JESUS OF NAZARETH / KUSARI GAMA KILL
Split CDr
PRESS / REVIEWS
Reviewed on VITAL WEEKLY
http://www.vitalweekly.net/
If Menace Ruine had a balance of 70% black metal and 30% ambient noise, Split-album between US-project Jesus Of Nazareth and Danish project Kusari Gama Kill titled "Vain" has the opposite balance with more focus on Noise but still with a heavy weight on Grindcore expressions. The album is released by the Spanish label R.O.N.F. Records that focuses on extreme expressions of grinding metal as well as of harsh noise. And the expression certainly is extreme on this split-album. "Jesus of Nazareth" opens the jolly show with ten blasting bombers based of hyper-fast drum machines, processed voices and other samples from among others Jap-noise artist Masonna. Despite the hyper-activity of the drum machines the rhythmic texture gives a great solid ground to the nine works of Jesus Of Nazareth. There are lots of interesting interventions in the noisy spheres with among others samples of early Saloon Music mixed up with almost melodic soundscapes on the track titled "Life was perfect". In other moments the expressions reminds of John Zorn's Naked City-project thanks to the furious mixture of grindcore, jazzy drum patterns and noise. As Kusari Gama Kill hits the stage the poor listener is completely wiped out by the nasty growling of Janus Blomfrĝ meanwhile his collaborator Martin Weile demolish any sign of silence with his cynic mistreatments of electronic equipment. As was the case with Jesus Of Nazareth, Kusari Gama Kill uses ultra-fast machine-drumming as a nice underground layer to the symphonies of sickness. Two excellent albums from two different labels revealing the fact that the difference between electronic expressions and extreme metal can easily be melted down - with a quite nasty result! Anyone interested in Noise created by drum machines should also check out the "Drummachinegun" released by Relapse Records in 2006. (NM)
Reviewed on CRUCIAL BLAST
http://www.crucialblast.net/
Another super-limited album from R.O.N.F. and their amazing catalog of far out avant-grindcore and abstract extreme noise, Vain is a split disc between the American grind/noise project Jesus Of Nazareth, which features former Enemy Soil/Exploding Meth Lab member Mason, and the insane amorphous gabber noise wipeouts of the Danish duo Kusari Gama Kill. Back to back, these cats create a fearsome listening experience that begins with Jesus Of Nazareth ripping through nine tracks of their unique manipulated grind; each track is formed from bits of ambient and classical sounding music, ridiculously brutal hyperspeed grindcore and manic drum solo freakouts, downcast distorted drones that hint at the beautiful fuzzscapes of Tim Hecker, bulldozing walls of extreme Japanese style harsh noise, processed vocal collages, jazzy drum patterns, loops of old big band music, and other sonic detritus that is cut up and pasted together into abstract, dreamlike blasts of sound. Melody and ambience aren't something that you typically hear from a band that has one foot in the fecund waters of total noisecore, but JON's twisted and haunting plundergrind experiments have made for some of the most compelling extreme grind I've heard. I'm a big fan of the previous albums from JON that appeared on R.S.R. and Dotsmart, and these tracks are just as amazing, a blistering hallucination that fuses Agoraphobic Nosebleed style drum machine grind with Zorn's Naked City, Masonna, and decayed melodic noise.Kusari Gama Kill roars forth on the second half of this disc with a less nuanced but equally brutal form of experimental grind that uses a simple palette of manipulated electronic noise fuckery, relentless drum machine blastbeats, and bestial vocals. This is insane shit, and what I'm listening to is apparently a collection of 60 "untitled songs" that are glommed together Anal Cunt style and broken up into six individual larger tracks, each one averaging about two and a half minutes in length. Vocalist Janus Blomfro vomits a ceaseless stream of monstrous roars and grunts over Martin Weile's electronic noise and ultra fast drum machines that spit stuttering blast beat formations and glitchy Noism-esque rhythmic seizures. Instead of oppressive white noise of Jesus Of Nazareth, Kusari Gama Kill employ weird squelchy noises and squiggly sinewave fluctations that sound more like the freaked out digital chaos of the Neus-318 label or maybe Planet Mu. Pretty obliterating shit. It's hand numbered out of 99 copies and comes in a standard jewel case.
