https://symbolnyc.bandcamp.com/releases I immediately regret downloading this 'album' (7 tracks at around two and a half minutes each makes for a mercifully short runtime of 15 minutes or so) in FLAC. I have to check to make sure everything's plugged in correctly because for the first 20 seconds or so, there's nothing but muffled bangs and static.
After that first pause though, the track explodes into a cacophany of awful. I can't understand a word of the vocals; the combination of the horrible audio quality and what I assume is a very serious drug-potentiated mental disability is like running a crumpled up sheet of sandpaper with flecks of shit and blood caked to it over my ear drums. Speaking of, drums are the only instrument used throughout the album - timing is all over the place, and they sound like they're half full of salt or sand or something.
The second track is lighter on the drums and more focused on the vocals - I could actually understand what he was saying in this one, but that's because the only two words used in the lyrics are 'bundy' and 'YEAH'. Aside from that, same criticisms apply.
To my surprise, the tracks do actually progress with the album - the first few are shouty and largely indescipherable, but they're at least cogent enough to conform to a rhythm and beat. This starts to fall apart at Let Me Be - the singer has apparently given up on trying to form words and just starts making noises, which progresses to just pure screaming in Maniac and Breakdown. It's literally "AAAAAA*BANG**BANG**BANG*ARRRHHHHHHHHHHH*BANG*AWOOOOOO*BANG*OOOOO" etc. for five minutes or so. There's actually a point in Breakdown where you can hear him start fucking up his timing and compensating by bashing the absolute fuck out of the drum; I expected to hear him punch a hole in it by accident - the only reason he didn't is probably the length of the track.
'Dissociated' is an excellent example of saving the absolute worst for last. There are no drums on this track, and very few words - it's mostly just mouth-sounds and clapping. Think the Gregorian Masters of Chant if they weren't masters of anything and had a choir for severely retarded children. The pure pain of listening through it is broken at a few points where the singer apparently tries to switch from sounds to actually saying something but fails abysmally - it's unexpectedly hilarious hearing him go from "AAAAaaawaaaawaaaaoooowaaaaaaayyy oh shhhiiii whyy whYY whhyaaaawaaaaaa".
If this album was a triangle it'd be scalene.
