Without Bodies (US) - Blood Brought to Light (Album 2021)

The debut album from this shadowy American entity, a New York duo comprised of WPT and JPE, on the great Joshua Strawn’s imprint, Primal Architecture Records. Extraordinary, deviant post-industrial experimentations on a surreal framework of depressive black metal, post-punk & darkwave, blurring and dissolving the lines between these genres with a surgical and quite idiosyncratic touch for a result without many close comparisons, but resting perhaps somewhere along the lines of Cold Gate’s disembodied depersonalization and the febrile ethereality of Crooked Necks. Other possible points of reference include the likes of Lurker of Chalice, Autumn Heart, Contra Ignem Fatuum, Scent of Silence, Veil And Lamentation, Vaura or early Laster, together with other outcasts who dwell on these largely uncharted margins such as Circle of Ouroborus or even Brugmansia in Excelsis and Hateful Abandon’s 1st album, although this certainly veers into a more electronic and dissociative domain than its peers. Starting off with a truly beautiful shoegaze-tinged piece of shimmering melancholic raw black metal, from there onwards the record unfurls as a patchwork of lysergic sonic delusions carved straight out of an ailing mind; every track, even while being fairly structured, seems barely tethered to the physical plane yet they manifest as vividly as any of the brain’s deceptive constructions, stumbling forward in a drunken stupor at what is for the most part a lethargic, almost indifferent pace. A veil of ambience tinted a sickly grey like landscapes drained of all life, phantoms lurking under every dejected guitar chord and eerie synth frequency, gelid drum machine beats reverberating through empty streets and lurid sanatorium rooms. An unsettling experience in many ways to be sure, but also a strangely comforting one, like surrendering yourself to hypothermic euphoria in those blissfully disorientating few moments that precede the point of no return. Released March 5, 2021 by Primal Architecture Records. Without Bodies is WPT & JPE. Additional vox by Dahc Dermur VIII & Joshua Strawn. Artwork by Kelby Clark. Additional text layout by Carlos Colón. ■ Available on Bandcamp: https://withoutbodies.bandcamp.com/al... ■ Follow and support the band/label: ● Bandcamp: https://withoutbodies.bandcamp.com/music ● Label Bandcamp: https://primalarchitecturerecords.ban... ● Facebook:   / primalarchitecture   ● Instagram:   / primalarchitecturerecords   ● YouTube:    / @primalarchitecturerecords6774   ● SoundCloud:   / user-799434725   ● Website (broken): http://primalarchitecturerecords.com/ ■ More information on the release: ● Discogs: N/A ● Last.fm: https://www.last.fm/music/Without+Bod... ● RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/alb... ► TRACKLIST: 1. 0:00 Soulless Winter 2. 4:48 The Strangest Breed 3. 10:00 Depths of Deceiving Flesh 4. 15:53 Skin of Hecate 5. 20:31 Corpse Flower 6. 24:46 Mirth 7. 29:57 Teeth of Surrender 8. 32:45 Larva Lord 9. 37:46 The Abysmal Augmentation I take no credit for the music or artwork. All rights belong to the respective authors.