Sword Heaven – “Gone” – [Load Records]

abacus   11/12/2013   12-inch, A Library

This duo from Columbus, OH have been assaulting audiences for about 10 years but this is supposedly their first studio recording from 2010. Three slabs of meaty maelstroms of essentially noise electronics and pounding drums. Dead End is a teetering feedback overhaul of industrial demise set to rampaging drums and soul collapsing scream and howl (distant saxophone serenades provided by John Also Bennett). Ryan Jewell provides extra percussion on Driving Through Old Town, a little more insidious number, terrorizing your senses with dank foreboding while the drums plod along and the electronics creep and crumble. So What is a sidelong escapade of caveman torture, relentlessly bashing in your head and leaving you bloodied and naked curled up in a corner. A mind numbing funeral march that never seems to end. There is no consolation on this record, unless your impulse to violence is stronger than your will to survive.