Including, album of the year…
http://www.terrorizer.com/content/jos%C3%A9-carlos-santos-albums-2009-big-finale
Posted in: GNAW, Gnaw Reviews
Archive for the ‘Gnaw Reviews’ Category
An industrial black metal mindset laden with despair propels the malignant madness audible from Gnaw’s debut nine-track affair THIS FACE. This unconventional quintet (featuring members from avant garde metal troupes Khanate and Burning Witch) unloads an hateful assortment of non-linear noise rock, soul crushing doom, and exploratory electronics to create an eccentric and possessed sonic explosion. Led by a vocalist whose screeching rage fuels insanity (”Backyard Frontier”) while the band’s two bold sound designers create a cacophony of sound by implementing barrages of haunting feedback and gloomy overlays (”Ghosted,” “Talking Mirrors”), this unsettling endeavor emits an apocalyptic feel of being caught in the middle of the world crumbling down. www.conspiracyrecords.com -Mike SOS
“This Face”, is not nice at all – in fact it is so intense that its 50 minutes are hard to take in in one sitting. Dubin’s signature vocals – that hoarse screaming known from Khanate – rule Gnaw’s sound, but there are quieter passages as well, in which he actually sings. What sets “This Face” apart from Khanate and the majority of doom and metal acts running at the moment, however, is the highly unusual inclusion of electronics into their tracks’ arrangements. “Vacant” juxtaposes Dubin’s vocals, abrasive guitars and twisted electronics to mind-bending effect. Elsewhere, the group lose their sense of direction somewhat: “Feelers” still has all the elements mentioned but they don’t really add up but remain isolated. And the tipsy-turvy doodling of “Watcher” is full of effects, which makes it unusual but also strangely disengaging: As a composition, it remains rather pointless. That said, such might be the price to pay when operating beyond the ordinary. Ultimately, “This Face” is an album that commands respect but is difficult to love. 7/10 – Jan-Arne Sohns (16 June, 2009)
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=4439
A product of accumulation and intuition, This Face is a confounding and ravaged creation, disseminating a series of clinically vindictive compositions that are as much a product of contemporary soundtrack innovation as they are from the visceral, body-centric screeds of industrial music. The harrowing rigour and tenacity at the core of This Face is a forbidding psychological territory, with Gnaw as its cruel masters.
Posted in: GNAW, Gnaw Reviews
Are you willing to push the limits of you musical palette? If you said yes, Gnaw’s debut album will be a release that you will listen to time and time again in an attempt to figure out what hidden meanings lie beneath its harsh, violent exterior. Even listeners who have experienced quite a number of noise artists will find that Alan Dubin and the rest of his band have a unique way of doing things that separates them from the rest. But one thing is for sure, Gnaw is off to an intriguing start and considering how many different elements are present it will be exciting to see just where the group chooses to go from here.
Gnaw is an aurally terrifying display of dissonance, yet is not without rhyme or reason. Once again, it’s all relative though, isn’t it? …the noise terrorism takes several different forms, none of which are soothing to the ears or conducive to anger management. However, through all the electronic-laced, feedback drenched, and tribally percussive clutter and clatter, This Face offers memorable moments…
[Gnaw] provides more grist for the gore mill than most could cope with. Haven Vault is howling white noise and harsh blackened vocals but the centerpiece is “Feelers”, whose remorselessly increasing bpm could drive a sensitive person to tears. Horrifically effective. [8/10]
Gnaw’s relentless rhythmic grind, almost psycjedelic in its use of infinite shades of grey, emphasizes the oppressive crush of city-dwelling. They perceive the metropolis as a vast mincing machine, the meatpacking district expanding to consume and process the entirety of the five boroughs. So-called “extreme music” often posits an idea of Hell; Gnaw deal only in the most nightmarish, man-made variety.
Couldn’t tell you what it says, but it’s probably pretty terrifying.
In a short but positive review, WIRE magazine issue 302 calls Gnaw “a terrifying rock sextet whose blackened vision has enough dark energy to blot out the sun.” They go on to describe the debut, “This Face”, as “unsettling but vital listening”. The April 2009 issue featuring SunnO))), Adrian Utley, Magma and more is currently on newstands.
Also, look for an upcoming feature on Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy, an article/interview in Terrorizer UK and a review in LOUD! from Spain
“This Face” is now available worldwide and critical acclaim has continued.
Thee extreme/experimental/industrial metal scene has a potential new ruler here, with the doomic and disturbing debut of Gnaw. …this new project, seems to take up where Dubin’s previous bands left off, but in a direction much more deviant & eccentric. The claustrophobic chaos… ought to determine pretty quick if this is for you or not. …Extreme indeed, and all right with us! …if you like some strange surprises in your grim glitchtronic avant-metal music, and moreover enjoy the varied vokill stylings of Mr. Dubin, you’ll want Gnaw’s Your Face at your place.
[GNAW] create the newest signpost in extreme music. Over the course of 50 minutes the quintet aurally accosts the listener with myriad squeaks, squeals, and good old fashioned doom. Gnaw has a strong industrial feel – both dissonant rock and abrasive noise sections trudge mechanically forward like an electric hate golem.
the production clarity and density yields an awesome heaviness and immediacy that far exceeds that of most of Gnaw’s peers. Obviously, this much hate and dissonance is difficult to listen to in an album-sized dose, but that only indicates how impressively Gnaw have succeeded. This Face is an overwhelming monolith of uncompromising and malevolent nastiness.
expectations run feverishly high for this one, and within the first minute, this slab of molten hatred pays off in spades. …If you are looking for the perfect merging of brutal noise, bleak industrial beats and charred black metal vocals, or just general dementia locking horns with pure evil, look no further. 8.5/10
GNAW’s debut album This Face opens with a maelstrom of noise and the intensity rarely lets up for a moment thereafter. Piercing the thrashing firestorm generated by the instrumentalists—are eviscerating vocals by Alan Dubin (ex-Khanate, OLD) which sound as if he’s singing while someone’s ripping out his vocal cords with a razor blade. In a word, This Face is clearly not for the faint of heart.
…in its best moments, like the opener Haven Vault, the horror tension is absolutely palpable. Waiting for percussion to enter in Haven Vault is like waiting for the other shoe to drop, only to land in the palms of a synthesizer with its icy fingers running down your back. Factory noise and mechanical conveyor pressure of Feelers is unyielding and unforgiving, then it suddenly collapses, dissolved into some big blue yonder, before the industrial civilization can make its last throes. Rhythmic locomotive of Shard put me in the state of hypnotic bubbly trance to the point I almost ran my car off the road.
Way Too Loud, actually our first tepid review.
…those who can get into “This Face” will find it a harsh, terrorizing world.
As “This Face” is leaked, bloggers start responding. Look for an official review in the next Alternative Press and an interview with Alan Dubin in the most recent “Rock-a-Rolla” magazine and an upcoming issue of the Village Voice.
“One of the sickest and most twisted albums to be EVER recorded!!!”
Gnaw did deliver us a pioneering work of art which is essential for people who like it harsh and uneasy and are not afraid to try something new. “This Face” is a recommendation to take seriously.
Listening to “this face” you quickly realize that those who have gathered here to destroy acres and acres of musical landscape are not new to this, have their own crafted taste in musical extremities and aren’t afraid to go the whole way. Because this is probably the musically most extreme record you will have heard in a long time that at the same time keeps a small remnant of tradition.
It is extreme, experimental and sonically unpleasant. This Face is sonic masochism on the part of its creators; an album that practically dares you to listen… Broken glass gone audio. The feedback and bass booms… feel like they’re cutting out my eyes…, [it's] packed with dense layers of cruelty and a hate that seethes, making even the blackest of the black metal look corny and lightweight by comparison.
I’m listening to it as I type and I can actually feel it removing vitamins from my system, dissolving my teeth and replacing my blood with piss. Not exactly the best way to spend a Sunday hangover but I’m a slave to this stuff.
Vampster, so much for the translation, but:
“This Face” is proof that no one else so haunting texts to write. …Mastered to perfection, is this work and others will hopefully follow some like nothing more than a great start for the friends of aural torture and masochists general. This U.S. group is currently only offers the soundtrack to your true self.