It is fair to say that any proposition from Art Of Burning Water is not for the faint hearted or anyone looking for melodic refuge. The trio’s sound though, and indeed new album Between Life And Nowhere, is something that a passion for ruthless noise with a penchant for violent infectiousness should and will eagerly embrace.
The London based threesome of drummer Mike, guitarist/vocalist Grief, and bassist Kunal create hardcore sandstorms of sonic intolerance and rhythmic barbarity; twisted punk ravages which are as pestilential as any plague but built on grievous grooves and piercing hooks ridden by the rawest of throat ripping vocal squalls. It is a trespass which has fuelled a host of releases from the band since 2003 and provided one half of an impressive split 7” with Nervous Mothers earlier this year. True to say, the band’s sound may have alienated as many as it has befriended but those hooked on their creative hostility come with zeal many bands would pay for.
A fury of ten songs over twenty minutes, Between Life And Nowhere has no times for niceties and flies at the senses from its first breath. A sonic lance and sample triggers Rambo Survival Techniques into life, the guitar an intrusive wave of sound backed by the thumping beats of Mike and Kunal’s grievous bassline. With Grief’s flesh wilting vocal spite soon infesting all, the track grumbles and rumbles like a bear with toothache, searing the senses whilst teasing them with an underlying catchiness which in turn lines the even more hellacious heart of Prime Example Of A Lonely Child. The track ebbs and flows in its intensity, never releasing ears from a sonic abuse but taunting the imagination with its primal instincts and another sampled incursion as spicy grooves and hungry riffs join in cantankerous intent.
The excellent Barbara O’Reilly comes in on the final sonic twine of its predecessor; swiftly uncorking its caustic toxicity with a punishing persuasion before the twenty odd seconds of You simply erupts in primal cancer upon the listener which in turn is followed by the less nasty but just as intrusive adventure of To Be Brave. With swinging beats linking up with a growling brooding bassline, the song makes a calmer entrance, the guitar teasing and inviting before the full tempest of emotion and rage at the track’s heart ruptures into its virulent sound. Twisting from raucous hostility to predacious stalking across its irritable body, the song quickly hits the sweet spot.
The acerbic melodic nature of Voivodian Solutions To Die Kreuzian Problems just as rapidly ignites ear though any kinder essences are lined with their own venom and soon involved with unbridled rancor as shown again within the infectiously woven drama of Alesha and the scathing rapacity of Prone To Bouts Of Hopelessness. The first of the two entices and brutalises with every harsh rhythm and heavy metal infused grooves, its punk ‘n’ roll almost welcoming but only to an awaiting destruction while its successor crawls over the senses with its poison on full show before savaging with full malevolent energy.
A handful of seconds is all that Baby Without Your Love has and needs to share its distorted enmity, leaving the quarrelsome and increasingly violent punk ‘n’ roll of Kindness Is Strength to bring the album to a fine and feverish close.
As suggested earlier, Between Life And Nowhere is not going to find a home in everyone’s ears, something it and the underrated Art Of Burning Water seem to revel in. Both offer punk/hardcore which leaves the kind of scars which sorts the men from the boys and both deserve a portion of your flesh and attention.
Between Life And Nowhere is out now via Bigout (France), Sleeping Giant Glossolalia (USA), and SuperFi (UK) and available @ https://artofburningwater.bandcamp.com/album/between-life-and-nowhere
https://www.facebook.com/aobwmusic http://www.superfirecords.co.uk/aobw/
Pete RingMaster 21/01/2016
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