onsdag den 24. oktober 2018

Zoloft Evra - Wounds of No Return



Back again with suicidal drones and moaning misery, the third full-length album by Zoloft Evra is out now on Liquid Death Records. A cool and blackened glossy digipack (Ltd 300 copies), showing the autopsy room. An autopsy table, two windows, two walls, floor and ceiling with the band logo right above the cold windows. Almost looks like a creepy face... if you look at it with the "right" kind of eyes. The albums contain 6 tracks with a collab with another (and well-known) death-industrial act called Kadaver, also featuring vocal parts done by a Samantha Viola (also done vocals for Funeralis and Black Scorpio Underground). The album has been masterfully been mastered by John Stillings! (Steel Hook Prosthesis). Seems promising right?.

First track called Hooks Through Your Flesh (Hellraiser?) opens the album with a sense coldness, which only can be experienced inside a huge meat-locker. The sensation of feeling how hooks have strung you up, and how the icy and cold air caresses the first layer of your almost numb skin. Under such conditions, sounds are getting... stranger. The machinery running the meat-locker sounds like flesh-grinding guitar drones, rumblings sound from outside sounds like thumbing ritual drums, and the sensation of pain turns into it into a monotone and distorted echoed guitar-tune?... It REALLY doesn't sound nice, does it?! But the thing here is, that it actually sounds very beautiful. It has been made in a very decent and professional way while maintaining that... human-like edge. A LOVELY way to start the album without a doubt!


Second track Last Injection Kiss feat the vocals done by Samantha Viola. Breathtaking and melancholic ice-synth repeats a human-voice-like melody, fantastic realistic sounding metallic and ritualistic percussions, haunting spoken/whispering/moaning vocals parts. Could you ever imagine how Norwegian Aghast wound sound if they did a live-session inside Twin Peak´s Black Lodge?. This track could give you a clue or two. Third offering Wrapped and Killed clearly illustrates that this ticket ... is a one-way ticket with no going back. A lovely retrospective Cold Meat Industry kind of track. Megaptera and Archon Satani fans anyone??. Creepy sampled spoken-words/interview with some not so pleasant fellow. The fourth piece called Wounds of No Return (Like the album title) feels like being alive on the operating table, just waiting for that final incision to deliberate you from your tormented body. A slow and crawling heavy-ambiance treat to the senses. Life Ending Razor (being the fifth installment on the disc) lets the ambient-submerged listener fall into a deep-void... that goes on and on. Something floating away, the very life-essence floating away. Multi-layered and grinding guitar-drones, infernal MZ 412´ish ritual drummings, whispering creepy spoken-word parts. A very epic (in a minimal way) and heavenly blackened atmosphere piece, VERY good! Last track Death Trance Ritual almost has a melancholic and foggy funeral feel to it. Shimmering ice-like bells, mystical synth-tunes, heavily distorted and demonic spoken-vocals and those warped post-rock´ish guitar drones. A great way to end a great album!

Not really something bad about this album, it´s good in every way. A perfect chilling treat for those who need a good Halloween scare over black candles with the cold wind blowing outside. I will recommend headphone listening while taking a walk in the nighttime, a very serious good album from Zoloft Evra... might be their best!