Cervix “Contemplating Death” (2007)

First of all, Im thoroughly disqualified to review this. I know next to nothing of the ‘noise’ sub-genre, despite repeated attempts at penetrating this most terrifying and avant-garde of genres. Discordant I can understand and appreciate, but being a metalhead at heart, this noise without structure is beyond me. I dont even have any sort of yardstick with which to go about this. I had a sense of foreboding even just reading the credits, with noise listed along with the other instruments of this duo. Alas, as I braved the listen, it was the only instrument I could hear. The bass, drums, and guitars mentioned in the credits are next to non-existent, with only very very few ‘riffs’ actually present in these ‘songs’. Its basically one noise track after another, with very little in the way of music. And this from a guy who swears by grind, noise-core and ‘brutality’. This has some vocals, but they have been processed and distorted so throughly that they are barely discernible in the miasma of random frequencies. At times it reminds me of a sample cd with a course in noise/signal processing. Even perservering through the entirety of CD was a herculean task. Infact, this is the first and (hopefully) only time in my career as a reviewer that I terminated a first listen without completion. So sue me. Even journalism has its limits.

Yes, it is avant-garde as fuck. But is it metal, or rock or one of the zillion sub-genres thereof ? Not remotely. Mostly it sounds like a broken antennae radio plugged into a distortion pedal/amp. Actually it sounds like if the reception module is broken, because even the wierd sounds you get when manually tuning on shortwave are not there. Are there shades to noise ? If someone out there would like to initiate me into this insane form of ‘music’, they are more than welcome. What exactly does one look for in such an album ? Recently I downloaded 9 GB worth of noise from www.smellthestench.com, and some of their artists knew terms like subtlety and atmosphere. A constant drone does not a great listening experience make, especially if its white/pink noise constantly with very little variation.

Hey, here’s an idea : How about crafting proper soundscapes or even (god forbid) songs with these building blocks ? Yeah, Im a metal philsitine and I like it. I dont know much about avant-garde but I know what I like.

-Suleiman

VITALS:

Release:  2007
Label:  Self-Released
Avantgenre:  Noise
Duration:  56:54
Origin:  Italy
Official site:  http://cervix.altervista.org/
Review online since:  16.01.2008 / 11:40:44

TRACKLIST:

01 – Prologue
02 – Preparations
03 – Mental Interference 01
04 – Resolving Life Problems
05 – Mental Interference 02
06 – Neurological Conflicts
07 – Mental Interference 03
08 – Bloodbath
09 – Mental Interference 04
10 – Purification
11 – Epilogue

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