I will keep this review’s introduction very succinct, for I sort of did introduce Noise artist (hehe, sounds cheesy) Mories a couple of times before in reviews for acts like Aderlating, De Magia Veterum, Cloak Of Altering or Gnaw Their Tongues. You can search for it (by entering that moniker in the “search” tab), you can think you know everything, you might pretend as if you don’t care, you xxx [self-censorship]
No, seriously, this guy from Holland, the Netherlands, the Lowlands, whatever, is a mostly creative person with a somewhat sick(ened) brain when it comes to his sonic experiments. And you know, for what it is worth, I do appreciate most / all of the things this guy did (and still does) under one of his many monikers: the ones I mentioned above, or stuff recorded / released as Seirom, Golden Ashes, Soulwound, Hagetisse, Offerbeest and many more of these sweet projects.
Under the moniker of Gnaw Their Tongues, Maurice ‘Mories’ De Jong did release quite some hands full of things, which resulted in a love-it-or-hate-it thing. You might not care about my opinion, but in my case the result was anti-negative (the word ‘positive’ is too difficult to express, you see). No, seriously (once more), I think that Gnaw Their Tongues might be the best – or at least, one of the best – outfits by this disturbed guy. But that is, as sort of mentioned before, nothing but a personal opinion
Gnaw Their Tongues, and some other recordings done by this Dutch musickian, had some releases before via one of Flanders’ most open-minded labels, Consouling Sounds. This newest epos too gets released and distributed by Consouling Sounds on both compact disc and vinyl (12-inch with inner sleeve). …and digital sources too, of course. The result is an eight-track experience that clocks about thirty-five minutes, coming with explicit artwork, but above all, totally wicked sonic malignancy for your masochistic pleasure. Please do say hello to I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die.
I am not going to write down my thoughts on each single ‘song’ (hahaha, what a lapsus) on this album, because it would bring me too far. But I’d love to canalize a general idea on this material. And you know, for some reason it typifies Gnaw Their Tongues, and then again it is something totally different once again as well. You know, there is that funereal attitude from Aan Het Licht Teruggegeven (‘meaning: given back to the light’), the asphyxiating and apocalyptic approach that did characterize L’Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante, combined with the sadistic nature of Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus. It’s all of this, and still I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die goes on, goes further, on and on, further and further.
Actually, this whole mixture of (Satanic / Sadistic) Ritual, (Black / Dark / Ritual / Death) Industrial, (Grinding / Harsh / Ritual) Noise / Power Electronics, you know (or you do not), results in a mighty, all-embracing sonic amalgam that consists of tens of layers of synthetic construction (from floating ambience to suffocating drones; from militant pride to masochistic disrespect), pierced with cosmic and / or industrialized and / or hypnotic and / or transcendental and / or asphyxiating ‘melody’ lines whatsoever, injected with harsh noises (not of the HNW kind, yet still quite intense), with wretched voices, with post-industrial experiments, and with martial supremacy. This is a soundtrack for Horror, for intelligence too, for brain-twisted representation too. The version of Purity Coffins, for example, with those tribal drum patterns and ominous voices, shows a mostly obscured, malignant attitude, interspersed with – to my opinion – that madness that characterized an entity like Abruptum some decades ago (and there is nothing wrong with that, I think!).
As said, this guy is able to explore such different angles – all of them related somehow, yet still with an own approach too. With Gnaw Their Tongues, Mories did offer us several extremely captivating things in the past, and with I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousand Die, Gnaw Their Tongues sort of caress another level of morbidity that had not been entered before (or at least not in such suffocating, even asphyxiating way). Morbid grinding-oriented Industrial, esoteric Ritual Noise, industrialized Power-Electronics, Dark / Soft-Industrial, Black Ambient, Funeral Noise whatever… I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die collects so many things. And you know; it has never been (or at least: not that often) so natural, so organic. The injection of samples, the symbiosis of synth lines and droning structures, the equilibrium in between organic passages and mechanically constructed chapters; somehow Gnaw Their Tongues easily knows how to canalize all these elements into one ritualistic sonic representation, martial then again, purely chaotic in essence, yet still comprehensive and cohesive (at least if you’re at least as frenzied in mind, I guess), like I am). Seriously, this structured sonic Chaos offers an insight view on a mostly obscure spectrum of mankind’s thoughts, translated via – and that is nothing but my personal opinion, so you do whatever you want to with my ideas (as if I do care) – an intense sadistic approach by this beloved Dutch colleague / musician, but it is a worthy experience, though masochistically overwhelming, in case you dare. But for what it is worth: this album is ‘top-ten’ material for me when talking about that fabulous year called ‘2020’.
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/i-speak-the-truth-yet-with-e...
https://store.consouling.be/nl/products/i-speak-the-truth-yet-with-every...