Review Summary: A hideous mess of disturbingly violent noizes and sounds by Michigans noize masters - Wolf Eyes. Will leave all fans of noize in a terrific awe - and with poop in their pants.
OK. This is my first review on here, please tell me what you think. Also I am not a huge listener of the Noize genre, so please keep that in mind.
Detroit, Michigans Wolf Eyes create ear shattering, mind melting, nightmare inducing and absolutly terrifying noize that will leave you grinding your teeth and cleaning the blood out of your ears. Noize, not music - noize. Electronic sounds and mechanical instruments created and 'recreated' and then absolutly abused by members Nate Young, John Olson and newly added, Mike Connely.
Wolf Eyes have been destroying music since 1996 and have been recording and constantly touring ever since. Although now a major influence in the noize 'scene,' Wolf Eyes are certainly not pioneers of making noize - not music and have been compared to such earlier noize bands as Swans, (early) Sonic Youth, Melvins and UK noize bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Caberet Voltaire. The angrier, darker side of hardcore punk (Think Negative Approach and Black Flag) can definitly be found as a strong influence on this band as well. Wolf Eyes take all the above mentioned influences and take it up a notch, adding more violence, anger, and desperatly terrifying noizes than they know what to do with.
Human Animal is certainly no exception to the rule, it is dark, disturbed and absolutly grotesque, and is sure to please noize fans all over, and, on the contrary; piss off those who refuse to understand and simply despise it. With co-founder Mike Dilloway no longer a member in the band, some Wolf' fans may be a little weary to pick this disc up, but Hair Police's Mike Connelly seems to do just fine, as the difference is not really all that noticable.
The albums opener, A MIllion Years, starts off with what sounds like metal being hit against more metal and what I think is a bass drum being fed through distortion. It continues with a slow and sludgy beat accompanied by a whole mess of noizes, giving one the feeling of being trapped in a sewer trying to escape from some hideous monster (the "HUMAN ANIMAL" maybe? eh? eh?). Once A Million Years ends, I strongly reccomend turning down the volume on your headphones for a good 20 seconds as the following track, Lake Of Roaches begins with a hideous mess of high pitched screaches, intense yes, but not all that good if you're someone who doesnt exactly enjoy headaches. This track also introduces some vocals, desperately spoken words that sound real well with the pounding and screeching but at the same time are very frusterating because you can't understand any of them and of course, there is no lyric sheet.
I think the real attention grabber on this album, or what keeps you listening, is all the little things. As they say, it's the little things that count and as far Human Animal goes, I completly and utterly agree. Noize is a hard thing to listen to all the way through as it is not music. There is no beat. There is certainly no groove. You will not be banging your head and you will certainly not be dancing. However, noize music is very interesting, and Wolf Eyes do a tremendous job of keeping the listener interested, due to all of the tricky and normally disgusting sounds and more importantly all of the changes. The music (if you can call it that) keeps moving. Weather fast or slow, it is forever changing and they are constantly mixing everything up. It is very sporatic music and I think that is what makes it so apealing and why it will have Noize fans hooked. Although I did have a couple complaints like there not being a lyric sheet as I normally like to know where a band is coming from, they are just minor ones and don't get in the way enough to make this even remotely bad. This is solid proof that Wolf Eyes are still going strong and for anyone already into Wolf Eyes or any Noize music for that matter, you won't be dissapointed. To anyone interested in checking the 'genre' out, if you like your music heavliy disturbing, start with this you just might like it.
Stand out tracks:
track 4. Title track - Human Animal
track 6. Leper War - 6 minutes of drawn out noize that is terrifically disturbing and just a very stand out track
track 8 (secret track) Noize Not Music! - This is a cover by a noizy D-beat band from Syracuse, NY called No F***er. A noize band covering a D-Beat song is absolutly brilliant. This song really made this album so much better for me as I am from Rochester, NY (next to syracuse) and have seen No F***er play over the last 3 years or so and it's cool to see a noize band on Sub Pop records cover that song and do it so brilliantly.
More stuff I would like to point out:
First of all, the cover art fits the music well, as does the collage of pictures and drawings that have been mutilated and peiced together that comes with the cd as it's booklet.
Second of all, I think this album may be some sort of concept album or tell a story. The CD is called Human Animal and the song titles are, in this order - A Million Years, Lake Of Roaches, Rationed Rot, Human Animal, Rusted Mange, Leper War, The Driller. I mean maybe i'm just going to far with that, but I think it would make sense and it makes me even angrier that they did not include lyrics.
That is all. make noize! not music!
cheers
