Tapewyrm - Mysanthropic Noize

Harsh. Unrelenting. Inescapable. Completely dreaded by the mainstream, and terrifying to those who don't understand the genre's disposition, noise music has been around since the birth of industrial. However, with time, it has become something of a relic, sitting on the back burner of more of the club friendly tracks that have taken over the dark scene. However, that's not to say that there are not entrepreneurs still trying to make a comeback with breakthrough albums.

Tapewyrm, a solo project based in the UK, is sticking to the roots of industrial and delivering a powerhouse of sounds ready to pervert your ears and drown them in its Mysanthropic Noize. Now, while it's not the best album that will make you bow down before its sounds and hail it as your leader, it's still pretty damn good.

"Waking Nightmare" is a perfect beginning to this album. It starts off nice and slow, however, you just know something ominous is lurking within this song. With each passing beat in the first minute, you anticipate what's going to come crawling next. And then, as soon as the minute mark hits, you are blasted with extremely deep drops of bass, and sirens going off in the background, surrounded by a plethora of other noises.

However, as beautifully morbid as "Waking Nightmare" was, there are a few songs that I just have to complain about. Take, for example, "Marionette". I thought that song was absolutely horrible. It's just a looping song that just keeps repeating itself over and over and over again. After the half minute, I was hoping for something new to come along, but nothing did. It was a horrible listening experience. But that's just one song of the many good ones; this is not a rotten apple that ruins the rest of the bunch.

I suppose the biggest shock on the album, though, would be it's final song, "Rebirth". Normally, after submitting a person to such a visceral aural experience, albums tend to take it light with the final song. However, Tapewyrm doesn't care about the standards, and just throws you right back into the meat grinder as their way of saying, "You listened to our album, fuck you, have a nice day." And I loved it.

So, noise can still be found in good quantities. Not many people choose to dabble in the genre, but those who do go in fully dedicated knowing that they are dealing with a very small, albeit dedicated fanbase. There are those who deny noise as music in general, however, those people don't know what they're missing out on. And Tapewyrm shows exactly what they're missing out on: uncompromising, loud, in your face rugged beats that never cease until your done listening to the album. May 16 2013