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For those unfamiliar with Stalaggh, they "play" a form of extremely violent and hard to listen to Industrial Black Noise. Their first album, Projekt Nihil, was certainly one of the most disturbing things I've ever listened to. That, however, is completely eclipsed by the sheer psychotic rage that is Projekt Terrror. Seriously, this album makes Projekt Nihil sound almost tame in comparison.
Like Nihil, Terrror starts fairly slowly, this time with a hissing static noise that increases in volume and gathers some tortured screams out of the "vocalists" before the percussion, samples, signal distortion, feedback, guitars and electronics get going. It gradually gathers in intensity over the course of the opening ten minutes before finally exploding at around the ten to fifteen minutes mark. This is when the terror really begins and lasts until the end of the album where it abruptly ends. Not really a fitting end, but I've read an interview where they promise/threaten to inflict a follow-up.
Since one of the two vocalists who appeared on Nihil killed himself soon after the recording, some new vocalists have been recruited. I believe there are now four vocalists, one of which is female and adds some contrast to the tortured screams. The screams still occur along the same lines as those on Nihil i.e. insane screaming whenever there is tension building during the volume increases and when the release of the built up tension occurs. The same moans appear at times when the music is "calmer", but they are not as frequent as on Nihil simply because the music here is much more violent. However, the vocals aren't a constant appearance and nor are they always the focus of attention, as there are sparsely placed sections where vocals do not appear or where they are lower in the mix and everything else oppresses them.
The guitars on this release hiss quite a lot and are usually low in the mix serving as a drone of sorts. There are times, such as the first explosion of sound at ten to fifteen minutes, where the guitar is higher in the mix and carries the music for a bit. But these are rare occurrences (maybe three or four in the whole album), with it usually preferring to sink into the background and let the electronics and samples dominate. The drums act much like this too, lurking in the background playing very Abruptum-like beats. However, they less prominent as there are no effects lumped on them and so they sound like an ordinary acoustic drum kit.
The samples and electronics are very similar to the white noise interrogators use when torturing subjects. The constant high pitched bleeping noises that spasmodically appear and change volume mixed with the screaming voices consequently make this album seem like the result of a torture session (I guess they would probably describe the recording process like this as well, based on the sounds they've recorded and the rumoured self-mutilation). There are some mechanical hissing noises that run through almost the entire album. However, they are only really noticed when they stop suddenly and are missed. This causes the music to seem calmer (if I can use that word), yet within a few seconds of being turned off, they are back again with a vengeance and oppress the vocalists and the listener as before, if not more so.
To conclude: pick something you view as intense, hard to listen to, violent, disturbing etc. Projekt Terrror will beat it hands down. This isn't music, this is audio violence. I challenge anyone to say that they enjoy it.
Rating:  [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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