Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Gog - Ironworks [Underground Activists/Season of Mist - 2013]

Season of Mist presents a re-issue of Gog’s Ironworks album on CD and digital format (the release original appeared on Utech Records in late 2012, as a vinyl only edition of 300 copies).  Gog is the namesake blackened drone/ambient/experimental artist Michael Bjella. Based out of Arizona, Bjella has been toiling in the experimental underground for the better part of a decade now. Despite his longevity, this is my first experience with this project. So I was quite excited to dive in.

Ironworks is a fitting title for this release as it was recorded in a 19th century blacksmith shop, allegedly where some of Bjella’s own ancestors toiled. Ironworks offers 6 tracks of cold grinding mechanical gears, processed guitar drone, amplified junk destruction, piano work, and hollow vocal distillation; as channeled through the proletarian ghosts still haunting the site of the recording session. The synthesization of these various approaches are best exemplified in the opening track 1870-1906. It’s an interplay of churning industrial machinery and blackened ambient guitar drone. The track takes an interesting turn, as the noise fades into somber piano playing, but eventually reemerges to intertwine the varied sounds. Tasks Which Destroy Body And Soul and God Says To Love You in Chains really highlight Bjella’s guitar and vocal work. The former showcasing some menacing, cold, distant vocals and some challenging guitar fuckery. The latter seeming to capture the essence of some majestic viking metal without the slightest trace of corpse paint. Well there is some grim, black metal-esque vocals moving in the background. Cold and sinister.
 

In the penultimate track Into Her, She Carved The Word Empty dredges some deep crust of the earth noise. Think shifting tectonic plates, crumbling crust, and magma spurting through the earth’s surface. At times it almost verges on a crusty take on swelling, elemental wall noise akin to Nascitari or Carrion Black Pit. Another instance where Bjella manages to capture the “essence” of a genre without directly referencing it in sound. About a third of the way into the track some chaotic static adds an extra layer of hellfire and brimstone. The disc’s last track I Draw My Strength From You is a final exercise in atmospheric doom and gloom channeled through a metallic echo chamber. Dark and unsettling, with some metal clanging and other sound waves resonating through junk scrap cracks and crevices.
 

A deeply engrossing album of cold, menacing sounds channeled through the ghosts of those who toiled in the service of industrial capitalism. Should appeal to those who revel in dark soundscapes and bleak music. Highly recommended!

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Hal Harmon
Latest Reviews

Gog - Ironworks
Season of Mist presents a re-issue of Gog’s Ironworks album on CD and digital format (the release original appeared on Utech Records in late 2012, as a vinyl...
290324   Stuart Argabright & AfterAfte...
290324   Piranha - Piranha(DVD)
280324   Typhoon Club - Typhoon Club(B...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom