Skullflower – Strange Keys To Untune Gods' Firmament
Shivering Aurora
Nibelungen
Starlit Mire
Blood Mirror Streams
Enochian Tapestries
Blackened Angels Wings Scythe The Billowing Void
City of Dis
Chaotic Demons Fly In To My Eyes
Gateway to Blasphemous Light
Skar Konstellation
Basement of an Impure Universe
Rhiengold
You might be forgiven for thinking there’s nowhere music can go, and you’d be right, since Skullflower first started their brand of seething atonal noise in the early 80s, and when you listen to this, their first release in thirteen years, you’ll understand why they remained underground.
First of all, a warning: if you pride yourself on loving harsh dissonant noise, if you laugh in the face of tinnitus and feel confident enough to attend a SunnO))) show without earplugs and nappy, Skullflower will still flay your brain from the inside out. They make it as difficult as possible for you to like them: every track is smothered in harsh, atonal noise. No, wait, every track is just harsh, atonal noise. It’s a fog of desperation, of nightmarish voices from the depths of purgatory. It’s almost as if they’re making you want to turn it off, and your finger hovers over the off button. And yet...
And yet, it’s horribly compelling stuff. Soon you notice strange shapes and patterns clawing their way out of the feedback. Like the aforementioned berobed ones, you’re forced to confront your ideas about what music should be, and you feel richer for it. And there is a strange sort of oxymoronic beauty spread among here, however hard pressed you might be to find it.
If you like your listening experience to include choruses, structure or anything approaching a tune, feel free to knock 8 points off this score, because this is emphatically a difficult record. If you’re willing to challenge yourself and expand your boundaries though, this is the record to do it. Just don’t blame Soundshock if you end up listening to radio static from now on.
Reviewed by Steve Jones
‘Strange Keys To Untune God’s Firmament’ is out now on Neurot
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