The latest release from Matthew Bower’s Skullflower crushes all the competition. Making very rough rhythms and drones from slabs of noise, Bower has put together one titan of an album. The noise he evokes rakes out my ears like few others do.
Crucial Blast
Starting off with the pretentiously titled “Lost in the Blackened Gardens of Some Vast Star,” Tribulation begins like a kick to the face and keeps kicking. Bower uses the bare minimum rock setup of guitars and drums to make his compositions, but it’s hard to tell as there is so much distortion and dirt all over the music that it all forms one black mess. (It’s a glorious black mess however.) Sometimes, like on this first track it is possible to hear bits of guitar squawk through the layers of feedback but most of the time the wall of sound is all consuming. Like an awful lot of noise releases, Bower shows a strong metal influence. “Black Wind” has a black metal tinged riff repeating through it while tons of feedback creates the black wind of the title. Black metal always strives for icy coldness but rarely achieves it, when I play this piece, the temperature drops in the room.
One thing that isn’t quite annoying but is a little irksome is the way that all of the pieces just stop at the end and immediately the next piece begins. After the eight minutes of aural assault of the title track I am only beginning to get into a good trance when (the admittedly awesome) “Void of Roses” all of a sudden begins at a different volume, knocking me back into consciousness. This is probably intentional, lulling the listener into a comfort zone and pulling the chair out from under them.
The music is disorientating and overwhelming as Bower makes good use of stereo, channelling different sounds into different ears and at different volumes. On headphones many of the pieces have a much stronger impact; the sounds coming in at different levels resulted in me cocking my head to one side like I had a creak in my neck. The dizzying array of noises on offer makes each listen sound as fresh as the first. Even within one piece Bower utilises a wide range of sounds. For example there are three main elements to “Dwarf Thunderbolt:” a slow and doom laden guitar, a wall of shrieking feedback and what sounds like a piano being demolished. Any combination of two of these elements would have made a powerful piece on their own but the three together is tremendous.
One thing that struck me about Tribulation is that as overwhelming as it is, it is never overbearing. After many noise albums I want to put on something a little more sedate but when this album finishes I’m ready to go again after a short break. This is a fantastic album and definitely one of the best from Skullflower.
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