Sewer Goddess - Painlust

Harsh, distorted noise and power electronics mixed with guitar wrenching automatically sounds like material straight from horrible nightmares. However, in some senses, there are those out there such as myself who find peace and tranquility in such darkly moody pieces. The sheer earth shattering sounds that come forth from such records and CDs that hold these abstractions of sound can turn out some of my favorite tracks to simply sit and relax. 

Sewer Goddess is such an artist that allows me to so easily find myself in a bleak and ominous, yet mild and placid state of mind. Whereas previous albums and releases by this act have been under the aforementioned power electronics field, however they have evolved over time. As such, their latest album "Painlust" has been supplied with a healthy dose of raw black metal. 

That's not to say that all forms of experimental industrial and grinding noise elements have disappeared completely from the album; that would be a lie. But, the transformation from drawing power electronics into more complex black metal territory is very much noted and scribed. Perhaps this note doesn't stick well with the first song, "Plague Axis", which has a very lurking backing synth to it that sounds like it's straight out of a slasher film from the 80s. The song sticks well within the death industrial arena, dragging out scorching howls of pain and decay, cracking out a fantastic and lethal culmination of horrid sounds. 

It is with "My Grave" that the move is pronounced within the opening seconds. Slow and moving drums are placed right next to long and drawn out guitar notes that sound like they were fed through a grinder before being placed within the song. The vocals have an echo effect to them, but are clean, and the overall track has a sort of lofi sound to it. 

"Flog" I wasn't a huge fan of; while the track did sound nice, it felt way too similar to the previous track. The vocals did remind me of the ones used on the first track, as well, so it was pretty much a mash up between the first two songs. However, "Black Meat And Bones" came out and delivered a ridiculously awesome, tribal-like and cinematic appeal; I listened to it thrice before I moved on when I first listened to this album. 

"Get The Rope" had some more drum work paired next to a pulsating synth backdrop, with every other hit of the drum coming in with a thunderous effect. Lastly, "Melena's Mask" delivered the sickest rhythm so far, combining both their talents with black metal and power electronics to good measure. 

And, to keep this short, sweet, and to the point, "Painlust" is terrifyingly good. This album was released via Malignant Records, and you can pick up yourself a copy from the label's Bandcamp page. 
Jul 15 2015