Deathpile "Final Confession" CD
[Pain Compliance]
Nice.  I haven't heard but so much of Deathpile's material over the years, and what I have encountered hasn't blown me away, but I have to say that this superbly executed collection of material (spanning 1997 - 2004) makes me wish I had followed the project more closely when it was still active (Deathpile was shelved in 2004 for mastermind Jonathan Canady to focus on one of his other projects, Angel of Decay).  Each of these songs was hand-selected by Canady, making up what he views as the project's "essential work" - sans a few notable omissions due to space constraints, etc.  Included is a vast selection of power electronics/death industrial mastery from the "Dedicated to Edmund Emil Kemper" and "Abominations" 7"s, the "Random Acts of Cruelty" CS, the "120 Days of Sodom" split LP with Discordance, the "Non Plus Ultra" CD, the split CD-R with Whorebutcher; and the "Back on the Prowl", "Gutters of New York City", and "Pornography Hurts" CD-R's.  Most of the tracks run four to five minutes and consist of aesthetically raw foundations of throbbing low-end and gritty distorted crunches, while the vocals are, of course, always distorted in some manner and appear in the form of spoken narration, grunts, shouts, and shrieking screams.  Some of the tracks see Canady joining forces with other contributors, but the bulk of the compositions find Canady flying solo.  "Triumph of the Hunter" has some of the most distinctive vocal work, where spoke lines are delivered with minimal effects so the content's very easy to make out.  "Blunt Anal Trauma" is a little more restrained in volume level, focusing on twisted atmospheric ambience and pulsing rhythmic textures alongside samples of a woman moaning/whimpering - and the correlation of the sounds and the samples definitely creates a far more disturbing sensibility than most... this is not just a typical "noise-track-with-a-porno-sample" kind of thing at all.  Companion tracks "Girone Della Merde" and "Girone Del Sangue" are also a little less abrasive, especially the former, focusing on rumbling and repetitious bass currents with vibrating midrange hums and prominent vocal performances.  Later in the disc, "Execration" immediately jumps out as a standout with its sinister percussive sounds and ambient swells against distant samples (which are in Italian, I believe), making for one of the more consistent and droning dark ambient pieces - a surefire favorite of mine.  None of the material is terribly harsh, though.  And I like that.  It's in your face and aggressive without being an absolute wall of distortion.  Even thicker and noisier songs like "Breaking a Doll" are still dense and have a lot of character, and it's often the vocals that really start adding ferocity when they switch over to the searing screams.  "Touch Me Daddy" is the one track that has more of a traditional harsh noise backdrop, even to the point where the vocals have to fight for space in the mix; with "Gutters of New York City (Berkowitz II)" coming in a close second in terms of base severity.  "Slaugherhouse Pornography" is even an unreleased track taken from the final Deathpile rehearsal in March of 2004, complete with whispered vocals that are only faintly evident behind the crispy distortion.  Worth noting is that, aside from the rehearsal track, which is slightly thinner, all of the songs sound surprisingly consistent with one another.  Now and then there are some notable differences in muddiness or particular character of sound, but nothing so blatant that it comes across during a casual listen, so one would assume that the mastering has been well attended to.  The packaging is all done in black and white with tactful images befitting of the content, and it fucking kicks ass - if for no other reason than you'll possibly never see another power electronics release that includes as many of the lyrics as possible alongside explanations of what the material was inspired by, indications of where the lyrics or samples were derived from, etc.  Such content is incredibly honest and far too absent in most such artists' work, so it's awesome to see some additional insight and detail provided on this retrospective collection, because that makes it so much more than just another set of songs dealing with misogynistic topics and depraved acts of sexual violence.  Great, great work.  I'm not wild on "best of" types of collections, but considering that damn near all of these tracks originally appeared on ultra limited edition releases that are way the hell of print these days it's a killer cross-section of what the project had to offer.  Those listeners who are into this particular style who've never given Deathpile much attention over the years should look into this just as much as existing fans who undoubtedly missed out on some of these rare releases.  Very nice. (7/10)
Running time - 71:10, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Walking Time Bomb, Blunt Anal Trauma, Girone Della Merde, Girone Del Sangue, Execration]
Pain Compliance Productions - http://www.paincompliance.net

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