It’s practically impossible to keep up with Spider God and the veritable jigsaw puzzle of releases coming from prime composer George. This is actually the second that has been officially classed as an album following on from 2022’s ‘Fly In The Trap’ although there has been a veritable slew of other formats on offer from EP’s to compilations, live recordings, splits and cover songs. Actually coming out at the tail end of last year this just arrived on a red cassette tape via Repose Records and the colour happens to be pretty apt as blood flows from the narrative within. The last album took in the real life murder of Elisa Lam and here we have a projected first part of two, concentrating on another grizzly murder.
We are told that ex Spider God member Faustus was the victim here after taking part in an online game called “Possess The Devil” and mysteriously disappearing. Things are presented as a bit of a conundrum with Faustus having penned the lyrics here and these along with other clues will allow listeners to perhaps determine what exactly happened to him. Well, I hope I am not trivialising things by saying that you can take all that with a pinch of whatever condiment you so choose. Of course Killing Rooms are nothing new especially for those that are hooked on films such as the Saw franchise, nor are people being lured into them via online traps. Considering the Japanese ties to the track titles and the Oriental musical flourishes that Spider God are so adept at one cannot help thinking of Japanese Red Room curses of the 90’s and the incredibly graphic films that followed courtesy of Daisuke Yamanouch. Once seen, these are never likely to be forgotten and if you attempt to track them down, don’t blame me!
But it’s time to concentrate on the music and although a fairly short album at just over the half-hour mark ‘The Killing Room’ reminds just why Spider God can be such a damn catchy proposition. There’s plenty of hooks here musically and not just those that you can easily imagine piercing skin in your imagination on listening to it. It’s also quite versatile track by track and seems that there are some new ideas to be found too. Wrapped around an intro of baroque organ work and outro of what could easily be described as dungeon-synth we get six main compositions. ‘s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d’ is first with its thrashy, melodious blackened chops flowing around the harsh vocals. Listening to the latter they seem like G has been swallowing razor blades as a party trick. It’s kind of like listening to an enraged Dalek but those wanting to work out any puzzle will be able to make some of them out. ‘roku san’ blazes in and ramps up the Oriental sounding flourishes, furrowing them out at hyper-speed. There’s a classical suite somewhere in there and fans of Sigh will no doubt be entrapped by the melody and rhythmic velocity behind it all as well as Sabbat (Jap) due to the black thrashing tumult. From here there is that aforementioned change of direction. ‘silicon witch’ has a clean guitar sound that reminds of latter era The Cure. The vocals might well be at the other end of Mr Smith’s morose wails but the glistening music dropped me right back into the band’s ‘Disintegration’ period. ‘the black web’ is then spun with some progressive touches leaving us entangled in their net. The words “Wake up” seem to be prolifically rasped out here and things are all the more curious. Perhaps Faustus has been drugged and as we move to the second side ‘the cloud of unknowing’ sees him raised from his stupor to observe just where he has unwittingly found himself. Strangely the upbeat sounding song itself makes one wonder if he is exactly where he wanted to be? It’s a totally euphoric number.
At over 10 minutes in length it’s the title track we are left to fixate on and here the progressive elements are spread after a sorrowful sounding start into a quirky tune with elements of a driving, psychedelic Krautrock beat behind it. At first I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but then realisation dropped that it really reminds of the much missed sound of Der Blutharsch And The Church Of The Leading Hand, naturally enthused with Oriental trimmings. It’s totally impossible to resist and really gets under the skin, having you humming along and wondering what on earth is going to come next. But as far as that is concerned I guess we will have to wait for the second part…
The Killing Room shows plenty of ambition and is deftly and intriguingly accomplished, reminding me how I got lured in to this arachnid’s lair in the first place. I would say it is also imaginatively crafted and as far as the inner narrative is concerned I certainly hope so, but then again you never quite know do you?
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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