Incineration prayer: Here come the bastards

Bastard Noise - Rogue Astronaut
2009, Gravity

Bastard Noise - Skulldozer
2011, Deep Six

Bastard Noise - A Culture Of Monsters
2010, Deep Six

And continuing on the topic of power violence and its' progenitors Man Is The Bastard and it's later incarnation, Bastard Noise, here we have three of the bands latest avalanches of earth shattering rumling sludge noise. Even though Bastard Noise are far from as productive as some of their noise/power electronics peers (Merzbow or Government Alpha anyone?), their discography is, none the less, still fucking impressive. They've released scores of cds and cdrs as well as tons of vinyls and ball sacs full of splits and, while the quality of their output has been, if not consistently stellar, then at least it's almost always been, way above most of what everybody else has been doing. And one of the reasons I like them so much myself and still listen to their music (while rarely listening to any other noise artist at all these days) is the fact that they rarely go full on harsh noise on your ass, but rather work with a whole range of sounds and styles and intensities that never gets dull or overly tedious. These past few years the band seems to have moved away somewhat from the pure noise/electronics driven style and, at least partly, gone back to the more power violence-oriented beginnings of Man Is The Bastard, which is a stylistic regression I really like. So, the game here is fizzing, rumbling, raging, spacious (at times almost progressive) power violence interwoven with lots of noise elements and violent eruptions as well as quieter interludes, many of them ambient in character and always very well crafted, with close attention to detail. Don't expect any kind of traditional song writing here. If you do, you've obviously never heard Bastard Noise. The vocals have always been secondary to the music, even though they have moved a bit more up front on these last recordings, driving some of the songs in a more straight forward manner, while before they were almost incidental. There is an odd beauty to many of the more ambient tracks, almost orchestral in a way, while retaining an almost cinematic sense of dread and lurking danger. The running time of the tracks range from just over a minute to around fifteen and everything from the Bastard menu is represented here, from raging grindcore and monolithic, heavy sludge to piercing bursts of feedback mixed with electronic whirs and pulsating analogue synths. All three albums come highly recommended if you're into this sort of thing. And even if you're not, it never hurts to broaden your horizons, does it? Buy here and here.