[Cover Art By Justin Hast / bassist]
Mechanical can often be a word levied against a band as a negative. The term can mean the production sounds too clean or that the music lacks a sense of the human touch. However, mechanical can also be a positive, particularly in the realm of any music with an industrial influence. To add a sense of churning gears to filthy death metal or punk-inflected tunes can create a sense of unease. Prisoner creates music that provides a sense of unnatural order to music that should be all about chaos to great effect.
Prisoner | Obscene has both an effective and confounding track order, which first presents itself by track two. After the slow-building, seven-minute opener, “Pool of Disgust” subverts expectations in the form of a two-minute punk killer. It even has flourishes of D-beat to close it out. Not to be outdone, “The Horde” immediately follows with another two-minute burner, but this time, it focuses on grinding riffs that sound like they’re being played in an attempt to fuse the guitar strings together. Another effective track decision is closing with “Nanodeath.” Much like the 180 presented by “Pool of Disgust”, the final track is unlike any of the others for much of its runtime. The song focuses more on a melodic doom approach, featuring somber tremolos for its opening minutes. The drums anchor these passages even when they start grinding by providing a sense of a steady trudge toward the end. Eventually, the song takes off and has some of the most rollicking drums of the entire album. “Nanodeath” is both the prep time and the firefight with 100 cops from Terminator 2. The song eventually winds itself and the album down with an unnerving dreamy soundscape. The song it is often cleaner despite not having outright clean guitar passages like “Entity” or “Shroud.”
The finale of the album also exemplifies the more confounding elements of the track order. Preceding that seven-minute closer are two tracks that range from eight to over nine minutes in length. Both tracks have their strengths. “Pathogenisis” proffers eery synths and a passage that sounds like an industrial David Fincher soundtrack trying to kill itself, while “Entity” unleashes a huge climactic build and release with a doom flair. The potential issue, of course, is layering three tracks in a row that jet past the seven-minute mark. Honestly, I can’t decide if it’s a boon or a burden.
On the one hand, it could be nice to take one of the short, fast songs from earlier on Putrid | Obscene and break these big hitters up a bit. On the other, perhaps the band wants you to feel like one of the many skeletons being crushed under intelligent tanks in that T2 opening to keep our reference going. Whether the order works or not is very likely going to depend on personal preference and what kind of listening experience you’re hoping for.
Minor quibbles aside, the band also very effectively utilizes space. Noise can make music claustrophobic and the band knows just when it’s time for a breather or when notes need to be clean. “Shroud” shows off their aptitude for this well. The bass sounds like rattling steel cables, but they don’t hesitate to fire off an isolated guitar track just when you need it. There are hideous stuttering rhythms, but their final note is followed by momentary silence, giving you space to get hooked back in. The song even opens with clean guitar notes, which is precisely what’s needed after back-to-back crushing speed tracks.
A 48-minute runtime may be a touch much for some, but ultimately, there’s plenty here to keep the Neuralink firing 1s and 0s of serotonin into your dumb monkey brain for a long time to come.
