Heathen Harvest
I’ve known about Mutant Ape for a while now as they have a growing reputation for quality noise. Before I moved out here to Australia I missed out on a couple of opportunities to see them perform live, which I regret missing. Worlds Collide is the first recording Mutant Ape recording I’ve got my hands on and going by this release their reputation is well earned. Borders opens this 5 track CDR with unrelenting, in your face, wall of noise. No subtle build up, no ominous opening sample, it just bursts forth from the start and doesn’t let up for 12 and a half minutes. Worlds Collide I starts off a little more gradually than the first track. Low rumbling static and wrenching, crashing sounds layered on top characterise this piece. This could be the sound of two gargantuan worlds slowly ploughing into each other. Worlds Collide II returns to the wall of noise style of the first track. Multi-layered, dynamic harsh noise is the soundtrack to this second collision of worlds. The brutal assault of the senses doesn’t let up with Skums as it beats the listener about the head with its grinding noise. Never Settle Differences stands out as both the shortest piece and possibly the most accessible one, if music such as this can be considered accessible. Drilling noise layered over a rock track that I don’t recognise. It produces an interesting effect. It’s kind of like trying to listen to music when there’s road works outside your bedroom window. It’s slightly odd when listened to along with the rest of the CDR but it works. Over all Worlds Collide is a high quality disc of harshest noise. It makes me regret seeing them live even more than I already did. If this album represents the quality of material being put out by the Dead Sea Liner label then I’ll definitely be dipping into the rest of their catalogue.

The One True Dead Angel
YOW -- five long tracks of skull-frying, drone-laden white noise that hits you right in the cerebral cortext from the word go, wrestling you to the ground and filling your skull with corroded metallic shrapnel. This is bruising stuff, high-volume noise terror filled with grinding walls of sonic grue, whipsawing sheets of high-pitched shrieking, the sound of buildings being mulched by an avalanche on fast-forward, and so on... balls-out old-school junk noise, in other words, the kind of thing that makes the weak-kneed run away in fear and hide under the bed until it all goes away. Track two, "Worlds Collide I," is a particular favorite, wherein it sounds like a shuddering wall of concrete disintegrating while someone breaks lots of stuff. The other tracks aren't much different; the only thing that varies from one track to the next, really, is method of attack and the direction of abusive sound, and it's all incredibly intense. Subtle, no; intense, yes. This is the deliriously joyous sound of psychotic destruction, and a fine, ridiculously loud sound it is. Not for sissies, either.