June's Intro to Noise Music

Poppy - I Disagree

• Genre: Pop Metal, Industrial Metal
• Songs to taste: “Fill The Crown”, “I Disagree”, “BLOODMONEY” (!!)

Meta pop artist turned metal outfit Poppy has a surprisingly harsh sound on some of her songs, with BLOODMONEY in particular incorporating well-constructed industrial passages serving as bridges in a tight, punchy package.

Boris - Pink *

• Genre: Noise Rock, Sludge Metal
• Songs to taste: “スクリーンの女 “, “Electric”, “ぬるい炎”

Pink is more than just a noise rock album, combining elements of many many branches of metal and rock together to create a surprisingly friendly but bloody loud album. Do give their other works e.g. Boris At Last - Feedbacker a listen.

Nine Inch Nails - Broken EP *

• Genre: Industrial Rock
• Songs to taste: “Gave Up”, “Suck”, “Last”

Nine Inch Nails were the ones to really thrust industrial into the mainstream with The Downward Spiral, one of my favourite concept albums of all time. The Broken EP is a bit harsher than some of their later work with much angrier, edgier songs without sacrificing melodic elements. Snuff film not withstanding.

Big Black - Songs About Fucking

• Genre: Noise Rock
• Songs to taste: “The Model”, “Fish Fry”, “Kasimir S. Pulaski Day”

Generally considered to be a pioneering album in noise rock. Steve Albini (well known for producing Nirvana’s albums, among other artists) is in this one.

Plenty of distortion, high-pitched feedback, surprisingly shitty mixing, and shouted vocals.

Darko US - Oni

• Genre: Deathcore
• Songs to taste: “Dragon Chaser”, “Acid Inject”, “Hyper Kill”

You may disagree with my inclusion of a deathcore album, but I feel like deathcore’s emphasis on non-musical vocal techniques (gutturals, growls, goblin noises) definitely falls under the definition of “noise” to an extent. Darko in particular includes lots of electronic noise in their music, with heavily distorted synths, screeches, and layered instrumentals that complement the ugly sounds that Tom Barber produces.

clipping. - There Existed An Addiction To Blood

• Genre: Industrial Hip Hop, Noise Rap, Horrorcore
• Songs to taste: “Club Down”, “Attunement”, “La Mala Ordina” (!!)

clipping. is fronted by Daveed Diggs, otherwise known as “that guy from Hamilton”. A noise rap outfit that doesn’t shy away from the noise label in the slightest, collaborating with outfits like The Rita and sampling groups like Whitehouse (they will make a reappearance far lower down!).

These are rap songs that try their hardest to build an ominous environment with a mood comparable to a slasher film, and boy do they succeed. Beats that beat, washes of white noise and high frequency screeches back Daveed’s calm, collected flow. La Mala Ordina in particular concludes with a 2-minute long harsh noise passage, a taste of what’s to come in the lower levels.

Atari Teenage Riot - 60 Second Wipe Out

• Genre: Digital Hardcore
• Songs to taste: “Revolution Action”, “Too Dead For Me”, “Anarchy 999”

Cyberpunk as hell, ATR feels like an unending high-speed car chase in some rotting, dystopian tech-ridden city. Shouted vocals, abused drum machines, and pummeling riffs, this is green-on-black punk. FAST! FAST! FAST! That’s the general mood of the album.

Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain

• Genre: Noise Rock, Math Rock
• Songs to taste: “Riffwraith”, “Dead Cowboy”, “Bizarro Zarro Land”

More manic, frantic, and energetic than the previous entries. Black Pus (Brian Chippendale) drums with urgency, with blasts on top of blasts while Brian Gibson goes ham on… the bass. His grimey, noise-caked shredding creates this sort of loopy, almost nauseous feel to each song.

Wormrot - Hiss *

• Genre: Grindcore, Powerviolence
• Songs to taste: “Noxious Cloud”, “Grieve” (!!), “Behind Closed Doors”

Grindcore often posits itself as anti-music, a genre of metal that seeks to be as fast as possible, as noisy as possible, as ugly as possible, and as gross as possible (such wonderful subgenres include goregrind and pornogrind). Wormrot is one of the few tasteful bands you’re gonna get in the scene, and they have a unique that sticks out from an otherwise bland sea of AAAAA!!! <blast beat> AAAAAA!!! <blast beat> AAAA!!!.

black midi - Schlagenheim *

• Genre: Noise Rock, Art Rock, Avant-Garde Rock
• Songs to taste: “Of Schlagenheim”, “bmbmbm”, “Near DT, MI”

black midi is a brilliant band, currently at the forefront of the current UK art rock post-punk jazz incorporating goofy gaffy frontman scene. To me, I believe this to be a reasonably accessible noise rock album, incorporating common elements such as gross repetition, dissonance, and of course, apt usage of distortion without being too imposing.

The Goslings - Grandeur of Hair

• Genre: Noise Rock
• Songs to taste: “windowpane”, “golden stair” (!!), “haruspex” (!!)

This album starts to cross that boundary from rock with noisy elements to noise with rock elements. Guitars distorted to the point in which the melody starts being eclipsed by the noise itself, at times slow and grueling sections and generally indecipherable vocals,

Methwitch - Indwell

• Genre: Deathcore, Industrial Metal, Grindcore
• Songs to taste: “Indwell”, “Burn Victim” (!!), “Crimson Halo” (!!)

Hands down one of the most deranged deathcore albums out there, incorporating a large variety of extreme vocal techniques, the one which stands out the most is the numerous whistle screams throughout the album, a haunting screech that at times is indistinguishable from guitar feedback. A concept album centered on demons conducting a torture session, the music creates that mood to a tee. Elements of mathcore create these constantly changing time signatures that throw you back and forth, never really letting you rest for the whole runtime of the album.

Swans - Filth *

• Genre: Industrial, No Wave
• Songs to taste: “Stay Here”, “Right Wrong”, “Blackout”

Pummeling, punishing, gruelling, and grinding; common terms used to describe Swans’ debut album Filth. The intensity swings in another direction: as opposed to an excess of speed and frantic, confusing soundscapes, Filth is raw, ugly, and stripped down. Metallic clanging, scraping noises, chords that never progress but instead smack the listener over the head. Released in 1983, this album is still heavy as hell to this day.

Coil - Horse Rotorvator

• Genre: Industrial, Darkwave
• Songs to taste: “Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)”, “Circles of Mania”, “Penetralia”

You can argue with me on this, but this by far is the most “melodic” of the bunch. Horse Rotorvator is the industrial album. At times unpleasant, definitely esoteric, this album introduces lots of the elements we find in various industrial genres to this day. Odd inclusions of strings and wind instruments, interesting sampling, enveloping soundscapes, actual rhythm, this album is Fun with a capital F (well, at least I feel so).

Einstürzende Neubauten - Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.

• Genre: Industrial, Musique concrète
• Songs to taste: “Merle (Die Elektrik)”, “Abfackeln!”, “Styropor”

Industrial isn’t called industrial for nothing. Einstürzende Neubauten include the sounds of welding, grinders, hammers, and saws in their earlier industrial works, being quite literal in their execution. This album includes a myriad of uncomfortable and disconcerting atmospheres, often including metallic hums and rhythmic pulses, with the odd actual melodic element included here and there.

SPK - Leichenschrei *

• Genre: Industrial, Musique concrète
• Songs to taste: “Napalm (Terminal Patient)”, “Baby Blue Eyes”, “Israel”

“Kill kill kill for inner peace! Bomb bomb bomb for mental health! Therapy through violence!”. Named after the Socialist Patient Collective, SPK creates some of the most harrowing and generally nightmarish soundscapes that are hard to put into words. To quote an RYM user chriswillneverstop: “incredibly evil, serious music, but far too well-made to be dismissed as too far up its own ass. there are very few sounds here that sound like they came from humans, which is a good thing. one of the most heartless pieces of music i’ve heard.”.

Venetian Snares - Doll Doll Doll *

• Genre: Breakcore, Industrial Hardcore
• Songs to taste: “Pressure Torture”, “I Rent the Ocean”, “All the Children Are Dead”

Venetian Snares is the breakcore aficionado, creating some of the most unique and sonically interesting music in this genre that often are landmark works (Rossz csillag alatt született for example). Doll Doll Doll is a great album in that it relishes in the pure evil it is caked in. Conceptually about the simple concept of murdering children, this album channels that negative energy in the chopped and screwed Amen breaks, relentless bass “womps” and the few moments of “calm” are filled with hateful ambiance. One of my favourite albums of all time.

Five Star Hotel - Gray Data

• Genre: Power Noise, Footwork
• Songs to taste: “Courthouse”, “Fail Safe”, “Outside Solaris”

The club speakers are broken but the DJ doesn’t stop. Gray Data has been described as “headache inducing”, “nauseating” among other things, being a very overwhelming and bloody loud album that sounds like it’s been bass boosted to hell and back, but underneath the noise lies genuinely interesting production. Frenetic, addictive, and active as hell, this album is energy condensed.

Dreamcrusher - Incinerator

• Genre: Power Noise, Deconstructed Club
• Songs to taste: “Cathedral of Moths”, “Bane”

Deconstructed club technically falls under the genre of “post-industrial” in its fairly common inclusion of metallic sounds, clanging, the likes (think SOPHIE, Arca). Dreamcrusher in particular produces deconstructed club that doesn’t shy away from including lots and lots of harsh noise, creating very loud and angry soundscapes that have an underlying beat to them that weirdly enough, makes for surprisingly dancable music at times.

Venetian Snares + Speedranch - Making Orange Things

• Genre: Power Noise, Breakcore, Drill and Bass
• Songs to taste: “Pay Me For Sex”, “Molly’s Reach Around”, “We Hate Russell”

Venetian Snares makes another appearance with yet another vulgar breakcore album which makes you wonder if drum machines have feelings and if the ones used for this album should be granted free therapy. The incorporation of noise is clearly deliberate, here to make things as hard and harsh as possible. Abrasive, yet somehow cathartic in just how angry it is. A sonic “f**k you”.

LINGUA IGNOTA - CALIGULA *

• Genre: Death Industrial, Neoclassical Darkwave
• Songs to taste: “MAY FAILURE BE YOUR NOOSE”, “DAY OF TEARS AND MOURNING”, “SPITE ALONE HOLDS ME ALOFT”

Lingua Ignota, the now retired project of Kristin Hayter, often explores the spiritual and religious with themes far too complex to condense into a short blurb like this. These songs are beautiful, often including elements of Christian Liturgical music that gradually devolve into noisy, horrific soundscapes that command such immense power. The hate it channels is palpable.

Uboa - The Origin of My Depression *

• Genre: Death Industrial, Dark Ambient
• Songs to taste: “The Origin of My Depression”, “An Angel of Great and Terrible Light”, “Please Don’t Leave Me”

Yet another extremely emotionally complex album, being a raw expression by the artist Uboa pertaining to her experience with gender dysphoria, depression, and transitioning. The album communicates misery and touches the listener with it, being so deeply personal that it almost feels wrong to be allowed to be given a peek into it, yet by its very existence that is its intent.

Pharmakon - Bestial Burden

• Genre: Death Industrial, Experimental
• Songs to taste: “Body Betrays Itself”, “Autoimmune”, “Bestial Burden”

What is it like when the body fails? Bestial Burden is a revolting, disgusting album that to most would challenge what can even be classified as music, with its grotesque display being closer to some form of performance art which in no way was constructed with the purpose of being sonically pleasing. As it stands, this is a form of music. Just not a fun one.

Gnaw Their Tongues - I Speak the Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die

• Genre: Death Industrial, Black Ambient
• Songs to taste: “Purity Coffins”, “Here Is No Corruption”, “Shall Be No More”

Arhythmic and atonal, Gnaw Their Tongues is a fairly apt name for a project like this. Repetitive and panicky, there is an unending sort of tension and discomfort that this album brings forth that never gets liberated. There are elements of ambient music in this album too, with more “subdued” (you may contest the use of this term) passages that focus more on the atmosphere of simply being in hell rather than the full-on experience of being tortured in hell. Fun!

Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls *

• Genre: Death Industrial, Industrial
• Songs to taste: “Dragonflies to Sew You Up”, “Poinsettia Pills”, “Frozen Niagara Falls (Portion One)”

Frozen Niagara Falls isn’t purely a Death Industrial album. In fact, some portions err far closer to harsh noise (e.g. Wildflowers). Nonetheless, this is a wonderful industrial album that tastefully integrates these noisy elements without feeling particularly pretentious. Some songs even include these booming, haunting synths (e.g. Jester In Agony) that evoke such strong melancholia. This is an album that deserves a full listen.

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart *

• Genre: Death Industrial, Power Electronics
• Songs to taste: “Hole In The Heart”, “Do Not Come Near”

This is one of the few power electronic albums that aren’t noisy and abrasive just for shock value, but instead seek to create abstract soundscapes that are barely comprehensible, yet the emotions conveyed are certainly identifiable. A purposeful album that creates such depressing yet beautiful soundscapes. Simple and devastating, an album that at times feels like a funeral.

Sutcliffe Jügend - Relentless

• Genre: Death Industrial, Power Electronics
• Songs to taste: “I Am the Reason”, “Different (I Am a Slave)”, “Unleash the Fury”

Close to four hours in runtime, this is a ruthless album that takes the best parts of power electronics (maniacally screamed vocals, walls of noise, unpredictable changes in mood) and packages it together in a far from succinct package. This album is here to bully you. Like, is blud okay?

Whitehouse - Bird Seed *

• Genre: Power Electronics
• Songs to taste: “Cut Hands Has The Solution”, “Why You Never Became A Dancer”, “Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel”

The definitive Power Electronics album. Pretentious, yelled vocals that throw verbal abuse at you for… what reason? It takes getting used to, or perhaps you don’t want to expend the effort to get used to it. Fuck Peter Sotos, though — the supposed artistic value of the title track (an audio collage of interviews of child rape victims) is lost on me.

Deathpile - G.R.

• Genre: Power Electronics
• Songs to taste: “They Were So Close”

Serial killer concept album based around Gary Ridgway, the “Green River Killer”. This is one of the more polarising aspects of power electronics: should we commend artists for creating an album that attempts to illustrate the psychosis, the sickness in a serial killer’s mind? Or is this simply exploitive and edgy nonsense? Some of the “lyrics” in this album are disgusting, being attempts at replicating the misogyny and hatred felt by a real serial killer. Like, okay? Not for me, but put here for posterity.

Uboa - The Sky May Be *

• Genre: Harsh Noise, Dark Ambient
• Songs to taste: “I Can’t Love Anymore”, “Thigh High Cat Tights”, “The Sky May Be (Extus)”

At times atmospheric, at times unbelievably chaotic, indecipherable vocals that seem to exist simply to exude and release negativity. One of the most powerful and cathartic albums that I know of, one that I love dearly.

The Gerogerigegege - Instruments Disorder *

• Genre: Harsh Noise
• Songs to taste: ???

What’s even going on? Amazingly enough, this isn’t even like, purely electronic noise. There’s very clearly a drum somewhere. The vocals exist. So, so layered! It’s an actually entertaining, interesting listen. The argument I’d like to posit is simple (and this applies to a lot of modern art that gets criticised and derided by the mainstream nowadays): if it’s so simple and nonsensical, why don’t you try making it? Go listen to Tokyo Anal Dynamite by the same band too, it’s so much fun.

The Rita - Magazine

• Genre: Harsh Noise Wall
• Songs to taste: ???

Let’s treat this as the baseline for harsh noise wall. Dense and layered with a least some dynamics to it and definitely some variations here and there, this gives you a taste of what a scary bulk of HNW has to offer. Really.

Merzbow - Venereology *

• Genre: Harsh Noise
• Songs to taste: “Ananga-Ranga”

A constant barrage of sound, Merzbow is, like, the most popular noise artist? I think? Pulse Demon is usually the album that people bring up as a sample of what harsh noise has to offer, but it’s pretty tame and boring compared to Venereology. I think this album best encapsulates what I enjoy about harsh noise, the exploration of various sonic textures and just pushing the limit of what you can accomplish with sound. As extreme as possible! As violent as possible! And somehow, the resultant soundscape can even be soothing at times, as it just shuts everything else off.

Pseudocommando - A Home Beneath the Floorboards

• Genre: Harsh Noise
• Songs to taste: ???

I think this is the absolute border of music. It’s like in The Gods Must Be Crazy, when Xi makes it to God’s Window and throws the Coke bottle off. A bold proclamation, but this is just about as far as you’d get before we enter the territory of simply not music. What separates this from other works, as stated several times before, is the intent and effort. Harsh noise of this variety requires actual techniques to create such rich and dense sonic landscapes that convey so much plain hate, and there is something sonically interesting within the mud.

Stalaggh - Projekt Misanthropia

• Genre: Noise, Power Electronics
• Songs to taste: ???

Ooooh, so scary! So disturbing! I force a bunch of mental hospital patients to scream and scream and I record it and call it an album! This isn’t sonically interesting (it’s just lots of screaming and some clanging noises), this isn’t groundbreaking or thought-provoking, it’s just downright edgy. Compare its contents to an album from earlier that contains lots of screaming (say, The Sky May Be) and the difference is immediately obvious. Rubbish.

Peter Sotos - Buyer’s Market

• Genre: Sound Collage
• Songs to taste: N/A

We brought up Peter Sotos earlier when talking about Whitehouse, and boy is this guy a hack. Buyer’s Market was an album that made me question where we should draw the line when it comes to art. As put by Cesar A. Cruz, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. But this album… is this art? Is compiling a set of interviews from rape victims, many of which are children, and putting it out to the world and saying “Hey! Look at how messed up the world is! Isn’t this terrifying?”. Is that Art? I’d argue not. Much of his work is in a similar vein and I seriously doubt he has pure, genuine intentions with them. Disgusting.