Lockweld "Metal Pieces" CD
[Crucial Blast]
After a quick sample that acts as an introduction, "We Can Not Return" kicks off this limited edition release with more than eight minutes of raw, diverse, lo-fi harsh noise the likes of which I have never heard from Lockweld. And I fucking love it! The tracks are thick and dirty, there are some subtle melodic elements, lots of varying rhythms (be it loops, percussive textures, reverberated swells, etc.), samples, and of course some traditional harsh noise as well. "The Rev. Jim Jones Speaks" is nothing but an awesome one-minute sample of the insane Jim Jones ranting - that's it. No noise, no manipulation, nothing. In "With Best Regards, As Always" the blend of distorted samples and rugged distortion certainly makes for one of the more effective pieces on the disc, and a very similar atmosphere follows in "The Hollow Cost". "An Extremely Slow Moving Dream" is very minimal and sinister with overloaded bass drones rumbling underneath a choppy, decaying layer of distortion that is surprisingly quiet. The recording is definitely pretty lo-fi. It sounds great that way, though. It definitely has sort of an early power electronics/death industrial vibe to it (sans vocals). My only real complaint is with the flow of the disc more than the sound. The way that some of the tracks abruptly cut at the end can be disruptive and makes things feel unfinished, but other than that this thing's a winner. As with most Crucial Blast releases I just don't feel that the packaging is up to par. The CD-R comes in a DVD case with some abstract imagery, which is fine, but the text on the cover is pixilated and the color xerox shows a certain degeneration of quality, plus the paper isn't cut quite large enough so there is a gap of more than 1/4" that remains uncovered. The face of the disc has an odd black and white collage on it with even more pixilated text that looks quite bad, but at least the insert (all text) looks clean and simple. The coolest part is that there's a little plastic bag with actual metal pieces inside of it, which is the one redeeming quality of the presentation. This is some of the best material I've ever heard from Lockweld. It's a damn shame that the release is so limited and that the packaging does little to do the recordings justice. I would love to see this thing re-released as an LP with a stronger visual presence. Great stuff. (7/10)
Running time - 40:59, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: We Can Not Return, With Best Regards, As Always, The Hollow Cost, An Extremely Slow Moving Dream]
Crucial Blast - http://www.crucialblast.net

This review has been displayed 2151 times.