Greymachine
Disconnected

I'M AFRAID... so much.

A living, true fear; because I have to face an album that has been haunting me since 2009, the year it was released. I've been wanting to write a review for a long time; but I've never been able to: because this is a terrifying album for me. But now the moment has come, at least I believe; let's try, one step at a time, with absolute calmness.

Justin Broadrick and Aaron Turner are the creators and (sick) minds behind this massive project; I won't go into describing their respective careers in music. They are certainly among the most influential figures in a certain type of heavy music over the past decades. It's Aaron's own record label that distributes the album; so there's absolute freedom to compose, to record whatever they want, without worrying too much about appearances and sales. They don't need it.

Eight long, interminable tracks for a total duration that surpasses an hour of listening. Terrifying industrial-sludge-noise-dub in its pachydermic advance, emblematic from the cover which is never so explicit. One is overwhelmed by a sound marked by an obsessive, imperious bass; with two guitars dismantling everything with alienating notes that seem to come from a black, cold, deep cavern. With synthetic drum loops repeated endlessly that add a further mantric and repetitive sense to the flow of the songs: obsessing.

Without light, without breath; there is no pause, one cannot breathe. A saturated sound, black as pitch, with the voices of the two leaders that are primal, psychotic screams that deliver anguish. The initial "Wolf at the Door" and "Vultures Descend" (what titles!!!) both exceed eight minutes in length, very well conveying what the unsuspecting listener will face: like primal Godflesh, the more industrial ones, colliding with the Isis of "Celestial", finally passing by an infected dub brimming with claustrophobic mood reminiscent of Scorn. A calling card that allows no rebuttal.

The entire listen develops in the same, disturbed way; arriving thus bloodless at the last track "Easy Pickings" which is easy in nothing: another eight minutes meant to hurt the mind with its sheer heaviness, pounding, monstrous.

A unique album that will have no follow-up: believe me, it's perhaps better this way given what one encounters when listening to "Disconnected"; I've never heard something so unlistenable. If there's an afterlife, I still want to be welcomed by these sounds should I enter eternal hell. A masterpiece.

Enough, I have to stop, I'm trembling... I need to hurry, leave the house and breathe the good and fresh air of my mountains on this rainy and gloomy morning; I need to disconnect, unplug from that sense of dependence that even talking about this album creates for me... But it's already too late, I can't detach myself from all this... everything starts again... once more...

I'M AFRAID... so much.

A living, true fear.....AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH..................