What the hell is wrong with you? What strange and perverse urges causes you to plumb deeper and deeper into the depths of aural depravity? If you haven’t asked yourself these sort of questions before, the new full-length by multinational duo Miscarriage may just cause you to begin to think about such things.
In many ways, Miscarriage has spent the majority of their short life as a particularly twisted manifestation of a Goregrind band. Much of last year’s triple album opus “Homicidal Mania” contained furious blasting combined with their devious vocal approach. However, the third album’s closing track “Unconditional” gave a hint to what fresh hells lie ahead. That particular piece saw a sharp drop in BPM’s with the guttural wailings washing over the top of Doom/Death guitar riffs.
That particular approach must have struck a chord, because “Imminent Horror” is a slow and hallucinogenic crawl through the darkest corners of extreme music. Gone are the shock value song titles, replaced with only numbers for song titles. Also gone are any semblance of fast tempos, now only a relentless dirge, like flesh slowly being pulled through a sewer grate. The guitar riffs bring to mind the mighty Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine or Incantation at their slowest and nastiest.
Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories
But perhaps most important are the endlessly abyss grinding vocals. Keeping with their previous Goregrind ways, the vocals are extremely deep, but removed is any need for cadence that keeps up with fast material. Instead, they are dragged out and layered, creating a completely hellish, textural experience. They echo and bounce around the mix, often multiple voices at a time, with occasional high-pitched screams trying to puncture their way out of the mix. They seem to insinuate themselves into the material less like a voice and more like another instrument, a complimentary drone that defines the tone of the album’s sound. They represent body horror as expressed through the human voice, no matter how twisted the presentation.
There is no need to really discuss individual songs here. “Imminent Horror” is meant to exist as a totality, an experience to be endured and enjoyed only by the most seasoned Metal masochist. There are certainly moments that come to the fore. “I” displays an excellent utilization of rising and falling dynamics, aural overload bookended with moments of slow desolation. “III” grinds forth like a deconstructed “Streetcleaner”-era Godflesh track, while “IV” and “V” really pushes Doom’s envelope with incredibly slow and crushing guitar riffs.
Miscarriage has found a fitting home with their new label Sentient Ruin Laboratories. There has always been a certain artfulness to the label’s take on extremity, and perhaps what is most interesting is Miscarriage’s transcendence of Goregrind’s narrow confines, allowing them to fit nicely into the label’s roster. This release hits all the sweet spots, abstract darkness combines with a visceral horror, warping both the mind and body. Now as far as why this putrid slab of music is so appealing, you’ll have to figure that out on your own.
