Isserley - TAPEWORMHOLE

By now anyone who follows Brutal should equally be familiar with the self-proclaimed saddest girl in Australia, Isserley. The noisey, experimental project influenced by and utilizing industrial, EBM, doom, metal, dubstep, trap, witch house, and so many other underground projects has been covered on our website a multitude of times. Click the little search icon in the top right corner and type in the artist's name to find out more about them; three reviews, three interviews, and a handful of news articles will give you an insight into Isserley and their horror-infested works filled with self-reflections and criticisms. 

Longer albums such as "TAPEWORMHOLE" usually have me shifting the songs into three major categories which are songs that I loved, songs that I don't mind but would skip over to get to the ones that I loved, and the ones that I could not stand. And that's the approach that I took with this review. And we're going to start off with the songs that I loved which begins with 'Please Stop Me'. A wonderfully scratchy song that sounds like something a chainsaw princess would sing to you as she mutilated your body. Pulling out your guts and intestines, the lyrics read, "I'll tell you right now what I want from you daddy, / I want your blood all over me, splattered on me". Terrific. Gory. Horrific. Exactly what I love about Isserley. 



'Clearnet Alleycat' was another song I could not wait to pass through my earphones on subsequent listenings; it's an industrial metal powerhouse that fluctuates between rough-building rants to all out mental assaults. Rapid-fire lyrical delivery the likes of which I have not experienced from Isserley comes out on 'Hell Is Other People' was a genuine surprise. Seeing her pull it off so well was not so shocking as it was delightful; it's another weapon in her already staggering experimental arsenal. 

And, if 'Hell Is Other People' was an indicator that Isserley might be good in the industrial-rap and noise-hop scenes, then 'Пир (Feast)' is a testimony to that thought. Lo-fi machine-driven beats run while her signature vocals cascade from the depths of hell; she easily out-slays other producers within the niche genre. A brilliant noise-metal blast finishes the song off. Skipping a little later into the album, you'll find a similar song in terms of genre with 'Angel of Vengeance' where Isserley once again displays a knack for the noise-hop scene. I would not mind seeing an entire album dedicated to this type of material. 

'Axe Wound' brought out the sleeping EBM beats with raw industrial metal and black metal influences written all over it. Perhaps this one will be a favorite among the pure industrialists out there, but in general it's phenomenally aggressive track with lyrics that fit the mood. "A fucking loser is what you are, / You can only go as far as your legs take you, / And the've taken you so far;  Legs spread as wide as the stars." The last song I wish to give mention to is 'Filling'. It's an ominous, poetic song that I almost wish was spoken-word instead of sung. It seems like the perfect tune for a spooky horror tale to be unwound. Either way, what we do get is worthy of all your attention. 

As far as songs that I did not like there are only two that I can mention that I have no intention of listening to anymore. The intro song 'Panacea' has a threatening aura about it at first which is delightful; but around the one-minute-and-twenty second mark it turns into an obliterating, percussive mess that is God awful. 'CRY_WOLF' was the other song that was terrible to me; it sounds like it was purposefully made to destroy whatever audio device you're listening to the song on. On first listen, I actually took off my headphones before I could pause the music. Nonetheless, the two songs added together only take up four-minutes-and-twenty-four seconds of the album in total so it's not a complete loss. 

The rest of the songs on the album 'Born Again', 'Treats', 'Quarantine', 'Те кто знает линии (Those Who Know The Lines)', 'Finish Her', and 'Gone Again' fill into the regular holes of Isserley's production style of harsh industrial experiments mixed with lethal guitars here and there. While not bad, they didn't stand-up to the songs I talked about earlier in the love section and I found myself utilizing them more or less as background noise than say Music-I-Jam-Out-To-On-My-Way-To-Work. 

The concluding paragraph is where I'm weakest in writing; I've said what I've had to say and don't feel like repeating myself. "TAPEWORMHOLE" is available on Bandcamp under the "name your price" format, but don't be a cheap bastard. Cough up a buck and support independent artists. Hopefully we'll see more of Isserley's works come out in physical format in the near-future. For now, this will do! 
Nov 06 2020