Gnawed - Feign And Cloak

Oh yeah, a good portion of intense power electronics music is what I need today exactly to fill me with inexhaustible energy. And of course, each time when I am looking for the highest quality material, I address to Malignant as the headliner label on this field of activity during the last few years. Minneapolis based Gnawed is the project that joined the family recently with his latest album "Feign and Cloak" after releasing dozens of tapes, CDrs and collaborative splits through less famous labels since 2009. Common, isn't it, impressive productivity? Though I must admit, I haven't heard his previous works, but as soon as you step into the church of Malignant (hehehe, THE church of industrialism), your share price increases several times automatically drawing a lot of attention.

So, boys and girls, Grant Richardson is the name of our hero for today and nothing will stop him from burning my brain and replacing it with melted lava. With the first tunes of "Feign and Cloak" I understand that Gnawed is nothing else then a striking representative of a classic power electronics sound. An opening act "Time Undone" is a kind of soft flirtation with dark ambient in order to set a proper atmosphere. But with the second track "Burning the Hive" Mr. Richardson fires with all his heavy guns leaving no space for regret or hesitation. Straight forward mechanical sound, sharp edges of steel reinforcements distort my speakers, an extremely aggressive vocal session; all of them follow the cannons of the genre exploiting its highest standards. But please, don't misjudge it with a lack of talent or plagiarism; Gnawed has a lot to offer with its music full of lovely passages.

"The Scales" starts with a lower tone, but moves towards overloaded bass and heavy scratches very fast. A poisonous deep growling touches the right strings in my soul, raising the level of violence and brutalism inside this theme. A title track is one of the best of this record presenting the truest power electronics sound in its best, pulsating background counts down the time allocated till the end of civilization, the aggressive vocal session is there as well alongside different special effects of working mechanisms. "Pestilence Beholden" becomes even sharper creating a really offensive atmosphere of death and destruction.

After an extreme storm, the music takes a small break with "The Wings and the Carrion" which presents a slow piece of low-fi industrial out of the darkest nightmares. But in "The Drowning Fire" power electronics reigns again, piercing my miserable raison d'etre with its rusty nails. The album is finished by "Torch of Cedar", mostly instrumental act full of noisy textures rocking hard on the grave of my consciousness.

It seems to me that you might think about "Feign and Cloak" as if it is a regular record without its own style and face, but that is completely wrong. Unlike other materials that are bread over the scene, this one has a perfectly shaped sound together with a certain rhythm which is not that common in power electronics. After spinning this CD a dozen non-stop cycles, there are certain moments when I can feel physically this massive wave of energy that flows out of this record, turning my veins into high-voltage cables, switching my blood with a toxic fluid, filling my thoughts with enormous shadow, throwing my body into boiling chaos. Another great addition to the glorious family of Malignant Records. Don't be the one that misses it. Mar 21 2015