March 15 - Our Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre [Svart Records - 2014]Svart Records presents Our Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre by Sami Albert Hynninen’s March 15 project. Hynninen, best known for his work in such acts as: REVEREND BIZARRE, THE PURITAN, OPIUM WARLORDS, SPIRITUS MORTIS, AZRAEL RISING and TÄHTIPORTTI, has his roots in extreme noise and avant garde music and March 15 is his vessel for these sounds. Our Love…is actually a reissue of sorts. An e.p. of the same name was originally scheduled to be released on Valentine’s Day 2004, but the album never materialized beyond a very low quality CD edition produced in 2008. After a decade, the album finally sees a proper release along with 3 new tracks recorded between 2010 and 2013. The album is a strictly vinyl release, limited to 315 copies. Our Love… delivers 5 tracks that touch on the panoply of sounds found in the realm of experimental noise. Flourishes of harsh noise, ambient, psychedelic noise, dark synth, and power electronics can be heard throughout the 40 minutes of this slab of wax. The album opens with a track that bares the album’s title. What starts out as some static crackling quickly turns into rhythmic machine-gun pummeling. Fast and crushing, the caustic thumping is joined by piercing feedback and scathing vocals. It’s all violence and bile! Mid-way through the track, some creepy keyboard/organ fills the background. It’s barely noticeable, yet you know it’s there.
The 2nd cut on the album “No Love Lost” brings in a psychedelic element to high end feedback and droning, shimmery noise. Through the waves of sound, something akin to an electrified, mangled sitar stirs within the churning maelstrom. “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name” combine spritely, electronic pulses, broken static and denses slabs of pulsing noise. The vocals on this track are spoken and repetitive and give the track a strangely gothic feel.
The one track I didn’t particularly care for was “Claustrophilic Love of the Warm Dark Places,” which I could be wrong, but sounded guitar driven. Blown out and noisy, the track oddly had a bit of an industrial cum metal sound. Very chunky, dense electronics with vocals that are of the spoken through a walkie-talkie variety. It’s not a bad track, but feels a little out of place within the context of the full album.
Being essentially a 10 year old album, some of the tracks do feel a bit aged, but like a fine wine, sometimes a little time does wonders for your record. Our Love…is a solid album from start to finish. It had a few weak spots for me, but was relatively consistent. Not bad considering this album combined tracks from different time periods. A vinyl worthy reissue    Hal Harmon
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