Human Larvae - Womb Worship

Art, as I can see it concept in general, has a really significant role for the human interpretation of a macro world around and its influence on the inner world of each of us. But it has not only a positive impulse implemented inside of it. There should be also a space for those that try to reveal their frustrations and fears, their will for a loud protest and demand for changes. I am convinced that power electronics is an exact musical genre to serve those needs of very special individuals which don't want to shut up and eat themselves from inside. Having a true independent nature this genre leaves a free and uncensored scene for any possible theme or discussion. It can be truly anything, from wars and economic instability to cultural differences and personal disorder.

That's why, when I start to dive into the atmosphere that brought to me through the new creation of Berlin resident Human Larvae, I am not surprised to discover a deep social background behind the album 'Womb Worship'. Maybe you already guessed from the name, but what we are talking here about is a constant pursuit after the ideals of the modern society when one of them is unhealthy hyper-tolerance towards themes like gender differences. Generally, it is good when woman is treated with the high level of respect, but it is totally unacceptable when the sense of this level loses all proportions turning into obsession and complex social cult, kind of womb worship, over-fetishizing the opposite sex. Thus, Daniel tries to express the negativism of the subject using one of the best tools of extreme art, a trumpet of protest, power electronics.

While the music of Human Larvae can fall into the description of classic PE, it has some tasty stuff inside that gives it a lot of positive points to raise it above the regular averagism. From the beginning, with the first minutes of "Perdition from the Virgin Mouth" I am being covered with a huge wave of sound. Noise generators generate noises, scratch generators generate scratches and vocal session generates lots of hatred and violence; everything seems to be in place as expected. Metallic, industrial and harsh noise pulsations are bound together in one knot of brutalism. The sound is pretty raw, finding the right balance between post-processing and pure dirtiness. All the noise production plays a quite chaotic role; I barely can feel any specific rhythm or structure in it. What do give a form to the compositions are the atmospheric patches and special effects widely spread all over the music. For example, a dramatic piano loop that guides the first track along with a slow percussive drum beat, slow and gloomy background melody of "Entwined in the Umbilical Noose", anxious industrial textures of "Methods of Possession", spoken words, sampled voices and many many others. There are also slower themes which are even close to dark ambient genre like "Obsession Intermezzo II" or "The Truth I Failed to See" that definitely contribute to the dense ambience and sensual experience created by Human Larvae.

At the end of the long day, when I ran the cd over and over again trying to feel the spirit and the content as deep as possible, I am convinced that Daniel succeeds in setting control over all the elements and items of the whole soundscape and his message is pretty clear. Sometimes the music becomes too harsh and formless for my taste, but those parts are quite rare. Inside 'Womb Worship' I receive an honest scream from the depth of the artist' heart, without hypocrisy, without all those sweet and kind (read tolerant) words that are hammered into our ears every day. Sometimes the truth has to be sharp in order to give people like Daniel tools to break our self-deceit that poisons our hearts and blinds our eyes.
Sep 10 2013