This CD was digitally mastered using the SPL Vitalizer, and Sony DAL-1000 in conjunction with the Sony PCM 1630. All efforts were made to exceed typical limitations of 16 bit linear digital technology - compression, limiting, and equalization curves have been created to deliver maximum gain structure. The PCM 1630 master tape for this recording was printed with continuous overlevel indication (OL) at the request of the Artist / Producer, this CD is not in accordance with Sony-Philips Red Book Specification, nor is this practice advisable in the process of CD manufacturing.
Please exercise extreme caution when utilizing this Compact Disc on consumer grade high fidelity playback equipment. Release Entertainment, their affiliates and / or associated manufacturing facility will hold no responsibility for power supply component, recording, processing, loudspeaker or other, transducer malfunction / failure and / or destruction of referenced audio playback system.
Recorded live at Noise Farm Studios, Bear Gap, Pennsylvania on April, 25th, 1993.
Namanax is the project of multi-instrumentalist Bill Yurkiewicz, who operates out of his studio in Pennsylvania. His mission is to produce loud noise through the layering of multiple sources of sound. Multi-Phase Electrodynamics (Release, 1993) and Cascading Waves Of Electronic Turbulence (Release, 1996) were recorded live and were notable mainly for their intensity, enough to make even Gordon Mumma waver. Yurkiewicz is joined by James Plotkin on Audiotronic (Release, 1997), a work that increases the doses of guitar experimentation but also toned down the violence. Plotkin helps create textures rather than mere tsunami of noise. Monstrous (Release, 1998), which is basically a continuation of Audiotronic, contains four lengthy pieces inspired to the soundtracks for monster movies. Monstrous (15:02) should be titled march of the monsters, as an industrial rhythm is covered with abrasive noise. The piece is particularly scary because is structured as a crescendo, leaving the impression of a gigantic, ugly wave that is getting closer and closer. The Larval Stage (17:09) is thick, frantic chirping of millions of tiny rodents, an apocalyptic variation on the theme of Pink Floyd's Small Furry Animals. Noise is diluted and streamlined in the epic-length and cinematic Journey to the Battle of Varanax (29:43), which borrows from Klaus Schulze's cosmic frescoes to create a bleak form of ambient music, one that maximizes tension through inaction, one that stretches minuscule sonic events until they become catastrophes. As the texture gets busier and busier, one gets the feeling of a documentary of some prehistoric accident: cracks that rip apart the earth, avalanches that corrode mountains, lava that erupts from mud. The scenes are filmed from very far, so the noises are barely audible, but one can sense the extent of the devastation. The most hair-rising track is actually the least spectacular: Promethean Screams (9:58) is a sceeching drone wrapped in mild dissonances, like the echo of a distant galaxy through a gravitational warp. Bill Yurkiewicz plays guitars, bass, samples and electronics; James Plotkin plays guitars and sound effects; Kipp Johnson plays synthesizer and samples. Bill Yurkiewicz is also involved in a side-project with bassist Kipp Johnson, Solarus and a little help from James Plotkin. Empty Nature (Release, 1998) features seven pieces for lazy basslines and sound effects, including the eerie, ambient Messianic Slur 1, and Malignant Soul Punisher 2. Solarus' Crystallized (Release, 1998) contains four new compositions and three remixes from the previous album. The repetitive, minimalistic patterns over steady beat of Crystallized are the exception to a rule that prescribes seismic, dub-like thuds as the foundations of dark blues like Mute God or abstract noise frescoes like Abject Manipulator.
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The album’s title, as well as the cover, leads little to the imagination. For the uninitiated, Putrefaction is defined as “the act or process of putrefying; the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter by bacteria and fungi that results in obnoxiously odorous products; rotting.” Well, if decomposing, rotting, fungal corpses somehow started a band, this album is probably what they would sound like. Extremely down-tuned guitars, inaudible bass, rapid trashcan snares, and gargling vocals comprise this album, though the drums and vocals dominate the album. The snare drum is reminiscent of Metallica’s “St. Anger”, and the vocals sound as if the Predator was having sex with an Alien and was eating a chunky peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the middle of climaxing. You couldn’t find a more inhuman sound than if you traveled to Venus and started molesting the creatures there.
The album’s opener, “Covered with Feces as Decoration” is a blueprint for most of the songs on this album: heavy, groove-laden, down-tuned guitar riffs, ear-splitting trashcan blast beats, and gargling, inhuman vocals. Almost all of the songs are under a minute and most of them barely pass the thirty-second mark. With songs ranging from fifty-nine seconds to six seconds, this album had me constantly checking my Winamp to see if that brief pause in the noise was the end of the song or merely a break. Fortunately, to make up for the short song lengths, the band packed this album with 41 songs, making listening to the album feel like running a marathon with a Segway: it feels like cheating, but you don’t really care.The songs do end, mind you. After listening to this album, I didn’t feel like the band was just playing the same song one after another. While it’s hard to discern differences when a majority of the songs are just blast beats and low gurgling, there are subtle differences.
Half of the fun comes from reading the song titles, however. With titles such as “Sewing up the Abdominal Rupture for the Successive Acts of Degradation”, “Disconnected the Cranium with a sense of Peculiar Interest”, and “Precisely Eviscerated and Conserved in a Formaldehyde-Methanol Solution”, one can only read these over the top song titles and laugh. As for the lyrics, there’s not much to say, because I couldn’t find any for any of the songs. I’ve spent roughly thirty minutes scouring the internet for some lyrics to these song titles, and have gotten jack. It’s up to the listener’s imagination to discern what the vocalist is saying, but I guess you can only think up so many lyrics about eviscerating rotting corpses and cannibalizing tortured people before you run out of ideas.
One of the album’s better songs, “A Divine Proclaimation of Finishing the Present Existence” comes at the end of the album, and it stands out not because it runs at over three minutes, but…okay, that’s basically why it stands out. After realizing that the drummer has to maintain his frantic pace for three minutes, I was impressed. I tried doing the same thing using my rock band drums, and I couldn’t get past the two minute mark. Maybe it means I’ve eaten one too many McDonalds double cheeseburgers, but I found the frantic drumming on this song the best out of all of them. If you only want to listen to one song off this album, listen to “A Divine Proclaimation…” and you’ve basically listened to the whole album.
I don’t doubt that many people won’t give this album a listen, most likely because it’s a wall of noise for 20 minutes or however long the album actually is. There’s no melody, no cleanliness, no redeeming values from this album, but I didn’t listen to it expecting that. It’s a goregrind album, through and through, and Last Days of Humanity’s mission was simply to offer punishing, brutal, and disgusting music for the few people interested in it. Just reading the song titles entertained me enough. The “Music” is an added bonus. If you’re a fan of losing your hearing at an early age, or you enjoy listening to the sounds of a trash compactor, give this a listen (* Review by Zipzop5565)
