Overmars - Born Again
 |
How’s this for a dream band: Neurosis + PJ Harvey + Godflesh. France’s Overmars have made this happen without marquee names. Yet they put to shame most of what passes for doom and sludge now. They channel Swans through Godflesh: first gear all the way. But whereas prime Godflesh was purely crushing, Overmars flatten you, then pick their way through the rubble afterwards.
Born Again, a single track, originally came out on in 2007 on Appease Me, the label of Vindsval of Blut aus Nord. Crucial Blast recently reissued it in a digipak with different artwork. It tightens its screw for 39 and a half minutes, pulsing through shades and tonnages of black. Male and female vocals bark and moan with increasing agitation. At first, the landscape seems impossibly bleak: “I’m close to dying a thousand times / But this time I allowed myself to cry.” However, as the track grinds on, it achieves a violent catharsis, wringing both performer and listener dry. Finally, it howls its rebirth: “Listen to the screams coming out of the hole, holding the sound of joy and pleasure / Listen to my screams announcing the birth of a new man.” This record is the sound of sloughing off clichés: four-bar cycles, verse-chorus structures, notions of genre and scene. Eventually, it skins itself down to one bloody chord and the truth.
Buy:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
eMusic (MP3)
Relapse (CD)
Crucial Blast (CD)
