Style: Industrial, noise, black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Fear, hate, pain
Thoughts: Over the past few months music that incorporates non-traditional elements to create an intentionally harsh atmosphere has become an increasing curiosity. These projects can range from music that is physically painful to listen to, to music that is made all the more intense by the noise elements. Uranium falls somewhere in between those two extremes.
An Exacting Punishment is an industrial album at its core with influences from several other extreme genres. Black metal influences come in the way of vocals and some guitar riffs. Death metal is seen mostly in the heavier guitars that are seen in about half the songs. Noise comes in through harsh feedback and highly oppressive atmospheres.
The industrial elements make this album what it is though. These five tracks contain slow, absolutely crushing drums that are heavier that a hydrolic press forming red hot steel. Over the drums the music cascades in waves of deep pulses that are layered in distortion and feedback.
The distortion on the album goes beyond normal levels, not only does it permeate every instrument, it's worked into the very fabric of the release - even the production is mired with it. The distortion makes the music sound a bit more distant and even muddled at points. It's to the point where I thought there was something wrong with my turntable when I first put the record on. I had to listen to the digital album to confirm that the distortion was indeed intentional.
An Exacting Punishment is an excellent addition to my collection. I don't have many albums in this genre, and Uranium is a fine representation of what the genre is capable of. This is an album I'll be revisiting in short order.
Written October 2nd 2023
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