Control – Blood Will Rain

Control – Blood Will Rain – Ant Zen – CD/Download – 2018

https://www.discogs.com/artist/95574-Control-3

https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/blood-will-rain

https://control-exsanguinate.bandcamp.com/album/blood-will-rain 

Blood Will Rain is the most recent Control album, it was released in 2018. In the time between then and now, there has been a live tape (2021) and a compilation album (2019).

The opening track sounds hellish, bleak ambient atmospheres crape and roar the album into life. This track breathes ominously and radiates expansive growlings. Things speed up and start to explode for Der Weg as the vocal kicks through – Garrison shouts and yells through the chaos. The shouting shifts from being the lead vocal over the sounds to disintegrating into the noise and exploding within it. The noise pulsates which seems to push it to its’ limit as if pushing against a glass window – tension grows.

Big slow beats and a more depraved vocal form Blood Will Rain, this has a massive sound with the vocal being the noise, there are subtle complexities to how the voice is used within Control; I become more aware of that as the album progresses. The Death Industrial synthesizers become apparent as the track dies off. Also, at this point, I become in awe of the ambitiousness of the project due to the moviesque sound that on headphones is big – Invoking Chaos demonstrates this as the sound slows down and the vocal drags and blends in with the hellish nightmare of sound.

Descending into Shadows brings the Death Industrial elements of the project back to the table. A listener could argue the slowness of the album does this, but certain synth tweaks do this, and this is the first time on the album that it is sustained. The vocal is used as noise as the synthesisers hum black darkness – just stepping back and letting them do their work is impressive. The sound pulls back dragging out The Chosen Call, the vocal really drags here, topping the sound and simultaneously blending into it. Some sort of classical instrumentation seems to bleed through the work.

Black Mass demonstrates a bolder use of the big sound with the chaos erupting underneath while cracked electronic noise plays out over it. Infected synthesizers play out over the track’s death. Drowned by Hate drops right back, builds and Garrison’s vocal explodes it as he shouts from within the chaos as epic explosions force the project to its’ limits. This is a real shit-kicking track, demonstrating advanced brutality and delivery. The Blood That Powers All uses the same methods as Crowned by Hate, it pulls back, lurches and starts to explode, it does this in a disintegrating way in that it splatters and cracks up as it does so. The vocal is a shouting fit buried within the sound; how much it is revealed seems to be carefully controlled each time. The finale is This is The Law, pulsating beats throb slowly as electronics build with brief explosions filling the sound and drones resonating. The vocal is woven into the rises in sound, it comes and goes.

Blood Will Rain is an ambitious piece of work demonstrating real audio control over each piece. The variations in technique keep the album interesting, there is subtle repetitions throughout the album that tie it in together well. The theme is strong and runs through the whole album consistently. I felt as if I was witnessing a massive production – I am impressed by Control.

Coventry Soul 2021.