, darkest end points. Fans of the Body and Haxan Cloak should know by now not to expect anything remotely resembling conventional song structure from these rascals, yet the six tracks on I Shall Die Here are even less song-y than anything either artist has produced before. This, along with the sheer horror on display in this record, will be off-putting to the average sane person. However, if you’re like me and you’ve given up on trying to make sense of this chaotic universe and everything in it, this record plays out like a fucking nightmare come true. That’s a good thing.
So just how heavy is this record?
The recent detection of gravity waves from the Big Bang coinciding with the release of this album does not seem like any mere coincidence to me. If I Shall Die Here didn’t perfectly encapsulate the weighty terror of this record, The Big Bang would’ve been another suitable title for it. This album is so heavy I’ve lost weight just listening to it. It made my iPod a few pounds heavier when I uploaded it onto it (Yeah I still have an iPod). This album is so heavy that the Ear Mayans predicted the coming of the Earpocalypse with the release of it. The only difference between the human Mayans and the ear Mayans is that the ear Mayans were right. All jokes aside, I’ve literally had to buy a new pair of headphones after listening to this record so much. I’m not saying I think I Shall Die Here has the power to destroy headphones; I’m saying I KNOW it does. I’m actually kinda pissed about it. I’d contact the Body/Haxan Cloak looking for reparations if I wasn’t so fucking terrified of them at this point. One set of headphones is worth the experience of this album anyway.
The whole concept of a self-sufficient producer collaborating with a band, albeit a metal band, is a pretty new and exciting idea. These two artists are able to tease some pretty fascinating shit out of one another, and as an artistic concept, it will be interesting to see if, and how, the concept develops going into the future. Since this is fairly unexplored grounds, the lack of solid, distinguishable direction is present from time to time across the record. The record is very experimental in conception and practice, and occasionally the experiments fall a little flat. At times, it’s difficult to discern just how or why certain segments came into being, and a few sections of the album stagnate instead of developing into anything really substantial. But that’s the whole point of experimentation: failures are just as important as successes. The mere fact that this record exists is commendable for both these artists, as it potentially opens similarly collaborative efforts to other bands and producers. And where I Shall Die Here succeeds, it is unrivaled in terms of sheer intensity and unflinching brutalism. So grab a hard hat, throw this record on, and hold on tight while everything you know and love falls apart around you.
Ridiculous Made Up Genre of the Day: cosmic terror jams
Rating: 4/5