I just recently discovered this band and flipped out when I found out about 'em. Why, you ask? Because Black Noise Cannon formed years ago from the ashes of the almighty Christdriver, who I've always viewed as a criminally underrated outfit that should appeal to any fan of generally cold, bleak, pulsing metal with light smatterings of industrial textures. The disc is dated 2003, so initially I thought it was an older release, especially seeing that Christdriver called it quits long ago, and this is the debut from Black Noise Cannon, but in fact that's just the date at which the songwriting was completed in demo form. The CD itself is brand spankin' new and just hit the streets in the last month or so. And, as expected, it's incredible: Picking up right where Christdriver left off, but taking things into far more of an experimental realm. Hell, the disc runs nearly an hour and contains only three tracks, so do the math! Opener "A Descriptive Introduction to the Silent War" runs 28 minutes on its own! Seeping in with quiet, minimal dark ambient soundscapes that create an eerie foundation for the track, within which drums don't even start to appear until eight-and-a-half minutes in. Guitars and bass follow near the 10-minute mark and lock into a pounding repetitious rhythm with the drums. And vocals? Sure, you'll get about seven lines in the entire track - 22 minutes in after a series of carefully arranged samples and brief piano build back into a persistent set of power chords and throbbing drums. The slow paced vocal arrangements, which are neither spoken nor shouted, absolutely bring to mind early Godflesh, complete with the distant wails of monotone singing. Some of the more abstract guitar wails that filter in at various portions of the disc very much fall into that realm as well - which is fine by me since Godflesh is one of my favorite bands of all time. 13-minute "There Will Be Tomorrow" follows and is immediately more active, cranking into a slightly more midpaced rhythm almost right away with some excellent dissonance and Godflesh-like bends, not to mention a more active vocal performance that includes the blend of monotone singing and shouting of the Christdriver days. This piece is more repetitious overall, but in the best possible sense, exemplifying a hypnotic, almost droning core whose melodic sensibilities certainly hold it together (granted the drummer also does his part by making nice use of shifting fills and patterns to keep things moving). Honestly, this sounds like a rawer take on the style Godflesh was exploring on "Selfless", and I fucking love it. I hate to make so many comparisons to Godflesh, as there's far more to it than that, but these comparisons are accurate, and I can stomach it because I really and truly think this band would appeal to those fans, and I'd like people to check this out, so... bear with me on that stuff. "The Reality of Silent War" (14 minutes) then reverts back to the quiet ambient rumblings that started the disc, but not for long, as melodic basslines take hold soon after and repeat for a few minutes before some soft singing signals a shift into another more melodic chord progression - a hint slower and more stripped down than "There Will Be Tomorrow", and the delay effects over the singing create most of the actual melody (which is very subtle in the chord phrasings). Structurally this is another droningly repetitive number, but not in a bad way at all, and they do throw in a few quick shifts into slightly sludgier territory to provide some variation from the main rhythm - and as with the other tracks it never gets the least bit stale. There are definitely some minor yet unfortunate recording issues that can hinder the listen slightly, but not to the point where the songwriting is overshadowed in the least. Among them, the guitars aren't loud enough, and the distortion has a little bit of a distant sheen to it that, while potentially effective in character, is harder to weigh considering the fact that the guitars ought to be a louder and more prominent driving force when present. Beyond that, the drums are conversely a little too loud, or at least unbalanced, since some of the cymbals and percussion are in check, but the snare and a couple of the toms tend to pop out at you with a little too much snap (this is probably the most distracting issue, but your ears adjust to it). Other than that I'd give the bass more prominence and go for a louder mastering job in the future, as the output levels on this one are a little on the quiet side, so you've really got to control the volume to balance out the super subdued ambience with the more layered instrumentation. Budget constraints no doubt played a role here, and I'm sure the band rightfully desires to maintain a certain edge of dirtiness, but they're close... there's only a little more work to be done to properly deliver these brooding epics. The layout's not bad, but is another element that I feel deserves to be a bit stronger considering the sheer magnitude of the band's musical approach. It looks okay, but the text (and some of the imagery) can be lightly pixilated, and overall it just looks slightly rough to me in terms of overall quality, so... a more artistic and expressive design job would work better to accent the message and the force of the music. The lyrics, however, do just that, and serve the songs well: "In this sound and this light, I feel my hands slip away, This world will mend, but our lives? Our times through these days feel our need slip away." Anyone that's heard Christdriver knows the basis for this band's general sound, but Black Noise Cannon is definitely a more artistic and explorative journey, and there's actually a lot more thought put into song structures and transitions here to achieve an overall feeling and tone - very nicely executed for such long compositions. It's a shame it took two years for this material to transform from the demo stages to a complete release, because I'm already hungering for more, but I imagine it'll be quite sometime before the band has another release primed for consumption. I'm not sure what their plans are, but I'd love to see them get a little more exposure, because this is an incredible CD, and it really only hints at what I think the band would be capable of delivering under optimum circumstances. I sincerely encourage fans of all such artists to check this one out... you won't be disappointed. I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed for bigger and better things to come both for and from these guys. Great work.
[Soultheft]
Running time - 55:18, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are fuckin' awesome]
Black Noise Cannon - http://www.blacknoisecannon.com
