Shit yeah! Here's some crushing metallic hardcore/punk (if you can call it that and do the band justice) from this six piece Swedish unit, in the vein of a rawer Neurosis meets Dystopia or something, but this is still very unique in its own right. Some of the material is slower than imaginable, and some is rather fast with a grinding sort of thrash feel, plus they use experimental noise textures relatively often. Nothing too extreme, just sort of a death industrial type of undercurrent to add more grit to the drawn out instrumental passages. These are long songs with lots of great atmospheric shifts from clean guitars and a hard driving rhythm section (often with synths, samples, and programming adding that extra texture) to more aggressive distorted passages with pulsating rhythms and layers of vocal screams/shouts (three of the band members handle vocal duties). The samples are handled superbly and the compositions are very forceful and intriguing, so I would definitely say that, while these elements have been employed before, Counterblast is certainly an original outfit. They have a great knack for dark, emotional clean passages and eerie dissonant riffing, but the plodding chord progressions and straightforward vocal patterns are equally admirable. Just check out the hauntingly hypnotic intro to "Repulsive" with its throbbing bass, lush clean guitars, and melodic synth backdrop. Awesome. The last track of the actual "Impassivity" sessions is the brief "Last Breath", made up solely of layers of manipulated samples and synths with some (likely programmed) percussive thuds in the distance. Side D of the second LP then offers up three bonus tracks taken from older compilations (circa 1995 - 1996): "Activate" from the "Iron Columns" 2xLP/CD, "Like Father, Like Son" from the "Why Can't We Hate More" CD, and "Tissue of Lies" from the "Distortion to Hell... and Back Vol. 3" CD. The compilation tracks are awesome. They're not quite as long/slow, and perhaps a bit more straightforward and crust oriented to some degree. The recording on the core of the LP is very good for what they're doing. If it was a bit cleaner and slightly smoother in the distorted guitar department it would probably cause listeners to mess their pants, but the bass tone is fucking slick, the drums sound awesome, and I love the vocals and the experimental soundscapes. The distorted guitars are fine, I just want a bit more domineering heaviness for some reason. I just want this shit to hit me like a ton of bricks, and it does on some level, but it could be that much more intense with a bit more oomph to the guitar distortion. The layout is simple but gets the job done. The outer sleeve is printed in black and white with some red on matte stock and contains consistent text with some painful images of a rather skinny dude suspended by hooks through his upper chest. It looks like his skin's about to snap at any moment, and I can barely look at it without wincing. The inner sleeve is black and white, also on matte paper, and has similar imagery with all of the lyrics and other applicable text appearing in a plain font, but at least it's very easily legible. Lyrically the material is as bleak and apocalyptic as the music: "Will we ever walk in peace upon a planet of liberation, away from this frigid system of obstruction and intimidation? Will we ever find a way to defeat the obvious lie, recapture our bodies and souls, regain the lust for life?" or "Progress has its time, Darkness, void, silence, I see into the core, Tranquil, dead, forgotten, Decomposition, My struggle had come to an end, The end to a life of resistance, A new beginning is set to take place, To hell with all human existence." Another killer release from both Putrid Filth Conspiracy and an incredibly interesting Swedish band. I'm going to have to try to check some of this band's older material now.
[Putrid Filth Conspiracy]
Running time - 76:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Submission, Repulsive, Decomposition, Activate, Tissue of Lies]
Putrid Filth Conspiracy - http://fly.to/putridfilth/
