Noism -
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Metal is like a drug – repeated consumption leads to higher tolerance. Fast becomes slow, and strong becomes weak. Virtually all of what’s called “extreme metal” now is hardly extreme. Behind the yelling/growling/shrieking and blastbeats, calcified templates are at work. Extremity by numbers is oxymoronic. It’s ironic that so much metal is unchallenging.
Thus, it’s refreshing to encounter a band like Noism, who surely incite love/hate reactions. Even calling them a “band” is a stretch, since they’re just a guitarist and a programmer. (Says the guitarist in this interview: “All I believe in is sheer brutality, brutality is the ultimate goal in music…”) This is very much programmer’s music – insanely chopped up breakcore with technical death metal skronk on top. It’s like Venetian Snares remixing Portal (the Australian band, not the Cynic side project). Normally, I can’t stand breakcore, but the guitars keep this from becoming pure machine musik. Not that machine musik is bad – see the techno label Tresor – but it’s uninteresting at heart attack speeds; it becomes white noise.
At times,
