The debut album from this Boston trio is something else. It takes influence from dozens of different sources and combines them seamlessly without being an academic chore or a self indulgent amalgamation of record collections. It is just a fucking great album.
Killer Pimp
Ken Ueno’s vocals are incredible. He goes from deep, booming growls to high pitched squeals, the kind that I would normally associate with a boiling kettle or Blixa Bargeld. Using circular breathing techniques Ueno keeps his vocals going continuously for large stretches of time (growling on the exhalation, squealing on the inhalation). As well as being physically impressive, it goes well with Whitney and Worster’s rhythms and noise. Ueno is ever present but sometimes gets overwhelmed by the other two. It’s not like he’s just lost in the mix, he still colors the sound at these moments. On “Delillo” he is particularly remarkable, his rumbling snarls sound like something from Lovecraft calling from the abyss.
The opening drone to “Following Thunder” is one of those drones that just capture your attention. It swells and pulses throughout the piece; it sounds primal and infinite like a good drone should. Ueno again is on top form here with some amazing throat and overtone singing. It is unbelievable how huge his range of vocals is, especially the buzzing sound he emits. The piece is the most hypnotic of the five on Axis of Blood, I had it on repeat for about an hour and it was easy to get lost in it.
The last piece, “Jet,” finishes off the album beautifully. The drum machine is set to a deep bass drum sound with a low BPM; it is reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady” and much like the TG track it is full of dread. It completely dissipates the warm feelings that “Following Thunder” previously generated. This is cold, hard and unsettling. It feels about twice as long as it is (and it’s over twenty minutes long to begin with); it’s not that it’s tedious and I was waiting for it to end but that it’s monotonous and crushing. The noise surrounding the beats change slowly; there is a constant feeling that something is nearby and it’s not pleasant. As the song reaches its climax, the drum machine changes to a heartbeat rhythm and it is terrifying to listen to. If The Terminator was ever remade as an extreme Japanese horror movie then “Jet” would be the appropriate soundtrack.
Also included on the CD are two videos of Blood Money performing live. One is a complete concert that although it sounds good I found it hard to look at as when it's blown up to full screen it is too blurry and it's too small to watch comfortably when the picture is clear. The other video is a shorter extract from a live performance in much higher quality that was much more enjoyable. The material played live isn't a carbon copy of the studio recordings. There is a lot of improvisation and variation; the Blood Money live experience looks to be as good as they are on disc but the quality of the videos is quite low as they needed to be squashed onto the disc. As a bonus feature, it is a nice gesture. However I must admit that I rarely watch videos on CD Extra discs as I hate sitting at my computer watching a tiny screen with tinny sound. I'll be most likely sticking with the audio on Axis of Blood.
I found no fault with this album (barring my aversion to videos on CDs). A cynical reader would think “Of course he wouldn’t find a fault” considering Brainwashed’s Jon Whitney is on it. I must point out that even though he sends me some lovely CDs to review, he also sends me some absolutely horrid ones so there’s no chance of critical nepotism here. Axis of Blood is an excellent release, anyone with half an interest in challenging music performed deftly should be making a beeline for the samples below.
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