Various Artists - H5N1 [Toxic Industries 041]

Another blast from the past that reached our offices only recently although this massive compilation to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Italian label Toxic Industries has already been put out back in March 2014. And well, there's a lot to take in with this limited to 50 copies only release which holds a bunch of four - sic!!! - spray-painted CDr albums containing a total of 47 tracks, a so-called 'self-infection kit' and a t-shirt all packed in a small white cotton bag. With such a massive release it's nearly impossible to review the entirety of all tracks but our favorites on the 'H'-album , the first out of four combined giving us the name / type of an influenza virus which is "H5N1", are "Distortaco" by vent aitcH plus, a perfect example of Post-PostRock- and Drone-driven minimalist Instrumental Desert Rock, Ass-OIO's "Black Eyes Mamba" which as well provides us with a damp, fever'ish and dense isolationist Post-PostRock / Noize fusion from the dark side whereas Ezcaton's "Torture Medioevali" fuses ultra brutal HarshNoize with highly digital clicks to an effect that makes your ears bleed and your brain melt and Halalnihil serves a maelstrom of harsh, violent, vocal driven GrindNoize in his track "Csiklokitepes". On the '5'-album we see, amongst many others, Deviated Sister TV bring us claustrophic whispers and super cold Dark / Death Ambient with "Dall'Altra Parte Del Branco", RBMK's bleak, yet threatening Dark Ambient-outing "Psikhushka Mon Amour" reminds us of Kostnice's "Finsterfelden"-album for a reason, Dona Ferentes "Yellow, Exhausted And Stinking Of Iodine" brings on an apocalyptic soundtrack for a future dystopia and Xerxes The Dark unearthes "Quasicrystals" which are emitting an unexpected, yet fascinating transmission of Intelligent Techno / DeepTechno for outer space dancefloors. The 'N'-album opens with Corazzata Valdemone's "Poesia, Onore & Nitroglicerina III", a dark'ish excursion into gooey alien swamps in which the purified incarnation of evil lurks for sure, Cadlag's "Legionella Erratus" introduces us to what might be referred to as Symphonic Noize in future times, Dissociative Disorder's "Scar" caters a destructive maelstrom of brutalist, warped HarshNoize and Sascha Müller's "Gas Panet" weighs in a good portion of isolationist Cold Ambient accompanied by fast-paced clicks to take our minds to well desolate places. Finally entering the '1'-album we see Negative Climax and their "Vritasura -Unplugged- (The End Version)" which is a tense, atmospheric collage comprised of guttural vocalisms, Dark Ambient, ethereal voices and minor chord pianos to accompany one's way down endless stairs to a hell'ish void of nightmares whilst Trou walks down the "Suicide Allee" only to find a HarshNoize wall hitting hard and without any form of mercy, Uv Ursa Spr + The Austrasian Goat bring on a deep, mythical Ambient vibe in their contribution named "Circumbulation" which is interspersed with crackling, ever moving Noize fragments before the Chamber Of Tapeworms presents "The White Garden Of Deformed Bodies... Emitting Lymphatic Pollens", another soul grinding Noize transmission from humungous subsurface voids and Hulduefni's "Mysteries Of The Night" comes across as a deep, ultraminimalist and beautifully executed piece of Post-PostRock for those in the know, just to name a few tracks off of this massive pack. Recommended, if you're still able to find a copy.