seven

If it's noise one wants, look no further. Deafness is Not a Gift, is a compilation culled by the folks at Deafborn, a label that specializes in an assortment of sonic assaults, all under the guise of noise (for noise sake). This love of noise is most evident on the abusive compilation at hand, a rousing exhibition of atrocious (lovely!) noise. CazzoDio open the noise-gates with a bit of crusted distortion and clanking metallic disarray on the harsh, battered landscape that is "Per Un'etica Selvaggia." An imploding factory devours my speakers during Grunt's cluttered tornado of sonic abuse during "Bilaterally Unwanted." Rectal Surgery gets positively abrasive on the skull scraping (picture a dull knife on white bone) "Teenietuss." Further in, a vortex of mangled voices and erratic, clunky beats pummel the skull, seeking entrance via sheer sonic insistence. Death Squad's "Strung Out and Infected" takes a more vocal approach, the screech and desperate cry of the narrator indicating involvement in something most hideous... with no escape. Government Alpha, quite simply, torture my ears with the knob-twisting feedback and voracious wail of "Behind the Scenes." A cloudy, murky ambience of dread is ruptured, via filthy knife, during Satori's "Bring Me the Head of PGK," floods of squirming, ugly noise sporadically pumping out of haphazardly pressurized wounds. Frantic hands cover wounds to the stomach, the chest, the neck, growing sticky, hindered by weakness, by failing bodily functions. Skalpell create a soundtrack of heightening dread during their descent into the "Purgatorium," oblique samples, ragged, skittish electronics and a tense synth line (think John Carpenter's Halloween, slightly) converging to cast a remarkably unnerving shroud over the listener. Deafness is Not a Gift is a scintillating presentation of unabashed, gleefully outrageous, noise!