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VARIOUS ARTISTS   Ennui ( Actuary / Liver Cancer / En Nihil )   CDR   (Roil Noise)    7.98



��Ennui teams up three of the more brutal practitioners of extreme electronics and modern death industrial for an hour of intense noise; two of these outfits (California harsh noise sculptors Actuary and long-running death industrial outfit En Nihil) are longtime Crucial Blast faves, but this is my first time hearing Liver Cancer, a newer band belting out some of the heaviest stuff on the disc via a hellish power electronics assault fused to some massive subsonic rumble.

�� Actuary are up first, with two long tracks of their sinister loopscapes and harsh electronic chaos. It starts off with fractured synth-like melodies circling endlessly through the void, but then morphs into a much more abrasive noisescape of distorted drones, eerie chopped-up melodies, crushing hypnotic synth buzz and violent feedback manipulations. It's got that psychedelic edge that all of the other Actuary recordings have, joining their heavy Bastard Noise influence with a chopped-up inchoate chaos. The other track is more garbled electronic horror, monstrous howls looped into endlessly elliptical patterns, drifting through thick clouds of crackling, squelchy noise and pulsating black synths.

�� Next is Liver Cancer, who as it turns out has basically the same lineup as the noise outfit +DOG+. Here, the band flexes more of an intense power-electronics assault, employing a heavy malevolent bass presence that may resonate with fans of Genocide Organ. These guys unleash a swirling surreal noisescape called "Birth/Suffering/Death" that stretches for nearly twenty minutes, shifting constantly between garbled distorted noise infested with deep demonic vocals and deformed, guttural synth-drones, percussive rattling drenched in echo, and blasts of extreme brain-melting feedback. Good stuff, definitely has me wanting to hear more from this project.

�� The last three tracks from En Nihil lean more towards the harsh noise end of things and away from the grinding death industrial heaviness of some of his more recent offerings. It's still plenty grim, though. Titled "Cold", "Dead", and "Empty", these tracks move between long stretches of rumbling low-end noise strafed by eerie keening drones, distant Tangerine Dream-esque arpeggios and blasts of churning black static, often erupting into surges of crushing harsh noise a la Macronympha, and even a few passages of full-on harsh noise wall.

�� Packaged in a slimline DVD case.


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