Since this review deals with a re-release, I will keep it concise, but still it is of unchallengeable importance to focus on the majestic result behind this sonic expedition.
As armies march and tanks rumble, The satisfied slaved stumble forward towards self-extinction. In despair, the powerless see the world crumble in the steps of the self-righteous. Bombs keep falling. With this happy message, Swedish troopers Ditch State announce their purpose to cleanse and purify…
Purge was recently released via Poland’s finest Fluttering Dragon Records, a label that, ‘after 18 years of hibernation’ (stolen from their page), decided to ‘spread the plague again’ very recently. Thank the lords for that (I guess). This re-issue is available on both vinyl and compact-disc. The latter, the CD, is an eight-panel digipack, printed in white tinctures with black-and-white pictures and morbid poetry, while the LP edition is a two-fold ‘heavy vinyl’ print with the same visual artwork, and the 12”-LP itself being pressed on white vinyl as well. The recording was initially released in 2018 via the American label Cloister Recordings, by the way (available on tape).
This recording is comprised of ten hymns which clock forty-one minutes. For the better part, it is a militant expression of vehement, pounding Doom Power Drone Industrial (yes, as from now on, this is the official description), rooted within the most callous areas of Harsh Noise, Dark Drone, Angst Pop and Death Electronics. As a whole concept and experience, Purge expresses a dystopian, post-apocalyptic view, devoured by negativity, despair, disgust and denial. The compositions are created around an oppressive and heavy-weighted wall of droning and rumbling roars, like mechanically manipulated sonic industrialization of anti-melody and distortion. Just as buzzing machines echoing in a lightless dungeon, this grumbling sound creates a mostly qualmish effect within the listener’s mind, causing both hallucination and paralysis.
These abyssal drones act like a spine throughout this aural journey. It advances in the slowest tempo, which fortifies the severe, repudiating atmosphere. Besides, it gets permanently accompanied by field-recorded additional sounds, by brute voices, by eldritch and creepy, then again neo-ethereal synth harmonies (mind the asphyxiating, multi-layered Dark Ambient epos Empty Fields), and by combative drums and heavy percussions. These drum patterns offer a semi-ceremonial function with their evincive rhythm and ritualistic texture. Different other (whether or not metallic-based) percussions get used in order to reinforce the pugnacious concept. Here too, the sluggish pace works paralyzing and mirage-inducing. The aforementioned ‘brute voices’ refer to the harsh, malignant timbre (not that uncommon within the Death Industrial / Power Electronics scene, yet it suits organically), with a hint of blackened wrath, as well as enigmatic preaching.
Some fragments dwell around within hallucinogen spheres of delusion and transcendence (listen for example to opener Live To Destroy), while others, like No Disciples, explore the inhospitable territories beyond the gateway of rugged electronica. Yet the overall concept results in a cohesive sonic experience, created to purify the sickness called mankind. This is the soundtrack for this cleansing penance…
Indulge in darkness…
https://flutteringdragon.bandcamp.com/album/ditch-state-purge
https://www.flutteringdragon.com/
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/infamis-tenebre
https://cloisterrecordingsus.bandcamp.com/album/purge