Dug Up By Dogs - The Supreme Hunt
Dug Up By Dogs, is a highly obscure and enigmatic ritual-industrial/ambient act from the UK. So far this one is their third album, and this one (The Supreme Hunt) is their first label release, and the first physical one as well. Digitally self-released on the act´s official Bandcamp site in 2023, and re-issued as a limited and numbered 25 copies CD-R version on the Greek label E.C.T Recordings.
It comes in the recognizable E.C.T CD-R design: A blackened inner sleeve, CD-R wrapped in rice paper all inside a plastic sleeve. The cover-artwork? Looks like something from one of those exploitation 70s flicks, I'm thinking Spitting On Your Grave kind of thing. It´s a short one here, 5 tracks about 27 minutes in total.
The first track simply called Intro, has the sound of angry dogs in various layers and effects. Takes me back to some recordings with Vagina Dentata Organ I once heard. A deafening and heavy death-industrial sound explodes, heightening the listening experience. And then we move further into the next track.
The next track is called Ritual Device, which starts with a choir of beautiful religious chanting. The huge cathedral-like sound here. Deafening and highly effect-drenched spoken words are added, excellent sounding metallic bass-sound thumbs like a machine in the background. A lot like the early recordings by Maschinenzimmer 412. Very well done.
The third track The Supreme Hunt has a more rhythmic tribal post-industrial sound to it. Lovely distorted rhythms here, with someone occasionally hitting an empty and spacious-sounding metal container with a steel bar. Creepy-ass and horrific soundscapes roam in the distance, with some excellent vocal parts and cool effects. Love the glitches and choppered raw sound here, absolutely perfection here!
The fourth track Crucify Them Upon the Pylons... starts with a creepy slowed-down circus-like organ theme, not an organ but ... this box usually has one wheel where you pull this lever and music comes out of it! Pleasant and disturbing at the same time. There is also a metal-banging sound here, which transports me to some old harbor. The nice synth work here, and the spoken-word part here really heighten the mysterious and eerie atmosphere.
The fifth (and last) track is called Assume A Human Form But With the Teeth of a Dog being the most noisy track on the album. Bone-crushing noise if you ask me, with some surreal movie samples in the background. And then we are back in the huge cathedral with some decadent and sickening ritual going on, with someone shouting ´Stop it!´... ´Stop it!´...´Everyone must die!´... Intense ending for an intense album!
Marvelous short and effective beast this one is. Concentrated and to the point! Horrific raw industrial-ritual music at its best. Surely a nod or two to the classic Cold Meat Industry sound. I will for sure check this other album, and I hope there will be more from this act!
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