‘Ultra-negative industrial pop’ is a pretty good way to describe Norwegian act Blitzkrieg Baby as they come in a harrowing form that derives right back to a time in the 70’s when the likes of Throbbing Gristle, SPK and Boyd Rice were sharpening their teeth. Going into this type of music blind is never a sensible thing, indeed the experience could well leave you deaf too but luckily for us we have already plumbed the depths of Blitzkrieg Baby’s previous album ‘Porcus Norvegicus’ in 2012 and EP ‘Kid’s World’ from early last year. After a bit of a break they are back with a new EP which is up for release on double sided cassette via Beläten.
The project is a collaboration between artist, designer & musician Kim Sølve (Adversum, Swarms, K100), Anders B (Babyflesh, Mind & Flesh) & Bjeima (Yurei, Virus). Thematically it deals with rather disturbing themes from the dark side of humanity such as cannibalism, children utilised as killing machines in war and other Apocrypha leading to our inevitable decline into annihilation. The narrative is delivered over monotonous and repetitive beats by the artists in a robotic, emotionless, spoken format that really does make it all the more dreadful. Musically however it is not harsh but actually quite mellow and mesmerising. I actually managed to fall asleep listening to the 20 minute EP on a coach, aptly waking up to be stuck in a tailback for an hour in the wake of a hideous mangled crash at the end of it.
The title track is dub laden with dramatic emphasis on drum booms and a clicking mechanical sound accompanying a whispered and eerie vocal delivery. Mood and emotion is instantly enough to make you shudder as it delivers a quick fire volley of words describing all sorts of inhuman acts delivered by children ‘gourging on human flesh’ and destroying crushing, raping, slaying, skinning as the beast inside is unleashed. Yep it’s not pleasant stuff in the slightest. Sombre tones and mechanical noise see Mr B taking over from Kim Sølve vocally on next track ‘There Will Be Casualties.’ His delivery is more dictatorial and things build and clamour away in the background with an almost symphonic feel of cataclysm about it all. It’s music for a torture chamber and would no doubt scare the crap out of any victim you have tied up in your dungeon as you experiment on them. Big crashes and booms surge out and it’s a particularly grim place with little chance of escape to find yourself in. ‘This Is Where Empathy Comes To Die’ is a short sinister bit of crawling sonic noise and ambience before ‘Spit’ is ejected over a more martial beat feeding back over crackling sounds and Sølve’s emotionless voice echoing despair and hopelessness every step of the way. ‘No redemption’ are words that hollowly form and this is a pit of utter doom, abandon hope thou who enters here. Finally the much more strident echoing and jarring tones of ‘Cut, Slash, Maim, Kill’ are left to eviscerate and clean up this short 19 minute descent into hell and only the most deranged sort of lunatic is likely to flip the tape over and play it all over again on the other side (or in my case repeat digitally).
This left all sorts of nasty images in my head and was the audio equivalent of sitting through a film like the recent American Guinea Pig, which it would make a perfect soundtrack for. Approach with caution, this one bites!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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