From Heathen Harvest.
First and foremost, a confession. In the recent past I was one of those people who thought nothing of downloading releases from the internet and from peer to peer sites. Hell, I still do on occasion. However, this aspect of my music collecting self has been eroding away over the last two or three years. Why is it this the case and what does it have to do with this releases? Let’s just say that the realisation dawned that while mp3’s are easy to locate and collect they tend to lack substance when compared to their official release. Mp3’s don’t come with hand made packaging; pull out posters or limited edition artwork. You can’t hold an mp3 in your hands and appreciate the time and effort, both pre and post production that went into making the release in question something unique. Screaming On The Inside by Broken Diode is a fine example of what I mean. The packaging on this limited edition is incredible.
Let’s start with the hand made metal framework that imprisons everything. A tarnished, battered strip of metal banding, spotted with rust and stains. Solid, tangible and heavy, it has real substance and by god it looks the part. Tucked inside this is an A4 poster which in turn is wrapped protectively around the printed inner sleeve which itself cradles the printed form of the CD. Truly impressive and brutally businesslike. How this got through customs without being detonated I have yet to figure out, but I’m damn glad it did.
The content of the CD continues the corroded, abrasive and industrial theme started by the sublime packaging. Five tracks of brutal noise await. Whilst similar in style and technique, each track is able to stand on its own two feet and scream for individual attention. In a scene which has more than its fair share of generic sounding output this is more than welcome. Judging by the title of the release and the content of the cover art this would appear to be the soundtrack to my recent past. Screaming On The Inside is a term I’ve used more than once to describe a suffocating barrage of trapped emotions and frustrations. Each of the seven tracks here gives a voice to these feelings. Although initially sounding like a wall of analogue noise and tortured machinery on the verge of collapse and total breakdown, closer inspection reveals a host of intricately woven textures. Vocals appear just long enough to inject a human element into the machine chaos, before being swept away in the flood of frequency destruction, often torn into ragged shapes which in turn become something less than human. Brief moments of calm, and by brief I really do mean brief, are punctuated by growling basses which inevitably become part of something larger and dirtier without losing enough form to be completely swamped.
This is a fine, fine piece of work. An almost cathartic listening experience at times and executed with a vitriolic pride. Yes, I like this a lot. Actually, scratch that, I love this release! From the rust that stains my fingertips right through to the anguished frequencies that scour my inner ear. Quality noise may sound like an oxymoron, but right here and right now this is what we have. If you can locate a copy of this in the limited edition packaging and noise is your thing do not hesitate. Just buy it. If the limited edition is out of stock, what the hell, buy the normal release, you will not be disappointed.