There are all the signifiers – blast beats, dense slabs of distortion, instruments that may be cymbals thrashed to within a microscopic measure of life, but if there are guitars and basses responsible for anything on Genocidal Majesty, then it ultimately doesn't matter. The music's relationship to various sub-genres of extreme metal is perhaps more ancestral than immediate. And while de Jong might have produced an album that comes closest to the full-spectrum aural beating that Masami Akita is renowned for delivering, he does so with a palpable sense of anger laced with disgust for all that humans can be and do to each other when at their worst. Should Genocidal Majesty and the rest of the Gnaw their Tongues back catalogue be approached as a form of catharsis or as an immersion into the nasty side of human existence, taking a holiday in hellishness with a side trip into the abyss? When Merzbow renders and crushes all before him in a wall of noise, it's often with the express intention of raising awareness of animal cruelty. Unflinchingly violent and macabre, the sometimes overly visceral crime scene artwork puts de Jong's music at the viscerally misanthropic end of the musical spectrum. Where Cloak Of Altering, Aderlating or De Magia Veterum, for instance, opt for a slightly straighter symphonic or even ambient(ish) take on the black metal form, and Seirom lifts off into something closer to cosmic shoegaze, Gnaw their Tongues plunges wrist-deep into the guts of human misery. Gnaw Their Tongues is an interesting case among the many and varied musical identities adopted by Mories de Jong.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |