PLAGUE BRINGER

I recall in reviewing "As the Ghosts Collect the Corpses Rest", the debut album from Chicago's PLAGUE BRINGER that Greg Ratajczak (guitars/drum programming),and Josh Rosenthal (vocals) were really onto something. The "Seventh Rule" EP offered an intriguing concoction of MINISTRY-esque industrial drivers and PIG DESTROYER grindcore insanity. It is also a case of an album where real drums aren't missed and the drum machine adds that cold, mechanized feel. With "Life Songs in a Land of Death"PLAGUE BRINGER has come into its own, creating an album that is even better than its predecessor and improving the songwriting without losing any of the aggression. One might even say it is a more aggressive album on several levels.

The general appeal of the album (an EP really, but a long one) lies in its 1984-ish glow and machine-over-man dominance (both attributes that defined much of GODFLESH's career). Specifically, for every lightning speed, industrialized grind explosion (which by itself is satisfying enough) there are clever breakdowns and an array of effects that work wonders. For example, the assaulting way that "Focused Regression" makes its impact would make Al Jourgensen proud. Then a sprawling, neoclassical guitar solo by William Taylor leaps out of the mix and brings a certain beauty to the beastliness of the track. In other words, the album sounds as though the band really thought about getting the most out of every track. Rosenthal's distorted screams are the stuff of nightmares and one reason why the band attracts some PIG DESTROYER comparisons, yet he changes it up from time to time, whether injecting a growl or a spoken part into the mix. The same goes for the arrangements themselves; the aggression is always there and nothing ever occurs that softens the dangerously sharp edges, but the duo finds different ways of getting the message across outside of full-on blasting (though that occurs too). Additional splashes of color are found in the inclusion of cello by Alison Chesley on several racks and the Hammered Dulcimer of Thomas Schmidt.

Finally, the lyrics are also an album strongpoint; even if you're not a "lyric person" you'll want to at least peruse these. Rosenthal's tales of a world gone wrong and personal crises are written with grit and contempt filtered through a kind of isolationist prose or the poetry of anomie. Yes indeed, PLAGUE BRINGER is a band that you can no longer ignore. Yet another act and album that helps define Chicago's fertile extreme music underground.