Gnaw – This Face
Posted on February 24, 2009 at 8:00 am by admin
Typically when I use the word “noise” in reference to bands, I’m usually talking about something related to metal or hardcore (I call it heavy/noise personally). However, Gnaw fits in somewhere between ambient, traditional noise (which itself tends to be related to ambient), industrial and yes, I’ll say even metal too.
There’s typically a wall of static or harsh grating sounds of some sort the listener has to go through in order to hear the industrial like guitars in the background, the high pitched screaming vocals are some of the exact same vocals you’d find in Khanate, which makes sense as Alin Dubin is the vocalist, as well as taking up some other noise duties.. Those vocals run the gamut from heavily processed to adding in a singing tone to the screech, and actually fit the music (or ambiance, or whatnot) pretty well. There’s industrial noises throughout, and there’s a few tracks that go free-form, with seemingly no structure. The other tracks which I’d classify as real songs tend to be repetitive, much like an industrial loop.
The album does tend to clean itself up slightly as you get more into it, adding and removing certain key instruments, and toning down the white noise, such as electrical hums, but there’s always some form of ambience present. Some tracks do become more song like with actual beginnings, middles and ends, however most of the songs are aimless, which lies biggest problem that holds the album back. In fact, I’d actually say it’s the only problem, as even though some instruments do get buried it feels intentional, and it works.
The concept of mixing noisy ambience into a metallic industrial song base is actually an extremely cool concept. While for the most part, I’m sure the idea will go over the head of most people, but I’m sure those who can get into “This Face” will find it a harsh, terrorizing world. I can sense that Gnaw is on their way to some underground recognition at some point in time if they keep this up, all they need to do is arrange a few more songs that come to a real conclusion rather than become engulfed in what they’re doing to the point where the tracks become aimless.
Released February 24th, 2009
Gnaw at MySpace
Conspiracy Records at MySpace
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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