Quick and dirty review: Infrasound.
You heard (read) me. Infrasound. That sums up Cough's second full-length, Ritual Abuse.
Please say more, Horn, you teasing bastard, you say? As you wish, master.
Infrasound is any sound below 20 Hz-- and is inaudible to humans. At high enough volumes, however, the body can detect the sounds the ears can't.
How does one know the body is detecting infrasound? Dig these symptoms:
awe, dread, anxiety, extreme sorrow, revulsion, fear...
...the phenomenon often credited with "creating" residual hauntings is also the aftereffect of Ritual Abuse, especially at jet engine volume-- as it's meant to be heard. It's not a coincidence that Cough's listening experience is similar to being left alone in the bowels of a haunted asylum in the small hours.
Cough are at the far left (hand path) of the metronome AND the tuner: played slow, tuned low. Some track slither by, slowing, slowing... with so much space between each count of the drummer's right hand... they're almost rubato, without time... the fifth chords ring like distant knell of a haunted church-- unpredictable and inevitable.
Come (tune) down with us, Orpheus, let ol' Kharon carry you across, through the caves of Ritual Abuse, this slab of audible damnation--
I played Cough's previous, Sigilum Luciferi, like it emitted opium per revolution. I dig Cough, I dig their Blues for the Evil. Don't forget that's what heavy metal is: detuned blues for the suburbs, in high gain, with long hair....
Appropriate to the devil blues/ blackened doom, tracks are reviewed in backwards order.
Closer, "Ritual Abuse": sludge-crusted, sludge spraying opening riff... a radioactive riff for the day Cough are radioactive with sales....
Next: "Crooked Spine"... despair of the suicides in the acoustic intro: Neil Young in rehab for a habit he knows will kill him. An almost-acoustic piece that Alice in Chains would've written if they were truly depressed. "Who will save you now? Who will cast you out?" -- it's anguish blues for demons. Goddamned (pun intended) cool.
Next, "Crippled Wizard," the boss tritone riff connoting exactly the Fallen despair you'd expect... it's a blast.... Go on, Clyde... get in that shit....
"A Year in Suffering": the riff spiraling downward, a descent into the maelstrom in sound form, with groooove....
The overall repetition in the tunes, a psychotic delta bluesman fixated on the Riff, who must sound, like a Dervish, the deal he made with Satan...! Dig the expansion of the sound and vibe of Sigilum Luciferi, which I still herald as The Album Composed of (Sabbath's Vol. 4's) Cornucopia Riffs, aka Sludge Nirvana...!
Vocals: over-reverbed, like how they shriek during waterboarding in the Underworld... vocals that alternate between semi-sung and blared-- like the Belial or Moloch within the singer periodically gets control of his vocal chords--
Ritual Abuse is the best of Sludge Metal: a detuned corroded blues, obsessed with the flatted fifth and the satanic despair it spells when sounded. A despair for the 21st century. A despair... incurable.
A despair Goddamned enjoyable.
--Horn
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