Arsenic Solaris is the name for a new label by Arthur Arsenne, who runs Death Carnival Records too (as from February 2016, I did write and upload a handful of reviews for material that got released via this French Noise / Drone / Ambient-label). On Arsenic Solaris, there was a split-release, a collaboration in between Aun and Lands Of Conifer (the latter is one of the many projects by Arthur), for which we did post a review on March 13th 2016. With STABB this label has a second release, being the weird-titled album The Four Skateboarders Of The Apocalypse. As bizarre as this album’s title, so is the artwork. Check out the cover painting and smell the smoke, taste the mushrooms, enjoy the venom running through your veins, but above all: sit back to have the noise penetrate your sickened brain (or is it: ‘have the sickened noise penetrate your brain’ – or better: ‘sick have the sickened noise sickening penetrating your sickened brain sick’)!
I am STABB. I am born in 2014. I am threeheaded. I love speed. I am grindcore. I hate drummers. I am furious. I hate gigs. I enjoy violence. I am clearly under influence. I make noise. I am STABB. It is more than just a statement as introduction to what you can expect by this three-piece: Sylvain Collas (voices and noises, mix and mastering), Hervie Guillou (guitars and drums, additional vocals) and Clement Moreau (drums and visuals).
The Four Skateboarders Of The Apocalypse consists of twenty eight ‘songs’ that almost all of them last for less than one minute. Three of them clock one minute and some seconds, and the finishing piece has duration of more than seven minutes. Quite a contrast, defining the psychotropic absurdity of STABB’s three-headed collective consciousness. It brings highly energetic and hi-tech Punk-injected Grind eruptions, filled with blasting Speedcore elements (the Legs Akimbo-way) and Noise details (and then I am referring to the Harsh Noise scene), including electronic injections, weird samples, and some frenzy old schooled Psycho-Grind attitude that goes back to some psychotic mixture of very early Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Ultraviolence, O.L.D., Agathocles, Sore Throat and Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
Despite the ultra-mega-supra-extrema intensity and harshness of the experience, The Four Skateboarders Of The Apocalypse goes further, deeper than, let’s say, one or another Czech or Swedish Gore-Grind eruption, for this material comes with an atmosphere that is much more ball-grabbing, brain-squeezing and skin-scraping than many (international) colleagues. Once in a while, STABB even trespass borders of admissibility.
Oh yes, since the exceptionally lengthy duration of Wandering, I cannot but come back to this composition: noisy and weird samples, eerie sounds, cosmic electronics and trippy beats, far away from any grinding or harsh-noisy eruption, this trancelike piece simply acts like the ultimate sonic orgasm of quite a bizarre yet unique (mini) album!