All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity

Blimey, just what is it with noise artists and their discographies? Since founding Gnaw Their Tongues in 2004, sole member Mories has released seven albums and eight extended plays, all of which are pretty darn lengthy. All The Dread Magnificence Of Peversity is his third album this year, and my first look into the searing atonal blast of Gnaw Their Tongues. Why the band are lumped into the black metal scene I can't really say, I suppose it's something to do with Mories' raspy vocals and the general aesthetic of the thing (I suppose much of the album is the kind of thing I could see, say, Blut Aus Nord doing). But really, All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity is a noise/dark ambient record through and through, an abstract trudge through the sick imagination of Mories, with nary a bona fide riff to latch onto throughout. When the martial drums, dissonant bass and deranged shrieking of Gazing At Me Through Tears Of Urine is more accessible moments on a record, and still sounds like a funeral doom band possessed by demons, you know you're in a deep, dark corner of the underground where few dare to venture. So when there's no melody or even many discernable rhythms to latch on to in a record, what you're left with to judge it on is the sheer atmosphere of the thing. And what All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity has in spades, is a vibe of nihilistic bleakness to rival any releases from the big players in head-fucking blackened noise/ambient. And although it occasionally strays into cartoonishness with the odd B-horror sounding sample (The opening of Verbrantt Und Verflucht cannot be taken seriously) and some song titles that cross the line from sinister and perverse into wilfully silly, most of the album keeps things suitably downcast without crossing over into self-parody. And it's surprisingly listenable, too, despite its considerable running time. Although never moving too far away from base, All The Dread Magnificence Of Peversity manages to subtly mix things up enough throughout the nine long tracks enough to stop it from getting dull. Whilst on a superficial level every track sounds like an extended intro or outro to a Darkthrone album, if you're prepared to put a little work in it's a rich collection of dark ambient. Each track is deeply layered, with more horrors lurking beneath each layer of feedback and distortion. Although you'd think Mories would be rushing if he's releasing music at the rate he does, the music of Gnaw Their Tongues sounds as if it's had countless hours put into it. As I've not heard anything else he's released though, I can't say if it's all this consistent. Indeed, the only fault I can really find with All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity is that it's not dark enough. I want something that's genuinely troubling to the listener, something that'll worm its way under their skin and bother them for weeks. As it stands, All The Dread Magnificence Of Peversity is like a good, but shallow horror film. A very entertaining glimpse into the darker side of the human psyche, but ultimately too inauthentic to really be all that affecting. Not to take anything away from the quality of All The Dread Magnificence Of Peversity, but it's fair to say that Mories peverse posturing is merely play-acting rather than the output of a damaged mind.