France’s Death Engine doesn’t sound like Neurosis per se, but there’s a definite artistic aesthetic informed, influenced and inspired by the Oakland post-metal legends. Death Engine is similar in that it definitely sways to the brutal end of the scale, but sounds almost otherworldly when compared to rudimentary metal or hardcore bands. The band – generally speaking anyway – incorporates all the hallmarks and elements of both worlds, but corrodes them into something only people who worry about the purity of the 70000 Tons of Metal line-up or the set list omissions at a Sick of it All show would worry about.
On that note, this quartet has blazed a trail by riding a flammable musket shot through a razor-scraped landscape with contributions from propulsive, sandpapery bass tones, exorcism-style vocals and veritable walls of guitars that might see a bruised and battered My Bloody Valentine emerging from the shoegaze ruins like Jake and Elwood Blues brushing the dust off after a “mysterious” building collapse.
There’s certain a simplicity underpinning tracks like “Entertain,” where pulsating beats (sometimes in the form of a singular, thumping kick drum) create a positive void of space allowing fiery guitars to add layer upon layer of discordant effects and jarring harmonies. Or in “Negative” where a tribal pattern acts as the lock for the key that is a ridiculously abrasive, yet hypnotic, six-string passage that falls somewhere between an Escher painting and the Tzadik Records catalogue. Or in the wretched snare pitter-pat that slaps the grumbling distorted bass around during the munitions factory-sounding sounding “Medusa.” Or there’s “Cure,” which rhythmically straddles punk customs, noisecore combination punch rhythms and slovenly sludge with a voice that’s praying to the church of karate chops to the throat before a outro that recalls a long walk on a rickety post-rock pier.
On the surface, Death Engine make a fuck-ton of noise. If musical consonance is your thing, then you’ll probably be shoving as many earplugs into your lugs as can fit. Beneath it all, however, there’s a sense of nuance sculpting the audio chafing. It’s noise rock, but not in the groovy or familiar AmRep sense of the describer. Mud is noisy and it rocks, but the noise is much more aggravating and the rock isn’t sweet home anything.
8/10
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