Control - The Great Divide.

Control – The Great Divide – LP/Download – Malignant Records – 2021

https://malignantrecs.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-divide

https://www.malignantrecords.com/

https://control-exsanguinate.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAEfZjFOyfk

        1.    For the Ashes.

        2.    In Ruin.

        3.    Greed.

        4.    Annihilation.

        5.    The Great Divide.

        6.    Grim Resolve.

After the release of the impressive live at Maschinenfest III tape earlier this year, we now have The Great Divide. This is the first new Control studio album in three years, it is also the 14^th Control album since the project started releasing in 1999. Control is Thomas Garrison; Thomas Garrison is Control.

Subtle drones are rained on by distortion as For the Ashes begins, it is less than a minute until bigger drones build the sound up. The vocals are unmistakably the Control voice as it also rains down on the track. The crunching rhythm that builds in the background combined with the repeated vocal lines gives it a battering ram effect. In Ruin has a more infected sound, the synths seem to melt and the sound bubbles and splatters nastily, this is real Death Industrial murk. There is ambient churning and an Industrial urgency in the alarm like synths that are buried by the swamp of sound - I admire how grim Control allows itself to get. Diseased sounds continue Greed, the vocal returns and takes the lead, the sound is sickened as the Death Synths go off at times. Greed sounds like decomposition.

Halfway through this review, I decided to take a break and watch some Control live performances. Garrison seems to build up layers of Noise behind his set up, let that grow and blast out alone while he comes out and assaults the audience with his inhuman vocals. This is very much how he works on albums, the sound builds and Garrison backed by it becomes a bigger force.

Back to the album and onto it’s latter half, ambient bleakness echoes as if in a tunnel, explosive distortion booms continuously. The synth hums and drones kick in as if to act as a call to arms for other noises to fire off, they do. Garrison’s vocal explodes at the listener making Annihilation a hellish storm of noise abuse. I like how Control builds up distortion and crackle to allow the Synthesizers to really resonate over the work, the vocal is less shouted and more spoken over it – it is as if both want to take the lead. The synthesizers feel like metal being scraped by metal, it adds discomfort to the track. The resonating drones continue as murky noise and vocals collide with it on Grim Resolve. The vocal here is thicker and splatters across the work, the slow rhythmic feel is given by a sample of metal being hit.

This album is a bold display of sound; it seems to thrive in the murkier work, allowing certain elements to cut through this. This is an impressive album by someone clearly at the height of their powers. The Great Divide can be purchased through Malignant Records Bandcamp or their website.

Coventry Soul, 2021.