Artist: Glaukom Synod

Album: Ogre

Year: 2007

Label: Self-released

Genre: Industrial, Noise, Experimental, metal(?)

Website: http://glaukomsynod.site.voila.fr

Rating: 4/10

Tracklist:

1. Passive Retro

2. Translute Jugulate Iniquit (XXVII)

3. Trephination And Ruminance (The Iron Tongue Part II)

4. Triangle Obscene (Obesism 23)

5. Gangrene Control (Floods Of Repugnance)

6. Totalitarian Nuclear Warlust

7. Multiplex Of Affliction

8. Vulvotronic Dominator

9. Pustular Eyesocket Nervotomy

10. Sci-fix It

11. Ultrablasting Zaxxonized Paroxsym

12. Cemeterial Sexchanging Dementia (Decapitate)

13. Intragenitose

14. Gutturalia (Outro)

Um shit, this is a weird one. The last Glaukom Synod album that I heard was quite the conglomeration of nearly every kind of industrial style known to man, and I guess you could say that ”Ogre” follows in its footsteps. Sort of.

Well what we have here seems to be an album that is desperately searching for an identity. The drum machine and guitars are desperately trying to be metal, but then there are elements of power noise and elements of old school industrial all pulling this album in separate directions. The end  result is a giant heap of myriad styles with no real cohesion or purpose. Looking at the nonsensical track titles will give you a pretty good indication of what you can expect on this record. An “avant-garde” mix of Ministry, Skinny Puppy and a broken bandsaw all thrown into a cement mixer, shit out and then chopped up and re-arranged at random.

Well, to it’s credit this album has a lot of good old school industrial sounds and textures. There is a lot of banging metal and chaotic noise-scapes which remind me of the aforementioned skinny puppy. The album is very dark and mechanical in a sort of junkyard sort of way. The production is better and fuller than on previous work. The album is full of strange shit that you probably won’t find elsewhere. Although you probably don’t find it elsewhere for a reason…

My biggest issue with the album is the over-the-top faux-metal sound that is overly prevalent on this CD. To be honest I was never a huge fan of ministry and the whole speedcore drums and guitar really turns me off. Do you want to be metal or do you want to be industrial? Music at 180+bpm is only ‘brutal’ for so long. The other major downfall of this album lies in the sporadic and seemingly haphazard arrangements. To some degree this could be considered diversity and variety, but at a point it starts to become random and works against the song: preventing it from having a cohesive structure or flow that the listener can attach themselves to, and this record goes way beyond that point. The sporadic nature of the tracks actually causes them to run together and become indistinguishable from one another. Every track is basically the same BPM and sounds of a very similar nature…that is, always the same guitar and drum tone, and noises start to sound the same after a bit. It would also be nice to have some more melodic elements added to the spectrum; the tracks are overly reliant on drums, guitar and low-freq heavy noises.

Overall, Glaukom Synod uses a lot of really cool elements in his work, but I think that he needs to work on arrangement and song structure in order to craft something memorable that appeals to the ear rather than attempts to destroy it. Future tracks would do well to be organized a bit better so that they have some semblance of being a “song” rather than a heap of noise. Fans of old school guitar-driven industrial or experimental and noise-y music would probably be able to find something to enjoy on this album. While there are some interesting elements, I find this album too impractical to give it a high rating. If you want something "influenced by skinny puppy and front line assembly" then I recommend checking out the new Bajskorv CD instead.

[.d4n b4rr3tt.]

january 2008