This is a short one, but i felt the need to say a little about this being that it's just been reissued. This is my favorite noise album of all time. EVER. Nothing comes close to the pure destructive essence of this record, and nothing ever will. It's the ultimate expression of what a pure noise record should be-no relent, no salvation, just pure, dense speaker-destroying shards of white hot brain eviscerating horror. Kevin Drumm knew exactly what he was trying to accomplish on this record. Nothing in music tops this, not even supposed noise legends like Merzbow, Aube, JoJo Hiroshige, etc. This is in league with maybe Haino, but even he doesn't get this punishing. The influence of this record is felt across the genre today, and how sad it must be for even amazing sound sculptors like Prurient or The Rita to know that no matter how corrosive their own aural symphonies may be, they will never match the power inherent in "Sheer Hellish Miasma." There's no point in talking about individual songs here because they're irrelevant, the whole record just grabs you by the throat and bludgeons you endlessly for an hour. The last track provides some brief respite but even it's fucking noisy by most people's standards. What i really like is that Kevin never really tried to repeat this either, even his other noise records-nothing is as sonically whole and enveloping as this record. I love this album-it's definetley in my top 20 of all time and it's essential to anyone interested in noise. My favorite memory of this is listening to it with Ben and his ex wife Margaux in a car as we drove somehwre that was quite a distance away. As Ben and i just zoned out and took in the terror in an awestruck manner Margaux was in pain-which doesn't surprise me because this record is PUNISHMENT for people who aren't familiar with noise. And yet we listened to the entire record, no stops, no reprieve-part of me feels bad for making Margaux suffer through it, but i think somehow she's better off having had Kevin Drumm in her life. So this is Drumm's masterful love letter to noise and black metal (the more outer strains of it in sound, but completely devotional to black metal in its aesthetic) and it's a must have for anyone even feigning an interest in noise-if you don't love this record then the concept of noise music will never be grasped. Thumbs down to Editions Mego for reissuing this and including a pointless ambient bonus track-this record's sole prupose is terrorism of the ears. Double thumbs down for jumping on the bandwagon and paying Stephen O'Malley money to basically redo the original cover art in a less impressive package. I mean, seriously, all he fucking did was shrink it down to the size of a jewel case and move the "KD" over a bit. Way to go, Mego. Boo and hiss.
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