Salvation-
House of the Beating Hell 7” review
This is some dissonant, dark,
blackened, bleak hardcore with the slightest of metal and gothic rock
influences (moreso in the heavy but not too low-sounding guitar) and a truly
unhinged freak of a vocalist. Though only
four tracks long, the EP is maddening, both in its ability to evoke anger and
rage and in its deliberately slower tempo that sounds like a man being
subjected to a slow, torturous, painful death
at the hands of a freak on the loose.
“The Tethered Man” is the song that sets the tempo for the record, holding one in place and capturing them. It’s impossible to evade the sinister shrieks of singer Matthew Adis, who also does the lyrics and the art/layout for the record sleeve. “Twice the Vision” is the introduction of recitable lyrics, and even a chorus, which is something (standard song structure, that is) that the band very much avoids. The parallelism between Salvation and even something as close as hardcore punk, however, is small and difficult to take note of. This is the second part of what I feel is a story, this song being the narrative of an insane man, a deranged but moralistic killer.
“Intake” is the third song, and though it is a song unto itself, it almost serves better as the independent introduction to the last song. In this chapter, there is an exchange between this “tethered man” and the narrator, being some sort of pleading and reasoning, and the ultimatum of deranged rants and screams from the moralistic killer. As the song fades out, the most menacing, hopeless, deranged, dark introduction for a song rings out, and the madman begins his work on the “tethered man”, signified by the title “House of the Beating Hell”. The intro fades into the first verse of the song, a short, creepy guitar riff of only a few notes that resonates deep within the mind as the song of an utterly hopeless and bleak setting- the swansong of a serial killer, if you will. This is the epilogue, the climax, and the decline all in one. Undoubtedly the best song on the record, the song is memorable for its riff, if not the jagged, deranged words and sounds of the singer. There “tethered man” is butchered and bloodied, and the killer’s needs are satisfied. This is not unlike a story by Edgar Allan Poe, modernized and put to music.
“The Tethered Man” is the song that sets the tempo for the record, holding one in place and capturing them. It’s impossible to evade the sinister shrieks of singer Matthew Adis, who also does the lyrics and the art/layout for the record sleeve. “Twice the Vision” is the introduction of recitable lyrics, and even a chorus, which is something (standard song structure, that is) that the band very much avoids. The parallelism between Salvation and even something as close as hardcore punk, however, is small and difficult to take note of. This is the second part of what I feel is a story, this song being the narrative of an insane man, a deranged but moralistic killer.
“Intake” is the third song, and though it is a song unto itself, it almost serves better as the independent introduction to the last song. In this chapter, there is an exchange between this “tethered man” and the narrator, being some sort of pleading and reasoning, and the ultimatum of deranged rants and screams from the moralistic killer. As the song fades out, the most menacing, hopeless, deranged, dark introduction for a song rings out, and the madman begins his work on the “tethered man”, signified by the title “House of the Beating Hell”. The intro fades into the first verse of the song, a short, creepy guitar riff of only a few notes that resonates deep within the mind as the song of an utterly hopeless and bleak setting- the swansong of a serial killer, if you will. This is the epilogue, the climax, and the decline all in one. Undoubtedly the best song on the record, the song is memorable for its riff, if not the jagged, deranged words and sounds of the singer. There “tethered man” is butchered and bloodied, and the killer’s needs are satisfied. This is not unlike a story by Edgar Allan Poe, modernized and put to music.
This is the darkest music one will
have heard to date. It is not without
hope, but it’s certainly lacking in it.
For those who can conceive a vision of a world abandoned and its will
capitulated, this is a simultaneously simple and complex EP that’s ultimately
fucking great.
-Aunty Social
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